Vice President Kamala Harris More than 50 days after he became the presumptive, and now official, Democratic nominee for president, he has yet to hold an official press conference.
Pressed for a meaningful interview after weeks of evasiveness, Harris finally ended her interview drought last month when she joined fellow candidate Tim Walz for a pre-recorded appearance with CNN’s Dana Bash in Georgia last Thursday that was a far cry from a traditional press conference.
“He should definitely hold regular press conferences,” conservative influencer Tim Young told Fox News Digital. “Americans have a right and a need to know what his policy positions are.”
“Anyone who wants to lead the free world needs to be able to answer questions from the press,” Young added. “If Kamala can’t answer real questions from the press, she can’t even negotiate with foreign leaders.”
Bernie Sanders says Harris is abandoning left-wing policies ‘to win the election’
Vice President Kamala Harris gave her first interview to the media after becoming the top leader of the Democratic Party. (CNN)
During the CNN interview, Harris defends Noting the fluctuations in some of her policies on issues like fracking and immigration, she said her “values” haven’t changed. She was also asked if she regretted defending President Biden’s mental acuity after the debate, even though he had dropped out of the race less than a month later. She also said she wanted to “turn the page on the last decade, which I think has been the exact opposite of the spirit of our country.”
Bash pointed out that Harris was vice president for three and a half of those years, but Harris said she meant moving on from this “era,” likely a reference to the political rise of Donald Trump that began in 2015.
Harris also gave two radio interviews last week, one of which has not yet aired.
As for when she’ll actually hold a formal press conference, that day may never come, at least as long as she’s a candidate.
Fox News contributor Joe Concha predicted early last month that, “You won’t see a single press conference from him in the next 75 days until Election Day.”
Jorge Bonilla, host of the conservative Radio Libre, believes Harris should hold a press conference, but said it’s almost “irrelevant” since she’s still receiving immunity.
Kamala Harris is more radical than Trump, pollsters report: ‘Much more liberal or progressive’
“She is very unlikely to hold a press conference because the media has encouraged her ‘plexiglass basement’ strategy, in which she maintains the illusion of being present while remaining 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.
NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck believes the vice president “has a clear obligation to the American public to hold free press conferences where reporters can ask follow-up questions, unlike what happened Thursday with CNN’s Dana Bash.”
“For every soft comment from ABC or NPR, you would hope some liberal journalist would have the courage to do the right thing,” Hawke told Fox News Digital.
“The interview had a positive vibe. Right from the opening, like the hype video Bash showed, CNN gave the impression that this was an event, not some hard fact-finding mission,” Hawk added. “She missed out on talking about many topics with Harris. Allowing death row inmates to vote, defunding ICE, defunding the police, eliminating private insurance, girls sports, the filibuster, Jussie Smollett, the Minneapolis bail fund, systemic racism… these were just some of the areas she could have talked about.”
Former President Trump has sought to highlight the difference in media availability between the two, giving several lengthy interviews in recent weeks and holding two press conferences last month.
Harris received mixed reviews for his performance with Bash, where he answered most of the questions but Walz was still there to assist.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks while visiting Sandfly Bar-B-Q in Savannah, Georgia, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
Hawk said, “My fear is that because Bash wasn’t like CBS’s Steve Kroft or NPR’s Steve Inskeep, who drooled over Barack Obama, the liberal media will claim that this and the upcoming ABC debate are ample interview time for the campaign.”
Click here to get the Fox News app
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
