Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview drought finally ended Thursday, but after 43 days as the presumptive and now official Democratic nominee for president, she has yet to hold an official press conference.
Under pressure to sit down for a substantive interview after weeks of stonewalling, she agreed to a sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday in Georgia, joined by running mate Tim Walz.
Harris defended some of her noted policy flip-flops on issues like fracking and immigration, saying her “values” hadn’t changed. She was also pressed on whether she had regrets about defending President Biden’s mental acuity after his debate, given he dropped out of the race less than a month later. She also said she wanted to “turn the page on the last decade of what I believe has been contrary to where the spirit of our country really lies.”
Bash pointed out Harris had been vice president for three-and-a-half of those years, but Harris countered she meant moving on from this “era,” seemingly referring to the political rise of Donald Trump that began in 2015.
Vice President Kamala Harris in her first sit-down interview with the media since rising to the top of the Democratic ticket. (CNN)
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Following Harris’ first sit-down interview, NBC News Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, who is known for her glowing Biden-Harris coverage, appeared unimpressed.
“Harris keeps saying ‘my values haven’t changed’ while not explaining why her positions have changed,” Alcindor wrote.
As to when she’ll actually do 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 challenged her and she quickly wrapped up the nomination from there.
“You will not see one press conference from her in the next 75 days until Election Day,” Fox News contributor Joe Concha predicted earlier this month.
NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck feels the vice president “obviously owes it to the American people to hold free-wheeling press conferences where reporters can, unlike what happened [Thursday] with CNN’s Dana Bash, ask follow-up questions.”
“For every softball from, say, ABC or NPR, you’ll hope a liberal journalist will show some courage to do the right thing,” Houck told Fox News Digital.
“The interview itself had a positive atmosphere. From the get-go in the hype video-like opening by Bash, CNN put forward a perception that this was an event, not a grinding fact-finding mission,” Houck continued. “She missed a litany of topics with Harris. Allowing death row inmates to vote, closing ICE, defunding the police, ending private insurance, girl’s sports, the filibuster, Jussie Smollett, the Minneapolis bail fund, systemic racism… those were just a few of the areas she could have touched on.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz in CNN interview.
Former President Trump has sought to highlight the contrast in media availability between the two, sitting for several lengthy interviews in recent weeks and also holding a pair of press conferences.
Harris received mixed reviews for her showing on Thursday with Bash, where she took the majority of the questions but nevertheless had Walz there for support.
One point that received praise from liberals was her pointed dismissal of a question about Trump’s suggestion that she didn’t embrace being Black until adulthood. Calling attacks around race from Trump a tired “playbook,” she told 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 from the interview, which appeared to be her embrace of so-called “Bidenomics.”
“She is making it clear that she will embrace and be a continuation of Biden’s economic policy — his record — what they’ve done,” he said. “She offered no remorse, no regrets, no introspection about anything they’ve done.”
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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris talks as she visits SandFly Bar-B-Q in Savannah, Ga., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
By doing the interview, Harris met the bar she set three weeks ago that she wanted to schedule one by the end of the month. Whether pressure will grow for her to do more, and also her first solo interview as a candidate, remains to be seen.
“My fear is, because Bash wasn’t like, say, CBS’s Steve Kroft or NPR’s Steve Inskeep salivating at the sight of Barack Obama, the liberal media will claim this and the upcoming ABC debate are sufficient interview time for the campaign,” Houck said.
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Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.