Kamala Harris has managed to do something virtually no other presidential candidate has done before: get nominated without earning and without telling the voters what she stands for. In the weeks since she became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, she's given zero interviews and done zero press conferences.
This is by design. The campaign doesn't want her speaking off the cuff because she has the incoherence of Joe Biden without the senility. Her word salads are as infamous as Joe Biden slurring, and when she talks, you know her handlers are waiting in the wings, praying she doesn't embarrass herself.
Yet, the mainstream media has largely given her cover for running away from them, and now, she may have just lost the New York Times.
"If the Democratic convention’s message for America had to fit on a bumper sticker, it would read, 'Harris is joy,'" observes New York Times deputy opinion editor Patrick Healy. "The word has gone from being a nice descriptor of Democratic energy to being a rhetorical two-by-four thumped on voters’ heads. Don’t get me wrong — there are many worse things than joy — but I cringed a little in the convention hall Tuesday night when Bill Clinton said Kamala Harris would be 'the president of joy.'"
"'Joy' is the new 'fetch' from 'Mean Girls,'" Healy lamented. "Democrats are bent on making the word happen."
And then Healy really let loose."But joy is not a political strategy," he insisted.
This is a winnable race for Harris, but she hasn’t won it yet. Far from it. She hasn’t been tested — really tested — since Biden stepped aside. She hasn’t given a single interview or news conference to face hard questions. But it’s really the debates that will be her test. Her advisers think she might get away with doing just one against Trump. I think they underestimate her challenge in earning voters’ trust. She needs to start proving herself outside her comfort zone.
Ultimately, she needs more voters in the swing states to trust her to handle the economy better than her opponent. Barack Obama earned that trust through nearly two hard years of campaigning; he didn’t coast on “hope and change.” Harris can’t coast on “joy.” If she shows she can stand up under pressure, she can beat Trump and consign him for eternity to just playing God on Fox News.
Healy isn't the first person in the liberal media to call out Kamala. Earlier this month, CNN's Jim Acosta spoke with Kamala's campaign communications director, Michael Tyler, and blasted the campaign's strategy of keeping Kamala away from the media.
"You know, Michael, I'm sure this is not going to be the first time you've heard this question, but the Trump campaign is also going after the vice president for not doing enough interviews, for not holding a press conference," Acosta began. "Would it kill you guys to have a press conference? Why hasn't she had a press conference?"
"Listen, the vice president and Governor Walz have been busy crisscrossing this country since the launch of this campaign and adding Governor Walz to the ticket. You saw the ways in which they went across the battleground states last week, generating rallies of thousands — 10,000 here, 15,000 there —"
"But, Michael, you know a campaign rally is not a press conference," Acosta retorted. "Do you mind if I cut in? I mean, you know, a campaign rally is not a press conference. Why isn't she at a press conference? She's the vice president. She can handle the questions. Why not do it?"
CNN and the New York Times aren't alone either.
The question is: when will the campaign put Kamala out there?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member