Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview drought finally ended Thursday, but after 43 days as the presumptive and now official Democratic presidential nominee, she has yet to hold a formal press conference.
Under pressure to sit down for a substantive interview after weeks of stonewalling, she agreed to sit down with CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday in Georgia, joined by her running mate Tim Walz.
Harris defended some of her policy reversals on issues like fracking and immigration, saying her “values” haven’t changed. She was also asked if she regretted defending President Biden’s mental acuity after his debate, given that he dropped out of the race less than a month later. She also said she wanted to “turn the page on the last decade that I think has been antithetical to the spirit of our country.”
Bash pointed out that Harris had been vice president for three and a half years, but Harris countered that she meant moving on after that “era,” apparently referring to Donald Trump’s political rise that began in 2015.
Vice President Kamala Harris during her first media interview since becoming the Democratic nominee. (CNN)
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After Harris’ first interview, NBC News Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, known for her glowing Biden-Harris coverage, appeared unimpressed.
“Harris continues to say ‘my values have not changed’ without explaining why her positions have changed,” Alcindor wrote.
As for when she will actually hold a formal press conference, that day may never come. Sunday marks exactly six weeks since Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris; no other Democrat has challenged her, and she quickly won the nomination from there.
“You won’t see a single press conference from her in the next 75 days until Election Day,” Fox News contributor Joe Concha predicted earlier this month.
Curtis Houck, editor-in-chief of NewsBusters, believes the vice president “obviously owes it to the American people to hold free press conferences where journalists can, unlike what happened.” [Thursday] with CNN’s Dana Bash, ask follow-up questions.
“For every softball that comes out of, say, ABC or NPR, you would hope that a liberal journalist would have the courage to do the right thing,” Houck told Fox News Digital.
“The interview itself was positive. From the beginning, with Bash’s introductory video, CNN made it seem like this was an event, not a fact-finding mission,” Houck continued. “She left out a litany of topics with Harris. Allowing death row inmates to vote, shutting down ICE, defunding the police, ending private insurance, women’s sports, the filibuster, Jussie Smollett, the Minneapolis bail fund, systemic racism… these are just a few of the areas she could have covered.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz in an interview on CNN.
Former President Trump has sought to highlight the contrast between the two men’s media availability, giving several lengthy interviews in recent weeks and also holding two news conferences.
Harris received mixed reviews for her performance on Thursday’s Bash, where she answered the majority of the questions but still had Walz there to support her.
One point that won praise from liberals was her flat rejection of a question about Trump’s suggestion that she didn’t accept being black until she was an adult. Calling Trump’s attacks on race “textbook tired,” she asked Bash to move on to the next question.
But conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings said the Trump campaign should be “salivating” over one of the revelations in the interview, which appears to be his embrace of so-called “Bidenomics.”
“She made it clear that she was going to embrace and continue Biden’s economic policies, his record, what they’ve done,” he said. “She expressed no remorse, no regret, no introspection about what they’ve done.”
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Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during her visit to SandFly Bar-B-Q in Savannah, Ga., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
By granting this interview, Harris has met the bar she set for herself three weeks ago: she wanted to schedule one by the end of the month. Whether the pressure will mount to do more, and whether she will also do her first solo interview as a candidate, remains to be seen.
“My fear is that because Bash wasn’t like, say, CBS’ Steve Kroft or NPR’s Steve Inskeep salivating at the sight of Barack Obama, the liberal media will pretend that this debate and the upcoming ABC debate are sufficient interview moments for the campaign,” Houck said.
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Paul Steinhauser of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
