As RedState reported, the Harris-Waltz campaign team is even facing increasing criticism from some media outlets after it was announced on Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris finally gave her first interview since the palace coup in July that installed her as the Democratic presidential candidate in place of President Joe Biden.
The details, as we’ve documented here, were pretty pathetic. Well-known Democratic apologist Dana Bash, a CNN anchor, will host the show. Also, it won’t be a live interview. It will be pre-recorded and there’s no guarantee that the edits made before the broadcast on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET are justified.
The worst part is that it won’t be a one-on-one interview. Her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will be sitting next to her like a safety net.
READ MORE: Journalist asks the question of the day after the release of the details of the CNN interview between Kamala Harris and Tim Walz
As conservative strategist and CNN political commentator Scott Jennings noted, the decision to add Walz to the race was a faint moment for Harris’ campaign and, as he also noted, raised even more doubts about what kind of president Harris would be.
“…what kind of president would you be if this kind of little thing was a decision – can we do an interview or not – what does that look like in your decision-making process? [and] and so on?” asked Jennings.
In response to their critics – who included former CBS News senior White House correspondent Mark Knoller – Kamala Harris for President senior spokesperson Ian Sams ridiculously stated that the joint interview was part of a “rich tradition” they wanted to uphold:
The joint interview is a summer tradition in election years that has existed for 20 years. Kerry/Edwards, Obama/Biden, Romney/Ryan, Trump/Pence, Clinton/Kaine and Biden/Harris have all done them. Almost always directly around the party conventions. Harris/Walz will join this opulent tradition tomorrow on CNN. https://t.co/6puWYyS8Rg
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) 28 August 2024
While it is true that in the last presidential election both the candidate and his running mate were interviewed after the convention, this time it is a different scenario in more possibilities than one:
Barack Obama and Joe Biden sat for an interview on 60 Minutes after Biden was named 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 chose ABC’s 20/20. And less than a week after Trump announced JD Vance as his running mate, the two were interviewed together on Fox.
But since Biden handed her the reins slow last month, Harris has largely circumscribed her interactions with the press to tightly controlled and pre-determined settings. Her last formal interview was on June 24, more than two months and a political lifetime ago.
Her occasional interactions with reporters – terse answers to shouted questions on the way to and from campaign events – have done little to dispel Republican accusations that she misses every opportunity to scrutinize her political record and agenda.
Moreover, the forceful appeal to “tradition” here is an extreme farce, considering that there is nothing time-honored about Kamala Harris’s presidential candidacy. Normally, one wins a nomination by going through an intense primary process of campaigning for voters’ support, not by pushing the incumbent out of the race to make way for oneself comfortably and without work.
And then, of course, there are the interviews that you do on the side and which weren’t done here either.
There is nothing “traditional” about avoiding the press and formal interviews for a month and a half while enjoying the perks that come with being the designated candidate.
It’s a “tradition” to introduce the newly elected vice president and lend him authority after the presidential candidate has endured a year of grueling primary campaigning. Kamala Harris has done none of that and has not given a single solo interview since her Democratic nomination.
— Izengabe (@Izengabe_) 28 August 2024
In my view, the fact that Walz is coming along as an emotional support is a testament to what many have made about Harris’ return to her failed 2019 presidential bid: She is not ready for prime time, let alone a 3 a.m. call, and she never will be.
Related: CNN ‘Reporter’ Dive Into Next Week After ‘Fact-Checking’ JD Vance’s Tim Walz Joke
