Vice President Kamala Harris has not held a formal press conference in 15 days since becoming the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sunday.
Biden’s endorsement of Harris when he dropped out of the race on July 21 made her the de facto candidate, and she officially won the nomination on Friday. Harris has been busy campaigning, speaking at various events and making private comments to reporters at various points, but has not held a formal press conference or wide-ranging interview in the 15 days since.
She also did not attend the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago, where former President Trump engaged in a heated Q&A on Wednesday that drew attention, but she may attend a future conference. On Thursday, she gave a brief address to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base, where she and Biden welcomed Americans released from Russia in a major prisoner swap, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
She is now close to choosing her running mate to face former President Trump in November.
Harris has been so elusive that The New York Times ran excerpts of an interview she gave last year to see where her answers “land now.”
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Vice President Kamala Harris has not held a press conference in 14 days since she was confirmed as the Democratic presidential nominee. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Most Democrats, including governors, senators, representatives and party leaders, quickly endorsed Harris following Biden’s shocking news, but critics are starting to notice that she hasn’t faced tougher questioning since then.
Noah Rothman, a senior writer at National Review, asked his social media followers on Wednesday, “When will Kamala Harris hold a press conference?”
“The most revealing exposure a candidate can get is a lengthy press conference, and that’s exactly what Harris should be doing. know That’s what she should do, because just a few weeks ago, Democratic political pundits and their allies were arguing that’s what Biden needed to do,” he wrote in National Review.
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Tim Graham, editor-in-chief of NewsBusters, expects her to follow President Biden’s 2020 playbook, in which he was accused of hiding in his basement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Kamala Harris should absolutely hold a press conference. She will hold one when she nominates him as her running mate. But we can’t expect Biden to break away from his repeated avoidance of press conferences,” Graham told Fox News Digital.
“Since the 2020 election campaign, we have witnessed the bizarre spectacle of Donald Trump allowing widespread access to the media that daily denounces him as a fascist, while Biden and Harris refuse to give interviews to media that hyperbolically criticize them and their ‘historic achievements,'” he continued. “Either they believe the press is never compliant enough, or they are displaying a total lack of confidence in their efforts to construct complete sentences.”
Current state of the election campaign with 100 days left until the November election
Critics have noted that Vice President Kamala Harris has not held a formal press conference since President Biden ended his reelection campaign. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Jeffrey McCaul, a media studies professor at DePauw University, believes the Harris campaign is “fully aware that Biden won the 2020 election while avoiding the media throughout the campaign.”
“The Harris campaign is also well aware that their candidate doesn’t fare well in an unscripted setting, not to mention that in press conferences and formal interviews, Harris will have to defend some of her positions, past statements and track record. So a fresh run at Biden’s underground campaign looks pretty good, as long as it includes a few rallies with Megan Thee Stallion,” McCall added. Stallion is a rapper who appeared at Harris’ Atlanta rally on Tuesday.
He suggested that Democrats would support Harris anyway, so she doesn’t feel pressured to hold a press conference just because she didn’t win the nomination.
“Her supporters don’t expect her to be accountable and don’t really care about her policy positions. They’re happy that she’s not Biden or Trump,” McCaul said.
“But in terms of rhetorical strategy, Harris should actually hold a press conference and do real journalistic interviews,” he continued. “At some point, she’s going to have to attract moderates and undecided voters who want to see her answer questions.”
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to begin in Chicago on August 19th.
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Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
