Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday that she hopes to arrange her first interview in weeks sometime before Sept. 1 — giving the unambitious 24-day timetable after former President Donald Trump attacked her lack of press access as evidence that she’s “not smart enough” to be president.
“I’ve talked to my team. I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month,” Harris told reporters in a rare on-the-record gaggle as she departed Detroit for a campaign trip to Arizona with her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Harris, 59, has taken hardly any reporter questions publicly since President Biden ended his candidacy on July 21 and endorsed her to replace him in the Nov. 5 election.
She has generally only answered shouted queries from a distance — giving fleeting replies that do not allow her policies or record as vice president to be addressed in detail.
“She won’t even do interviews with friendly people, because she can’t do better than Biden,” Trump tauntingly told reporters at a more than hour-long press conference on Thursday.
“She’s not smart enough to do a news conference, and I’m sorry — we need smart people to lead this country.”
Harris’ most recent sit-down interview appears to have been on June 24 with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Three days later, she appeared on CNN to defend Biden’s dismal debate performance against Trump.
The vice president has in the early days of her candidacy made a habit of informal and off-the-record discussions with reporters on Air Force Two — where she has answered questions about major news events, without those replies being reportable by journalists.
Those gaggles are widely viewed as a way to build relationships with the White House press corps without having to face blowback for answers that open her to political attacks that could end her extended “honeymoon” phase as a candidate.
