CNN commentators grilled Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday about her lack of media engagement, following former President Trump’s press conference at Mar-a-Lago and Harris’ speech at a campaign rally in Michigan.
“Nobody cares except us,” CNN commentator and Democratic strategist Bakari Sellers said of criticism of Harris avoiding the press in recent weeks.
“That’s not true,” responded panelist S.E. Cupp. “I talk to voters in battleground states all the time. They have questions, and they want answers.”
Harris broke her silence from the press on Thursday, taking brief questions from reporters for the first time since becoming the Democratic nominee nearly three weeks ago, in which she insisted she hoped to be available for interviews by the end of the month.
Kamala Harris has avoided interviews for more than two weeks since becoming the Democratic nominee
CNN commentators and political analysts debated Vice President Harris’ level of media engagement during a heated panel discussion Thursday night. (CNN)
“This is the reality in Washington,” Sellers said, suggesting the issue is being debated primarily within the confines of the D.C. political environment.
“You’re not the first person to argue that she doesn’t need to do this. This is very much ‘inside Washington, this is for us,'” Cupp later told Sellers. “When you do that, it loses credibility, because if it was anyone else, they would demand that she sit down for questions. And it would make her a better candidate if she did that.”
“Why shouldn’t she answer? She should answer these questions for the American people,” said Tricia McLaughlin, former communications director for Vivek Ramaswamy’s presidential campaign.
“And she will be!” Sellers replied.
“But why not now?” McLaughlin said.
Kamala Harris finally answers reporters’ questions after 18 days of avoiding the media since becoming Democratic candidate
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. (Getty Images)
Kopp, one of CNN’s leading anti-Trump Republicans, also said Harris experienced “a bit of a honeymoon period” in terms of media coverage in the days after she accepted the Democratic nomination.
Harris has seen her popularity soar in the polls since President Biden announced he was dropping out of the race.
A Marquette Law School poll conducted Thursday found Harris had widened her lead over Trump among voters by six points, 53 percent to 47 percent.
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The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
