Could you have ever imagined the presumptive nominee for a major political party hiding from the media for weeks? The presidency is much harder than running for president, and if Kamala Harris can't speak to the public in a non-scripted uncontrolled fashion, that's a huge problem. The media, for whatever reason, has generally been okay with this strategy because they know Kamala couldn't talk her way out of a paper bag. But now some of her defenders are admitting she looks scared.
Those paying attention to the election know that since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her last month, Harris hasn't done a single interview. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Even Tim Walz is too scared to be deployed to the media circuit.
See what I did there?
All signs point to Harris avoiding any unscripted moments until after the convention at the very least, and who knows about after? But even the Democratic Party cheerleaders in the liberal media are admitting that this strategy makes it look like Kamala is scared. Progressives agreed that it’s time for Harris to start engaging with reporters.
“But starting right now, every day she’s not talking to the media is political malpractice,” said former White House correspondent for the Associated Press Ron Fournier. “It’s political malpractice not to do it. And No. 2, it’s not good for democracy.”
“As a journalist and a citizen I think it would be very good for the Democratic ticket to sit for big interviews and routinely answer on the record questions from reporters on the trail,” New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen wrote in a post on X/Twitter. "It is disappointing that this has not happened yet. But it is not too late to change that!"
Recommended: Virginia Might Be Back in Play This Election
“A drumbeat is growing, and it’s a drumbeat not only from the Trump campaign, who’s going to keep up this attack line, but it’s also coming from reporters themselves,” CNN’s media correspondent Hadas Gold said on "CNN News Central."
Fellow CNN commentator S.E. Cupp agreed.
“It’s not a great look, acting as if you don‘t need the media, you don’t care about answering these questions. That you’re above it, that you can ride on vibes, and you know, they’re riding on vibes and I get that. This is a very truncated campaign. They’ve had to do everything very quickly,” she said. "And I believe that they will sit down with reporters, but they need to do it … These don‘t have to be fatal questions, but they need to answer for that and they need to show that they’re tough enough to do that. And that they’re not too scared to do that. And the longer they take to sit down, the more scared they look.”
'Drumbeat Is Growing': CNN Panel Warns Longer Harris, Walz Duck Interviews, 'The More Scared They Look' pic.twitter.com/g17ByU0nqx
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 8, 2024
“The veteran … former White House correspondent, Ron Fournier, he said that every day that she doesn’t talk to the media is what he called ‘political malpractice.’ And we’re going to hear this drumbeat growing more and more until she does finally sit down for an interview, and for right now, also, it’s an easy attack line for the Trump campaign to use," she added.
A Harris ally told Politico that big interviews likely won't happen until after Labor Day. “There’s really no need,” the source said. “The voters that she needs are at the local level. They’re not reading the national press.”
When your allies in the media say you look scared, it's a safe bet that you are.
