While the Harris campaign has remained silent about when Vice President Kamala Harris will hold a formal press conference and why she hasn’t held one since emerging as the Democratic nominee, former President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold his second press conference in a week this afternoon.
On July 21, President Biden withdrew from the race and handed the baton to Harris through his endorsement, effectively becoming the Democratic nominee. In the 25 days since Biden endorsed Harris and officially secured her nomination in a “virtual” roll call vote less than two weeks ago, Harris has not held a formal press conference or given an interview to the media.
Fox News Digital reached out to the campaign this week to ask if and when a formal press conference is planned, and why the vice president has not held one in more than three weeks. The campaign did not respond to inquiries.
A campaign spokesman declined to comment when pressed about the issue during news interviews. Instead, Ms. Harris and campaign officials said Ms. Harris plans to sit down for an interview by the end of August. Details about the interview, such as the date and time or which media outlet will conduct it, have not yet been announced.
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is traveling around the country on her Economic Opportunity Tour. (Lee Vogel/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I’ve spoken with my team and hope to schedule an interview by the end of the month,” Harris said after a campaign stop in Michigan last week.
The vice president has been crisscrossing the country for the past three weeks trying to garner voters’ support. Biden dropped out of the race amid growing concerns about his mental health and his advanced age of 81, leaving Harris with just under 100 days to campaign.
Harris has fielded some questions from the media during her campaign but has not held press conferences or in-person interviews and has downplayed the media. Time magazine ran a cover story praising Harris earlier this month, but the vice president did not give an interview. Instead, the story quoted aides and allies who praised Harris as a strong candidate to challenge former President Donald Trump.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (left) and Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz have come under fire on social media for sharing an “embarrassing” video of them interviewing each other. (Rhonda Churchill/AFP via Getty Images)
Pressure has been building for the campaign to hold a press conference, with CNN’s Jim Acosta questioning Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler on air this week.
“I don’t think this is the first time we’ve heard this question, but the Trump campaign has also been going after the vice president for not giving enough interviews and not holding press conferences. Are you going to die from holding a press conference? Why isn’t she holding a press conference?” Acosta asked.
25th: Kamala Harris has not held a press conference since emerging as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Tyler cited several campaign rallies and said he and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have been “busy” traveling around the country.
Former President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
“Michael, you know a rally is not a real press conference,” Acosta told Tyler. “Why doesn’t she have a press conference? She’s the vice president, she should be able to answer questions. Why doesn’t she?”
Tyler said Harris plans to hold a press conference at some point and give media interviews by the end of the month.
Left-wing The Washington Post editorial board also disagreed. “At least he answered the questions,” Harris said Sunday about her opponent, who has dodged media interviews.
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Trump and allies of the 45th president have used Harris’s lack of media presence as ammunition.
“It’s very sad when someone who does this for a living can’t answer questions or is afraid to be interviewed. In her case, the interviews were very friendly. She had friendly interviewers,” Trump said of Harris during a nearly two-hour interview with tech billionaire Elon Musk at X-Space on Monday night.
Former President Trump said that technical issues caused his voice to sound “a little different and weird” during his highly-anticipated interview with X owner Elon Musk. (Getty Images)
Some have suggested Harris is emulating Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, when he ran an isolationist campaign during the pandemic that earned him the nickname “Basement Joe” from Trump.
“Kamala Harris should absolutely hold a press conference — a given when selecting a running mate — but don’t expect Biden to break away from his repeated tactics of avoiding press conferences,” NewsBusters editor-in-chief Tim Graham previously said. Fox News Digital.
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“Since the 2020 election campaign, we have witnessed the bizarre spectacle of Donald Trump allowing widespread access to the media that denounces him daily, suggesting he is 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.”
Vice President Kamala Harris was furious after the Supreme Court overturned the ruling and called her husband. Roe v. Wade Earlier this year. (Reuters/Hannah Beyer)
Some of the vice president’s supporters say her strategy of avoiding the media could be a winning strategy as she campaigns ahead of next week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
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“Where does it say she has to sit down for a press conference?,” longtime Democratic consultant James Carville told The New York Times. “They had to pick a vice president, plan a convention, move around, do all that stuff, and she’s already agreed to the debates.”
Trump, on the other hand, has been stepping up his media presence by holding press conferences at his homes in Florida and New Jersey and giving a two-hour sit-down interview with Musk this week in addition to campaigning. Musk has invited Harris to a similar interview ahead of the election, but the campaign has not said whether she will accept.
Brian Flood of Fox News Digital contributed to this article.
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