Vice President Kamala Harris has gone 14 days with out holding a proper press convention since changing into the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as of Sunday.
Harris introduced that she had locked up the nomination late on July 22, declaring that she had received commitments of backing from a majority of the practically 4,000 delegates to subsequent month’s Democratic Nationwide Conference. She has since hit the marketing campaign path, spoken at varied occasions, and even chatted with reporters right here and there, however hasn’t achieved a proper press convention or wide-ranging interview within the 13 days which have adopted.
She additionally failed to seem on the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists conference in Chicago, the place former President Trump made headlines on Wednesday with a heated question-and-answer session. On Thursday, she briefly addressed reporters at Joint Base Andrews as she and President Biden greeted People free of Russia in an enormous prisoner swap, together with Wall Road Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
“This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy and strengthening alliances,” Harris stated. “This is an incredible day.”
Harris, who turned the possible nominee with out receiving a single main vote when President Biden introduced he would step apart final month, has been so elusive that The New York Occasions printed excerpts from an interview she performed final yr to see the place her solutions “land now.”
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Vice President Kamala Harris has gone 14 days with out holding a press convention since changing into the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures)
A lot of the Democratic Get together — together with governors, senators and Home members in addition to celebration leaders — rapidly coalesced behind Harris following Biden’s blockbuster information. However critics have began to take discover that Harris hasn’t confronted powerful questions since.
Nationwide Overview senior author Noah Rothman requested his social media followers on Wednesday, “When is Kamala Harris going to hold a press conference?”
The RNC Analysis account on X famous on Wednesday that she has solely achieved “teleprompter speeches,” and conservative pundit Ben Shapiro stated Harris “has not answered ONE difficult question in the last week and a half.”
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NewsBusters govt editor Tim Graham expects her to comply with President Biden’s 2020 playbook, when he was famously accused of hiding in his basement throughout the COVID pandemic.
“Kamala Harris should absolutely hold a press conference. One would expect it when she names her vice-presidential pick. But we cannot expect her to break from Biden’s serial avoidance of press conferences,” Graham informed Fox Information Digital.
“Since the 2020 campaign, we have witnessed the bizarre spectacle of Donald Trump granting wide access to networks that suggest he’s a fascist and hammer him daily, while Biden and Harris won’t grant interviews to media outlets that gurgle all over them and their ‘historic accomplishments,’” he continued. “Either they think the press can never be servile enough or they are projecting a complete lack of confidence in their efforts to put complete sentences together.”
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Critics have observed that Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t held a proper press convention since President Biden ended his re-election marketing campaign. (Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
DePauw College media research professor Jeffrey McCall believes the Harris marketing campaign is “well aware that Biden dodged the media throughout his 2020 campaign and still got elected.”
“The Harris camp is also well aware that their candidate doesn’t do well in unscripted settings, not to mention that a presser or legitimate sit-down interview would necessarily require her to defend some of her positions, previous statements and record. Thus, a rerun of the Biden basement campaign sounds pretty good, as long as you throw in a couple of rallies with Megan Thee Stallion,” McCall added, referring to the rapper who appeared at Harris’ Atlanta rally on Tuesday.
He recommended that Harris doesn’t really feel strain “to do a press conference just because she has fallen into the nomination” as a result of Democrats will help her both approach.
“The supporters rallying around her don’t expect her to be accountable and have little interest in her policy positions and so on. That she’s not Biden, or Trump, is sufficient for those supporters,” McCall stated.
“From a rhetorical strategy standpoint, however, it would behoove Harris to actually do a presser and do real journalistic interviews,” he continued. “At some point, it would seem, she’ll have to attract moderates or undecided voters who want to see her take questions.”
The Harris marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The Democratic Nationwide Conference is ready to kick off Aug. 19 in Chicago.
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Fox Information Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
