Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and now the official nominee, has not held a formal press conference in the 50 days since she became the nominee.
After weeks of refusals, and pressure to give a full interview, Harris finally ended her interview drought last month, when she and her running mate Tim Walz gave a pre-recorded interview to CNN’s Dana Bash in Georgia that was far from a traditional press conference.
“She absolutely needs to hold regular press conferences. The American people have the right and need to know what her policy positions are,” conservative influencer Tim Young told Fox News Digital.
“Anyone who wants to lead the free world has to be able to handle questions from the press,” Young continued. “If Kamala can’t handle real questions from the press, she’s never going to be able to handle negotiations with foreign leaders.”
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Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with the press for the first time since winning the Democratic nomination. (CNN)
In the CNN interview, Harris defended some of her famous policy shifts on issues like fracking and immigration, saying her “values” have not changed. She was also asked if she regretted defending Biden’s mental acuity after a debate in which he dropped out of the race less than a month ago. She also said she wanted to “turn the page on the last 10 years that I think are at odds with where the spirit of our country really is.”
Bash noted that Harris served as vice president for three and a half of those years, but Harris countered that she meant to move on from that “era,” seemingly referring to the political rise of Donald Trump that began in 2015.
Harris participated in two recorded radio interviews last week, one of which has not yet aired.
She may hold a formal press conference, but that day will never come, at least not while she is still a candidate.
Fox News host Joe Concha predicted early last month that “she won’t hold a press conference in 75 days until Election Day.”
Conservative Radio Libre host Jorge Bonilla said he thought Harris should hold a press conference, but that a press conference would be “almost pointless” because she keeps getting passed over.
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“It’s very unlikely that she’ll do a press conference because the press has enabled and encouraged her ‘plexiglass basement’ strategy. She maintains the illusion that she’s there while being completely inaccessible to the press and therefore unaccountable,” Bonilla told Fox News Digital.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz in a CNN interview.
Newsbuster editor Curtis Hauck said the vice president “clearly owes the American people a duty to hold a press conference where reporters can ask follow-up questions, unlike what happened with CNN’s Dana Bassey (Thursday).”
“Every time you hear softball on ABC or NPR, for example, you want to see progressive journalists show the courage to do the right thing,” Hauck told Fox News Digital.
“The interview itself was positive. From the moment Bash started the hype, CNN came across as if this was a case, not a hard fact-finding mission,” Houck continued. “She missed a ton of topics with Harris: allowing death row inmates to vote, shutting down ICE, defunding the police, ending private insurance, women’s sports, the filibuster, Jussie Smollett, the Minneapolis bail fund, systemic racism… these are just a few areas she could have touched on.”
Former President Trump has given several lengthy interviews in recent weeks and held two press conferences last month in an attempt to highlight the contrast in media availability between the two men.
Harris received mixed reviews in her interview with Bash, where she answered most of the questions but nonetheless received support from Walls.
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Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a visit to Sandfly Barbecue in Savannah, Ga., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin) (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
“My concern is that the liberal media will argue that this debate and the upcoming ABC debate are ample interview time for the campaign because Bash didn’t drool over Barack Obama like Steve Kroft on CBS or Steve Inskeep on NPR,” Hauck said.
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Paul Steinhauser of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
