Vice President Kamala Harris has been to political rallies since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race for president, but she has yet to hold a press conference.
And many are asking why.
As of Thursday, it’s been 18 days since Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, a spot she officially clinched last week, per Fox News.
During a Wednesday press conference of his own in Detroit, JD Vance, Republican candidate Donald Trump’s running mate, said Harris should “do the job of a presidential candidate” and talk with reporters.
“Until she does, you guys have got to stop giving her a honeymoon and pretending that she is something she isn’t,” he said.
On Tuesday, she announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would be her running mate. Neither have been formally interviewed or held a press conference since.
National Review senior writer Noah Rothman asked on X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday, “When is Kamala Harris going to hold a press conference?”
“The most revealing exposure to which a candidate can submit is a prolonged press conference — and that’s precisely what Harris needs to do,” he wrote in the National Review. “Indeed, we know that’s what she needs to do because it was only a few weeks ago that Democratic political professionals and their allies insisted that was what Biden had to do.”
Tim Graham, NewsBusters executive editor, said she will likely take her cue from Biden, who was accused of hiding in his basement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Kamala Harris should absolutely hold a press conference. One would expect it when she names her vice-presidential pick. But we cannot expect her to break from Biden’s serial avoidance of press conferences,” Graham said to Fox News Digital.
“Since the 2020 campaign, we have witnessed the bizarre spectacle of Donald Trump granting wide access to networks that suggest he’s a fascist and hammer him daily, while Biden and Harris won’t grant interviews to media outlets that gurgle all over them and their ‘historic accomplishments,’” he said. “Either they think the press can never be servile enough or they are projecting a complete lack of confidence in their efforts to put complete sentences together.”
Jeffrey McCall, DePaul University media studies professor, said Harris’ campaign is “well aware that Biden dodged the media throughout his 2020 campaign and still got elected.”
“The Harris camp is also well aware that their candidate doesn’t do well in unscripted settings, not to mention that a presser or legitimate sit-down interview would necessarily require her to defend some of her positions, previous statements and record, he said. “Thus, a rerun of the Biden basement campaign sounds pretty good, as long as you throw in a couple of rallies with Megan Thee Stallion.”
McCall was referring to the rapper who was at Harris’ Atlanta rally Tuesday.
He said Harris likely doesn’t feel the need “to do a press conference just because she has fallen into the nomination” — and Democrats will support regardless.
