Vice President Kamala Harris has not held a formal news conference in 20 days since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee on Saturday, though she did answer some questions on the airport tarmac on Thursday.
President Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her on July 21, making Harris essentially the de facto nominee, and she officially secured the nomination last week. She kept busy on the campaign trail, speaking at events and informally addressing reporters on various occasions, but held no formal press conferences or extensive interviews over the next 20 days.
Harris, who came under growing criticism on that front, spoke briefly to reporters traveling with her to Michigan on Thursday. In just over a minute, she said she was looking forward to a Sept. 10 debate with former President Trump on ABC and a speech for her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. (Tim Walz)’s military record was defended.
She also said her team is trying to schedule an interview before the end of the month, as she has yet to have a one-on-one face-to-face interview.
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Vice President Kamala Harris has not held a press conference in more than two weeks since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. (Kevin Dickey/Getty Images)
Her choice of Walz as her running mate made headlines this week, but the two have yet to be formally questioned in interviews or press conferences. That caught the attention of Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, who implored the media to do a better job on the issue and let Harris answer questions.
During a news conference in Detroit on Wednesday, Vance urged reporters to “show a little self-awareness” and urged Harris to “do her job as a presidential candidate” by talking to them.
“Until she does this, you have to stop giving her a honeymoon and pretending she is someone she is not,” he said.
National Review senior writer Noah Rothman recently asked his social media followers: “When is Kamala Harris giving her press conference?”
“The most revealing exposure a candidate can submit is a long press conference – and that’s exactly what Harris needs to do. In fact, we Know That’s what she needs to do because just weeks ago, Democratic political professionals and their allies insisted that this was what Biden had to do,” he wrote in National Review.
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Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. (Getty Images)
NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham hopes she can emulate President Biden’s 2020 strategy, when he was accused of hiding in his basement during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Kamala Harris should absolutely hold a press conference. People will expect that when she nominates her vice presidential pick. But we can’t expect her to break free of Biden’s continuous avoidance of press conferences,” Graham told Fox News Digital.
“Since the 2020 campaign, we have witnessed the bizarre spectacle of Donald Trump allowing broad access to networks that suggest he is a fascist and attacking him on a daily basis, while Biden and Harris refuse to accept those who criticize them and their rhetoric ‘Either they think the media will never be mean enough, or they have a complete lack of confidence in their own efforts to piece together complete sentences. ”
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Critics note that Vice President Kamala Harris has not held a formal press conference since President Biden ended his re-election campaign. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. News senior national correspondent Oliver Knox wrote that Harris “of course” should take questions from the media. He said it was already a “thing” for people in the media industry, but the pressure would not “dissipate” as non-journalists began to think about her stance on certain issues.
“Press conferences may be high risk, low reward for Harris/Walz. But the longer they go without proper Q&A, the harder it will be for both parties,” Knox wrote.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to open on August 19 in Chicago.
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Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
