A senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris suggested the VP is “too busy” to speak frequently with reporters as we head into the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election.
Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor and now a prominent Harris surrogate, was pressed by CNN's Jake Tapper about how the vice president “has not been giving interviews or answering questions from the press on a regular basis,” especially compared to her Republican rival, former President Trump.
“Why,” Tapper asked, “why doesn't she do more interviews where she talks about policy and answers questions that voters have about her policies and her changing views on some of the policies?”
“Jake, she's being interviewed,” Lance Bottoms countered, “I think we would love to see her, you would love to see her doing interviews on CNN every day. But she's a very busy person. She's the candidate and she's the vice president.”
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Keisha Lance Bottoms, a senior adviser to the Harris-Waltz campaign, defended the vice president when pressed about the Democratic candidate's refusal to grant further interviews. (Screenshot/CNN)
“And today, we heard her share her views on these policies,” she continued. “Maybe not in the format that the media prefers, maybe she's not sitting down for a one-on-one interview, but we heard her today in Georgia share her position on reproductive freedom and how, if elected president of the United States, she will use the power of her pen to make sure these freedoms are protected.”
Ms Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), have conducted a combined 15 interviews since last month, while Mr Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), have conducted a combined 55 interviews.
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Other outlets, including The New York Times and Axios, have accused Harris and Waltz of shunning the media, with Harris staying quiet during the first two months of the campaign. President Biden That was the final two months of his campaign.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris attends a debate hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 17, 2024. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Recently, Harris sat down for an extended interview with Oprah Winfrey, alongside A-list supporters including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Jennifer Lopez.
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Harris is yet to hold a formal press conference since emerging as the Democratic nominee, while Trump has held several in recent weeks.
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