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Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview drought finally comes to an end on Thursday, but after 39 days as the presumptive and now official Democratic nominee for president, she has yet to do an official press conference, and it’s not clear if she’ll ever do one as a candidate.
Under pressure to sit down for a substantive interview after weeks of stonewalling, she agreed to a sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday. She will be joined in the interview by running mate Tim Walz.
During one of her rare and brief press gaggles since taking over the nomination from President Biden, Harris insisted on Aug. 9 that she wanted “to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month.” It took another 18 days for one to finally be announced.
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Vice President Kamala Harris has gone more than five weeks without holding a press conference since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. (Reuters/Kevin Wurm)
As to when she’ll do a formal press conference, that day may never come.
“You will not see one press conference from her in the next 75 days until Election Day,” contributor Joe Concha predicted earlier this month.
Former President Trump has sought to highlight the contrast in media availability between the two, sitting for several lengthy interviews in recent weeks and also holding a pair of press conferences.
Harris has famously struggled when faced with tough questions in the past, often appearing to laugh uncomfortably or offering jumbled and confusing answers.
In 2021, Harris struggled to explain a strategy for securing the border and infamously joked she hadn’t been to Europe, either, when NBC News anchor Lester Holt asked why she hadn’t visited the southern border.
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Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio. (Getty Images)
In 2023, The New York Times reported that she “all but went into a bunker for about a year, avoiding many interviews out of what aides said was a fear of making mistakes and disappointing Mr. Biden” after the “disastrous” sit-down with Holt.
Whether Bash will drill down on Harris’ numerous policy shifts from 2020 to 2024 remains to be seen. Harris has turned the 2024 race around since replacing Biden, giving Democrats renewed hopes they can keep the White House after things looked grim for their party after Biden’s debate debacle.
But she took shots from even friendly media outlets for so blatantly dodging a flurry of interview requests, and only agreeing to a joint one when she finally ended the blackout.
“She simply cannot be left unattended,” National Review writer Jeff Behar wrote on X before adding, “To quote a colleague at NR: Tim Walz is apparently Kamala Harris’s ‘emotional support midwesterner.’”
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Critics have noticed that Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t held a formal press conference since President Biden ended his re-election campaign. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
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Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
