As RedState reported, the Harris-Walz campaign has faced growing criticism from even some in the media after it was announced Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris had finally granted her first interview since the July palace coup that installed her as the Democratic presidential nominee in place of President Joe Biden.
The details, as we documented here, were pretty pathetic. Noted Democrat apologist Dana Bash, a CNN anchor, will be conducting it. Further, it won’t be a live interview. It will be pre-recorded, and there are no guarantees that the edits made before it airs Thursday at 9 pm ET will be justifiable.
Perhaps worst of all, it won’t be a solo interview. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will be sitting next to her as a security blanket.
READ MORE: Journalist Asks the Question of the Day After Kamala Harris/Tim Walz CNN Interview Deets Announced
As conservative strategist and CNN political commentator Scott Jennings observed, the decision to bring Walz along was a “weak sauce” moment for the Harris campaign, and, as he also noted, it raised even more concerns about just what type of president Harris would be.
“…what kind of president would you be if this kind of a small-time decision – can we do an interview or not – what does that look like for your decision-making process [and] so on?” Jennings asked.
In response to her critics – which included former CBS News senior White House correspondent Mark Knoller, Kamala Harris for President senior spokesman Ian Sams laughably declared that the joint interview was part of a “rich tradition” that they wanted to uphold:
The joint ticket interview is an election year summer tradition going back 20 years. Kerry/Edwards, Obama/Biden, Romney/Ryan, Trump/Pence, Clinton/Kaine, Biden/Harris all did them. Almost always right around the conventions. Harris/Walz join this rich tradition on CNN tomorrow. https://t.co/6puWYyS8Rg
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) August 28, 2024
While it’s true that post-convention interviews in recent presidential election cycles featured both the nominee and their running mate, this time around it’s a different scenario in more ways than one:
Barack Obama and Joe Biden sat for an interview with 60 minutes after Mr Biden was selected as the vice-presidential nominee in 2008. Eight years later, Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine did the same. For Ms Harris and Mr Biden in 2020, they picked ABC’s 20/20. And less than a week after Trump announced JD Vance as his running mate, the pair were jointly interviewed on Fox.
But since Mr Biden passed the torch to her late last month, Ms Harris has limited most of her engagement with the press to scripted and highly-controlled environments. Her last formal sit-down interview was on 24 June, more than two months and a political lifetime ago.
Her occasional interactions with reporters – brief answers to shouted questions on her way to and from campaign events – have done little to quell Republican claims that she is shirking any opportunity to have her record and agenda put under the microscope.
Further, the leaning heavily into “tradition” here is farcical in the extreme considering there is nothing whatsoever traditional about Kamala Harris’ presidential candidacy considering the way you typically win a nomination is by going through an intense primary process where you campaign to win the support of voters, not forcing out the incumbent to make the path free and clear for you to conveniently step in without doing the work.
And there are, of course, the interviews you do along the way, which have also not been done here.
There’s nothing “traditional” about avoiding the press and formal interviews especially for a month and a half while enjoying the trappings of being the nominee in waiting.
It’s a “tradition” as a way to introduce & give gravitas to newly selected VP after the Presidential candidate went through a grueling year-long primary campaign pre-convention. Kamala Harris did none of this & hasn’t done a single solo interview since becoming the Dem nominee.
— Izengabe (@Izengabe_) August 28, 2024
As far as I’m concerned, bringing Walz to tag along for emotional support just proves the point many have been making about Harris going back to her failed run for president in 2019: She’s not ready for prime time, certainly not that 3 am call, and never will be.
Related: CNN ‘Reporter’ Dunked Into Next Week After ‘Fact Check’ on JD Vance Joke About Tim Walz
