While Vice President Kamala Harris and her 2024 running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, have continued to avoid interviews, they have come under fire on social media for sharing videos online of “fake, scripted” interviews they conducted with each other.
Twenty-five days into her presidential campaign, Harris has yet to hold a formal press conference or interview, but she and Waltz released excerpts of interviews they conducted to build anticipation for the candidate. The videos were ridiculed by conservative critics, who said they summed up the hypocrisy of Harris’ entire campaign.
“So your response to the accusation of hiding the interview is to air the scripted dialogue?” conservative commentator Blair White asked on X after viewing the video.
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U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris (left) and Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. (Rhonda Churchill/AFP via Getty Images)
The footage in question, taken from a longer debate between the Democratic candidates set to air on Thursday, shows the pair playfully reminiscing about the time Ms Harris called to ask Mr Walz to be her running mate.
VP Harris teased President Waltz for missing the first call: “Tim, I called you. I called you.” A bashful Waltz replied, “Yes.” “Tim, you missed your call,” the VP continued.
“I know, I know. This is the most important call of my life. It came out of the blue and I didn’t get any caller ID and it went to voicemail,” Waltz said, to which Harris laughed.
The video then shows Harris listening to Waltz’s voicemail and leaving a message saying, “Hi Tim, it’s Kamala. I want to talk to you.”
The scene then returned to the two nominees, with Waltz saying, “It’s a great honor. I’m excited. I just want to be a part of the excitement that you all are creating.”
“Yeah we’re in this together, homie,” Harris responded at the end of the video. Her official account captioned the video, saying, “I can’t imagine a better partner to lead our campaign than @Tim_Walz.”
The video garnered nearly 2 million views on X in one day, but many of the reactions to the video were critical, calling it inauthentic and embarrassing.
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Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, August 10. (AP/Julia Nickinson)
Conservative commentator duo the Hodge Twins asked: “How many times did you act it out before you got it right? It’s totally scripted and fake.”
Prominent conservative account End Wokeness called the video “the most fake shitty video I’ve ever seen.”
Author Hans Mahnke criticized the pair for interviewing each other rather than being interviewed by the media, posting: “Oh my goodness, they can’t give interviews so they talk to each other instead and hope we don’t notice the difference.”
Journalist Steve Krakauer wrote, “The interview finally happened (and any journalist with any self-respect should be outraged).”
Pro-Trump social media influencer ALX mocked Ms Harris’s behaviour in the video, commenting that “a normal person would say the name of the person they’re talking to three times in the first three seconds.”
Conservative talk radio host Cash Lauren called the video “another scripted, fake and embarrassing call.”
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