“Tensions” are boiling over within the purportedly “joyful” Harris campaign about who the decision maker is for media interviews, Politico Playbook reported Tuesday.
Harris will purportedly sit for an interview this week as part of her campaign’s ramped-up strategy heading into the post-Labor Day push, Axios reported Monday, but questions remain about which campaign staffer has the responsibility to make the decision about who will interview Harris.
The lack of campaign order is causing confusion within the campaign, as about seven people are vying for influence, according to Playbook:
Who should you send your pitch to? One source of intrigue concerns who in Harris world will actually make this decision. BRIAN FALLON, the campaign’s senior adviser for communications, is generally considered the key person. But the interview has to be coordinated with Harris’s official office, where the communications director is KIRSTEN ALLEN. We hear there are some tensions.
Another source with knowledge of the process said that STEPHANIE CUTTER, senior adviser for message and strategy, will have an outsized role, as well. Campaign chair JEN O’MALLEY DILLON and senior advisor DAVID PLOUFFE represent another camp. And MAYA HARRIS and TONY WEST, Harris’s sister and brother-in-law, will weigh in with their own views. The political operatives on this list all have long-term relationships with TV networks and their major talent. But unlike Biden, Harris herself doesn’t have the same deep history with the journalists now wooing her.
— What’s the goal? There has been considerable debate in Harris world about the purpose and timing of the interview. The main narrative in the political press is that Harris needs to do a lengthy serious interview with a brand-name news anchor who will push her on issues.
The confusion has led campaign staffers to consult with reporters about who the campaign should select. “Harris campaign staff have been asking reporters who they think she should talk to,” Playbook reported, with “race and gender” key criteria in Harris’s selection of a host.
Harris has not held an unscripted press conference or unscripted sit-down interview about policy solutions for 37 days since joining the presidential race. The media have not interviewed Harris on television since June 24, 2024, and the last time the press reportedly questioned her at a solo news conference was eight months ago, on December 2, 2023.
A recent poll found 89 percent of Americans said it’s either “very” or “somewhat” important for a presidential candidate to answer questions from the press.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
