Kamala Harris Giving to the press – and to Americans – the silent treatment.
He is on the right track to become the Vice President Give the least number of interviews That's the biggest win of any major party's presidential candidate ever — and it's not just because she entered the race historically late.
since President Biden His re-election bid ended on July 21His No. 2 rival, 59, has met just six times, prompting both allies and critics to call for more meetings.
Harris chose his locations carefully, Choosing a relatively friendly environment, such as the Aug. 29 interview with CNN's Dana Bash Where his fellow candidate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, was also present with him. Meeting with Philadelphia's ABC station, Chiquibebi, Spanish-language radio hostand a panel at a meeting National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)
By comparison, former President Donald Trump has done at least three times as many interviews in the same period, some of which have lasted at least an hour — such as his recent one-on-one interview Xspaces with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon MuskHe and his fellow senator, J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), have highlighted Harris’s silence by holding more meetings with the press, at which Vance has become a regular guest. Sunday morning network public affairs programs,
Even in Harris's limited public availability, she has been unable to avoid the awkward moments and “word salad” for which her critics have often mocked her.
In the CNN interview, Harris responded to Bash's first question — which asked her to explain several apparent policy reversals from her failed 2020 campaign for the White House — Emphasizing that “my values haven't changed“, giving the Trump campaign another opportunity to attack him.
When asked by an NABJ panel about her support for slavery reparations, she responded this way: “We need to speak the truth about the generational impact of our history, in terms of the generational impact of slavery, the generational impact of redlining, Jim Crow laws. There's a lot more I could say. These are facts that have an impact, and we need to speak the truth about it. And we need to speak the truth about it so that there can be redress.”
“We as Americans have beautiful character,” she said last week when asked by Brian Taff, anchor of Philadelphia's Action News 6 ABC, how she plans to lower prices. “We have ambitions, aspirations and dreams. But not everybody necessarily has access to the resources that can help them realize those dreams and ambitions.”
These moments would be enough to make any campaign want its candidate to show their face less, but psychiatrists and body language experts Carole Lieberman He told the Post that he suspects there’s a deeper issue: that Harris is “anxious” under questioning.
“Harris’s campaign team may not fully understand the psychological roots of why she is so desperate to not be ‘found out,’ but they see the symptoms and have figured out that the less we know about them, the better,” said Lieberman, who has not treated Harris and acknowledged to The Post that she plans to vote for Trump in November.
“If I were advising him, I would tell him to engage with the media less until he is in a situation where he can be more confident that the media likes him.”
The Trump campaign and its allies have argued that Harris’s silence is because she and Walz are hiding their true agenda behind a smokescreen created by the left-wing media.
But it's not just Republicans and Trump supporters who are questioning the vice president's low profile.
“I think she should pay more attention to the local media — and do two or three (interviews) at every stop,” said one Democratic operative with the Harris campaign.
“It reaches more actual voters in battleground states than cable news does. These voters are the ones who will decide the election.”
Lieberman agreed, saying that “focusing on local news outlets in swing states is a safer bet, as they will be less likely to worry her and the campaign will be able to more easily hide or deflect any mistakes on a smaller platform than it would be at the national level.”
A Democratic source said “maybe their strategy is working” — he added that Harris is still doing well in polling — but questioned how long it would last.
Kamala Harris is not doing well right now…
Swing…and miss
The most important themes in the three major changing states are, Kamala Harris It showed she was out of touch in an interview on Thursday,
Arizona
Top issue: Immigration
According to a survey by Redfield and Wilton Strategies, 58% of Arizonans, regardless of party affiliation, think the United States does not have control of its border — a reality they see every day as a border state.
Worked answer: CNN's Dana Bash claimed Harris was put in charge of “root causes” — avoiding the term “border czar” used at the time — and even then Harris corrected her, saying she was only tasked with dealing with “northern Central America.” So she shrugged off all responsibility over the flood of migrants from Venezuela and other South American countries (and maybe Nicaragua? What counts as “northern”). Harris insisted the biggest problem was that a recent border bill had not passed even though she's been in office for three and a half years without any action.
Michigan
Top issue: auto industry
Only 20% of Michigan, where the bulk of the US auto industry is based, supports the policy. Electric Vehicle MandateThis is the lowest of any state surveyed, according to Morning Consult.
Worked answer: “You mentioned the Green New Deal. I've always believed, and I've worked on this, that the climate crisis is real, that it's an urgent matter that we should apply criteria to that include timelines that we can maintain within our own timelines,” Harris has previously said, adding that those timelines include getting rid of gas cars.
Pennsylvania
Top issue: Energy and fracking
According to Morning Consult, 83% of Pennsylvanians believe more drilling for gas and oil in the U.S. would reduce costs, while 86% say it would improve national security.
Worked answer: In 2019 she said, “There's no doubt that I'm in favor of banning fracking.” In the interview, she claimed she no longer wanted to ban fracking, but insisted, “My values haven't changed.” Harris ambiguously said she was still in favor of the Green New Deal, but would make an exception for fracking.
“Without any additional big moments, I'm not sure how you keep the excitement going without interviews or the involvement of social media influencers,” the operative said.
“In politics you have to know when to fight and when to dance,” another Democratic source told the Post. “Harris should sit down with the New York Post and show the American people she can do both.”
The Harris campaign has claimed it is on the right track to reach out to voters “just not in the traditional ways that people have done in the past,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told Axios last month.
O'Malley Dillon said the campaign will focus on reaching out to voters at the grassroots level and will use surrogates and influencers to deliver Harris' message.
But observers are left wondering what she's hiding.
Lieberman said Harris suffers from “imposter syndrome” — she doubts her qualifications for the presidency.
“Her giggling, grimacing and big hand movements are a reflection of this anxiety”, he said, adding that “Kamala was able to suppress her giggling during the debate with Trump on September 10” – but “she made up for it by making a big grimace.”
Though Harris rarely gives any on-the-record interviews, she often has about five-minute off-the-record conversations with reporters in the rear of Air Force Two during trips — answering questions on a variety of issues but not allowing her words to be printed.
Those informal Q&As are intended to improve the relationship between Harris and the press and shift coverage in a more favorable direction — and it started before she took Biden’s place on the Democratic ticket.
The outgoing president also did a similar thing on Air Force Two when he was Barack Obama's vice president.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to The Post’s inquiries.
