As of Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris had not held a formal press conference or in-person interview in 26 days since being confirmed as the Democratic presidential nominee.
She has been busy campaigning since effectively replacing President Biden in the presidential race last month, speaking at various events and making informal comments to reporters at various points, but has not held a formal press conference or given a wide-ranging interview in the more than three weeks since.
Former President Trump held his second press conference in a week in Bedminster on Thursday, having answered 81 questions in press conferences and interviews since Aug. 6, including a two-hour-long meeting this week with supporter Elon Musk.
During that same time, Harris has had no formal interactions with the press, although she has had brief “talks” and informal meetings with reporters while traveling. She even turned down a cover story from Time magazine this week, which ran a glowing article about “her moment,” and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz rebuffed a formal interview request from the New York Times about his response to the George Floyd riots in Minnesota.
Left-wing The Washington Post editorial board files complaint Ms. Harris said Sunday that her opponent “at least answered the questions” after dodging media interviews. The Washington Post said Ms. Harris has a number of policy moves to explain, including on fracking, border security and private health insurance.
Kamala Harris supporters unsure about VP’s policy accomplishments
Vice President Kamala Harris has not held a press conference in the three weeks since she was confirmed as the Democratic presidential nominee. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
CNN’s John Berman asked Harris’ spokeswoman, Adrienne Elrod, about the issue on Tuesday, saying that Harris was clearly available for an interview if she wanted to. The same day, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) told Berman that Harris couldn’t answer difficult questions because of her “inadmissible” record.
Liberal CNN anchor Jim Acosta chastised the campaign on the issue on Wednesday, asking communications director Michael Tyler, “Are you guys going to die if we do this interview?” Tyler laughed and repeated Ms. Harris’ vague promise that the interview would take place by the end of the month.
CNN host slams VP’s schedule for avoiding press: ‘She has time for interviews’
“We are committed to having a direct dialogue with the voters who will actually decide this election,” Tyler said. “We intend to complete that dialogue through rallies, in-person interviews, press conferences and all the digital assets available to us.”
At a news conference in Detroit last week, Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance urged reporters to “show some self-awareness” and urged Harris to “do her job as a presidential candidate” by speaking to reporters.
Vance appeared on three Sunday shows on Aug. 11 to answer pointed questions from CNN, CBS and ABC, but Harris and Waltz sent surrogates.
Trump also criticized her limited media access during a lengthy press conference at Mar-a-Lago last week.
“She doesn’t know how to do a press conference. She’s not smart enough to do a press conference,” he said.
How long will Kamala Harris’ polling honeymoon against Donald Trump last?
Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance (Getty Images)
There’s much discussion among progressives about the importance of the media in the Trump era, but some in Harris’ circle have objected to her refusing to speak to reporters.
“Who cares?” CNN commentator and former Bill Clinton aide Paul Begala said of the issue on Wednesday.
Former Clinton aide Paul Begala defends Harris’ media shunning: ‘Who cares?’
Michael McFaul, a former ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration, wrote in X magazine that Harris’ “number one objective” is to win.
“If a press conference will help her win, she should do it. If not, she shouldn’t. That’s it. She has no ‘moral obligation’ to talk to the press. Keep it down, guys,” he wrote.
But five years ago he wrote that “people who believe in truth and transparency should not fear the press.”
Tim Graham, editor-in-chief of NewsBusters, expects Harris to follow the 2020 playbook of President Biden, who was accused of hiding in his basement during the coronavirus 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)
The Harris campaign told Fox News Digital last week that it is implementing strategies to most effectively reach voters.
“With less than 90 days left, the VP’s top priority is winning the support of voters who will decide the outcome of this election,” the spokesperson said. “With limited time and a fragmented media environment, we need to be strategic, creative and agile to reach voters in the most effective ways possible – through paid media, on-the-ground organizing, an aggressive campaign schedule and, of course, interviews that reach our target voters. This is a far cry from Trump’s ineffective strategy of fighting a losing battle – angry posts, attacks on reporters and insulting voters as necessary to win.”
“If Donald Trump is so concerned about VP Harris’s campaign success, he should be out there campaigning. We’re thrilled that he’s focusing on policies that are likely to lose him the election: repealing the ACA, killing bipartisan border legislation, and supporting a nationwide abortion ban.”
Click here to get the FOX News app
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
