You have to hand it to former President Donald Trump. He is the master of the media.
One of the big points he made during his long press conference on Thursday was that Kamala Harris had not been answering questions or doing interviews, and whether anyone was going to hold her accountable. So after he did that, the media finally cornered Harris to ask questions, including when she would be doing an interview. She said that she would be trying to do an interview before the end of the month.
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But now we have more details on why she’s ducking the questions and why the media hasn’t been pressing her as much as they should. According to Politico, she doesn’t think she has to because her team thinks she’s riding a wave.
The Harris camp is hoping to ride the wave as long as it can. So there is little worry about the candidate avoiding something else that has long been required of presidential nominees: taking questions from the press.
They’re considering maybe doing one before the convention, but some of her people don’t see an upside. They suggested they might just hold off on big interviews until after Labor Day.
“There’s really no need,” the person said. “The voters that she needs are at the local level. They’re not reading the national press.”
In other words, she doesn’t think much of the media, even as they carry water for her. That’s probably a mistake if she thinks what she is doing is resounding with anyone beyond Democratic faithful online.
The report also revealed why she hadn’t been pressed more by the media. It sounds like she’s playing them by giving them face time off the record.
[S]he has routinely interacted with the reporters that travel with her — but on her terms. She often visits with the press pool seated at the back of her plane (something Biden did just twice in more than three years), but speaking only off the record. And when she has chosen to comment on the record on something in the news, Harris has spoken to the pool on the tarmac, making statements but not taking questions.
“What is the incentive for her [to take more questions]?” said another person close to the campaign who was granted anonymity to share how Harris’ team views the matter. “She’s getting out exactly the message she wants to get out.”
She’s playing them, making them feel like they’re getting something, but they’re not actually doing their jobs. She gets to say what she wants and not be held to account or say anything consequential that could come back on her.
Bottom line? She knows she has a problem answering normal questions, and she’s trying to cover as long as she can before she starts getting nailed on it and the honeymoon period ends. We saw them do the same thing with Biden, hiding him and avoiding things. Until they couldn’t anymore.
She has a ton of failures. Republicans should focus on those and her bad policies and keep banging away at how she isn’t even willing to answer on anything.
Both Fox’s Jesse Watters and Peter Doocy lit into Harris over her evasive strategy. Doocy was talking about the Politico reporting. Watters pointed out that when you’re a Democrat, you run to the media to save you. How bad is it, he wondered, when you know it will be so bad the media can’t save you? This cannot last, Watters added.
THIS CANNOT LAST
19 days Kamala Harris no questions and… she may not take any until after Labor Day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/wb8YfEx0OY
— Joni Job (@jj_talking) August 8, 2024
Even CNN’s Van Jones said this was something that could not last.
Sounds like if even CNN is saying it and now she’s being pressed, this strategy is ultimately going to backfire on her.
