Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t held a formal press conference in 20 days since becoming the leading Democratic presidential nominee on Saturday, but she answered a few questions on the airport tarmac on Thursday.
Harris became the de facto candidate after President Biden endorsed her when he dropped out of the race on July 21, and she formally won the nomination last week. 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 20 days since.
Amid growing criticism on that front, Harris spoke briefly with reporters traveling with her in Michigan on Thursday. In her speech, which lasted just over a minute, she said she looked forward to debating former President Trump on ABC on Sept. 10 and defended the military record of her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
She also said that one-on-one, in-person interviews have yet to take place and the team is working to set one up by the end of the month.
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Vice President Kamala Harris has not held a press conference in more than two weeks since she was confirmed as the Democratic presidential nominee. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Harris made headlines this week when she picked Waltz as her running mate, though the pair have yet to be formally questioned in interviews or at press conferences. The matter has attracted the attention of Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, who has called for the media to do more reporting on the issue and to allow Harris to answer questions.
At a news conference in Detroit on Wednesday, Vance urged reporters to “show some self-awareness” and urged Harris to “do her part as a presidential candidate” by speaking to reporters.
“Until she is, you guys need to stop giving her honeymoons and acting like she’s something she’s not,” he said.
Noah Rothman, a senior writer at National Review, recently asked his social media followers, “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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Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance. (Getty Images)
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.”
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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)
Oliver Knox, senior national correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, wrote that Harris “obviously” should answer questions from the press. He said that’s already “a given” to people in the media, but that the pressure won’t “go away” when non-journalists start thinking about where Harris stands on certain issues.
“A press conference may be high risk and low reward for Harris and Walz, but the longer they go without a proper Q&A, the tougher it will be for both sides,” Knox wrote.
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.
