CNN host: Did Harris ‘wait too long’ to schedule her first interview?

A CNN anchor wonders whether Vice President Kamala Harris’s strategy of avoiding the press is backfiring, even though the Democratic candidate has just scheduled her first interview with the cable network.

CNN moderator Kasie Hunt devoted a panel discussion to this topic on Wednesday morning and asked her guests whether Harris had waited so long to schedule her first interview that it was now having a negative impact on her election campaign.

“Did they wait too long? Because this has become a thing. It’s snowballed,” Hunt told the panel after playing clips of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance criticizing Harris for avoiding the press.

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The vice president has not held an impromptu press conference or given an interview in 38 days, although Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz (D-Minn.), have scheduled a joint CNN interview with Dana Bash that will air on the network Thursday evening.

Still, Matt Gorman, a former senior adviser to Tim Scott’s presidential campaign, told Hunt that he believed Harris’s refusal to give interviews since she began her campaign in late July, after President Biden announced his withdrawal from the race, had allowed some of the Democrats’ problems to “simmer for weeks” because they had not tried to address them in media appearances.

“I’m very curious to hear what she says on a number of issues, and the same goes for Walz,” Gorman said, adding, “We’ve talked about some things, particularly about Walz and his military service and the circumstances that he spoke of that were not factual. A lot of that has been simmering for weeks because it wasn’t addressed when it first came to light.”

The former Scott adviser mentioned that Americans will be curious to see how Harris handles the “setbacks” that have torn her back and forth on key policy issues since her last run for president in 2020.

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The Harris campaign has scheduled an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash for Thursday evening. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Hunt asked DNC senior adviser Brad Woodhouse to comment on the fact that interviews have “not necessarily always” been Harris’ “strongest forum.”

Woodhouse defended Harris, saying: “Well, she said she would give an interview by the end of the month, and she will give an interview by the end of the month. And by the way, a joint interview with your vice presidential candidate is pretty normal, pretty normal.”

He then attacked Vance, saying, “But I just loved these clips of JD Vance and the Republicans just pushing for her to give an interview. It shows how desperate they are. And you know what, I want them to give more interviews. And I want Donald Trump to give more interviews.”

Hunt countered: “Well, they do a lot of interviews.”

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Woodhouse continued, saying: “Is that true? And how do they benefit him? Donald Trump held a 64-minute – what was it? – 64-minute press conference and lied 162 times. He seemed crazy, he seemed out of it.”

“So they should give more interviews and press conferences,” he added of the Republican candidates.