'[It] is making something that should be routine into a high stakes event' – Marc Thiessen
CNN panel clashes over Harris avoiding the press, host says 'softball interview' won't solve the issue
A CNN panel clashed on Tuesday over Vice President Harris' continued press avoidance as host Kasie Hunt said a "softball interview" wouldn't help the vice president.
The clock is ticking for Vice President Kamala Harris to schedule the formal interview she and her team promised would happen before the end of the month.
After formally receiving the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Harris told reporters on the tarmac in Detroit earlier this month that she wanted to schedule her first formal interview as the party's nominee before the end of August. Meanwhile, the exact date, time, place and media outlet that will be conducting the interview has remained a mystery, even as Harris' self-imposed deadline quickly approaches.
With only four days left this month, questions about the interview have been prevalent inside the beltway. Some of those questions include who on the Harris campaign is making the final interview decision, what kind of message Harris will try to send and who will be the figurehead posing the questions to her.
Vice President Kamala Harris sits for an interview with late night talk show host Seth Meyers in 2022.
Harris campaign staffers have reportedly been asking journalists who they think the vice president should talk to, according to Politico. The outlet indicated CBS’ Norah O'Donnell and NBC’s Lester Holt were among the frontrunners. There has also reportedly been internal disagreements over how Harris should approach the interview.
With less than a week remaining for Harris to get something on the calendar, some journalists have begun weighing in on the process.
"I understood why Kamala Harris wasn't doing interviews before – she was getting her policy proposals hammered out behind the scenes before the convention. But now there are no more excuses. She needs to do interviews, a lot of them. We're picking a president here. It's important," said political commentator Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, which describes itself as "America's largest online progressive news network."
I understood why Kamala Harris wasn't doing interviews before - she was getting her policy proposals hammered out behind the scenes before the convention. But now there are no more excuses. She needs to do interviews, a lot of them. We're picking a president here. It's important.
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) August 26, 2024
"The fact that there is so much internal turmoil over doing A SINGLE INTERVIEW is itself deeply revealing," conservative columnist Marc Thiessen wrote Tuesday morning on X, formerly Twitter. "This is not a ‘big decision.’ It exposes their lack of confidence in her and is making something that should be routine into a high stakes event."
ON DODGING THE MEDIA, KAMALA HARRIS ‘OWES RESPONSES’ TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, SAYS CAMPAIGN ADVISOR
While the pressure on Harris to do an interview is getting greater by the day, some of her supporters have urged her to continue dodging the media. Rick Wilson, former GOP strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said last week that Harris "has no f---ing necessity to do interviews right now."
Andrew Ross Sorkin interviews Vice President Kamala Harris during the New York Times' annual DealBook summit in November 2023. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The same opinion was echoed by legendary Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, who told talk show host Bill Maher last Sunday that "sometimes it's just about f---ing winning."
"I'm going to vote for her f---ing anyway, no matter what she says in the stupid f---ing interview, so don't f--- s--- up," Tarantino added.
HBO talk show host Bill Maher and legendary Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino (HBO | Getty Images)
Harris has been utilizing a lighter than normal schedule since the Democratic National Convention concluded last week, according to Politico, which reported Harris has been using the time to prepare for her upcoming Sept. 10 debate and map out her future media strategy.
Fox News Digital reached out to both the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment. The Harris campaign did not provide a response, but the Trump campaign directed Fox News Digital to a Tuesday press release it put out, which called out Harris for going 37 days without an interview.
"Kamala is dodging the press for a reason," the press release stated. "She doesn't want to talk about her radical agenda."
