NOTUS reporter Jasmine Wright on Thursday said Vice President Kamala Harris’ past failed interviews preoccupy her campaign as she avoids the press during her presidential run.
Harris has not sat down for any interviews since starting her campaign following President Joe Biden withdrawing and endorsing her on July 21. Wright, on “José Díaz-Balart Reports,” said the vice president has been using this strategy, even before launching her presidential campaign, because she has not fared well in past interviews.
Read: Kamala Harris’ VP Pick May Not Appeal To Middle America The Way She Hoped
“It is not that she hasn’t engaged press, but it has certainly been on the vice president’s own terms, as kind of it has been for the last three years that she’s been vice president. She goes back and she talks to the press on the plane. Those are typically off-the-record comments,” Wright said. “If she does want to make a statement on the news of the day, we’ve seen her approach the press waiting under the wing of Air Force Two to give a statement. But then she turns away before questions, before answering any questions.”
“And so I think that the public is expecting, or certainly the media is expecting, for her to engage more with reporters now that she has replaced Biden at the top of the ticket. Now I know, just from covering her the last really six years, that her engagements with the press are varied,” she added.
Read: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz Demands DHS Release ALL Correspondence On VP Harris’s Role As “Border Czar”
Harris sat down for an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt in 2021, where she admitted she still hadn’t visited the southern border.
The vice president recently went off-script to discuss the prisoner swap President Joe Biden orchestrated with Russia, with some describing her comments as a “word salad.”
“This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy,” the vice president told reporters while standing next to Biden.
“Certainly, as she’s been vice president, we’ve known that we’ve seen some kind of damaging moments when her speaking to the press, particularly that first interview she did in 2021 with Lester Holt about her work on immigration,” Wright said. “And so I think that that is something that’s always been on the mind of her office and the vice president herself. Of course, we’ve reported that she has been doing media training … over her vice presidency. So I think that that’s the major question … time is running short for her to kind of present herself in front of the media.”
Read: Trump Edges Out Harris Among Jewish Voters In New York: POLL
CNN’s Van Jones warned on Wednesday that Harris’ avoidance of interviews “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,” he said.
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Android Users: Download our free app to stay up-to-date on the latest news.
Connect with us: Follow the Tampa Free Press on Facebook and Twitter for breaking news and updates.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.