CNN’s Van Jones said Wednesday that Vice President Harris’ lack of media appearances “can’t last” and said that she needs to be available to the press.
“I’m not mad that she’s not doing 15 interviews a day,” he said, noting Harris had only been at the top of the Democratic ticket for about two weeks, and became the official nominee on Friday. “But it can’t last. It’s very important. And we can’t make favorites. Anybody running for the top office needs to be as available as possible.”
Harris has not granted any interviews with the press or held any press conferences in her roughly two weeks of taking over the top of the ticket.
Scott Jennings, a CNN political commentator, also said Donald Trump and Harris should get some debates scheduled.
“She‘s not sat down with any journalist, that I know of. She’s been pretty good in front of a teleprompter, but she refuses to come and answer questions about her time as vice president, her record when she ran for president, her record in the Senate and what she was the most liberal U.S. senator but at some point, she’s going to have to answer some questions and it may be that the debate stage is the only place Donald Trump can get that done,” Jennings said.
Harris briefly addressed reporters at Joint Base Andrews as she and Biden greeted Americans freed from Russia in a massive prisoner swap, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, called out the press on Tuesday and said the media needed to force Harris to answer questions.
“I think you guys have got to do a better job at actually forcing Kamala Harris to answer questions. This is a person who has been a presumptive Democrat nominee for 16 days. She hasn’t taken a single real question from a reporter. The American people deserve to get to know the people who want to lead them, and I think it’s shameful for Kamala Harris, but increasingly for the media, that she is taking a basement strategy of running from reporters instead of getting in front of them and answering tough questions about her record and letting the American people know who she is,” Vance said during a press gaggle.
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The DNC announced on Friday that Harris had officially clinched the 2024 presidential nomination after winning the votes of a majority of pledged delegates to the Democrats’ upcoming national convention.
Harris also announced on Tuesday that Gov. Walz, D-Minn., would be her vice presidential running mate.
