After weeks of Republicans and media members urging the candidates to answer questions, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are scheduled to give their first interviews as Democratic candidates on Thursday.
The interview will be conducted by CNN anchor Dana Bash in the battleground state of Georgia and will air in primetime on CNN at 9 p.m. ET.
Six weeks after Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed Harris, the vice president has yet to give a formal interview or press conference, despite extensive media coverage of her campaign and a surge in support.
“She has a lot of questions left to answer as she heads into the fall election,” said CNN political director David Chalian. said “We've been waiting to see the next major hurdle for Kamala Harris and her campaign to overcome,” Chalian said after the network released the interview on Tuesday, noting that Harris and Walz have successfully rallied the party, raised significant amounts of money and held a successful convention. “All of that is scripted,” he said. “This is the first time she's been asked questions.”
Harris laid out some broad policy issues at last week's Democratic National Convention, promising tax cuts for the domestic middle class and a strong foreign policy to confront Russia and North Korea. In recent weeks, she has given some of the first glimpses into what her policy priorities will be. Includes a proposed $25,000 down payment assistance program Calls for lower house prices for first-time buyers and a crackdown on price gouging companies.
But while Harris's team has been busy spreading enthusiasm for the nomination, some details remain unclear: Her official campaign website does not yet have a dedicated policy page, and Harris has declined interview requests, opting instead for lower-risk campaign appearances and brief conversations with reporters.
“Overall, Harris' top spokespeople, like Biden's aides, are highly skeptical about whether doing extensive interviews with major TV networks and national newspapers will provide any real benefit in winning over swing voters,” Politico reports. Reported “She's getting exactly the message she wants to get across,” they said, citing two unnamed people close to the campaign who argued there was little incentive to change course. “She's getting exactly the message she wants to get across,” they said.
Now, with time running out for Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz, the Minnesota governor, to make final appeals to those who have yet to make up their minds, their campaigns have shifted strategy slightly.
Harris and rival Donald Trump are due to debate next month, but the two campaigns are still arguing over what rules they have agreed to.
At the center of the controversy was the issue of muted microphones, which the Biden campaign had made a condition for holding this year's debate. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump said the conditions for the September 10 debate were “the same as the last CNN debate,” with both candidates' microphones muted except when it was their turn to speak.
But Harris' campaign said Tuesday that details of the debate were still being worked out with host ABC News. A Harris campaign spokesman said, “Both candidates have publicly made clear they are prepared to debate with their microphones unmuted during the debate to allow ample time for substantive exchange between the candidates, but Donald Trump appears to be getting his entourage to ignore that. It's unfortunate!”
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Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate will likely keep his promise to do interviews.
“Now is your opportunity to hear her ponder aloud,” Chalian said, “for Dana to question her in an unscripted setting about her policy positions, her plans for the future, her plans for the country, and, of course, to watch the Democratic candidates interact with each other.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.
