Harris And Walz Will Sit For The First Interview Of The Campaign
The Democratic presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor
Tim Walz have agreed to their first joint interview
The two politicians will meet with CNN in Georgia for an interview that will air Thursday at 21:00 EDT (02:00 BST).
It will be the contenders’ first in-depth, on-the-record interview with a reporter since President Joe Biden dropped out of the campaign and backed Ms Harris as his replacement more than five weeks earlier.
Since the vice president ascended to the head of the ticket, Republicans have chastised her for appearing to avoid the press and for keeping Americans in the dark about her presidential intentions.
The interview will be Ms Harris and Mr Walz’s first major test as running mates, and it will present an opportunity for them to silence those critics. It also fulfills the vice president’s promise to schedule a meeting by the end of the month.
It comes after the pair’s high-profile remarks at the star-studded Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which was slickly produced and well-scripted, and Ms Harris will then embark on a bus tour of Georgia, a battleground state.
It will be one of the few chances for voters countrywide to learn more about the Harris-Walz campaign’s policy ideas before election day, which is only 70 days away.
Republicans and sections of the media have grown more vocal over the campaign’s lack of strong policy ideas or interviews during Ms Harris’ abbreviated and unconventional presidential campaign.
It has left her campaign vulnerable to scathing criticism and assaults from her opponents.
During a recent press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump stated that Ms Harris “can’t do an interview” because she was “barely competent”.
Ohio Senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, chastised the media and Ms Harris for avoiding the press. He stated earlier this month that it was “shameful” that Ms Harris had not “taken a single real question from a reporter”.
“She (Harris) 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.”
Mr. Vance has regularly stated that he and Trump have given several interviews and press conferences, often receiving “hostile questions” from the press.
Vice President Harris, who has had a campaign filled with “good vibes” so far, has avoided some of the gaffes and blunders that the Republican ticket has made in front of the press.
That could be the point, given she had a few negative interactions with the press during her first two years as vice president.
A terrible interview with NBC’s Lester Holt in 2021 on immigration and the US southern border appeared to have had a significant impact on her subsequent press engagement.
It is unclear how this interview will affect Ms. Harris’ campaign, given many national opinion polls show her leading Trump ahead of the November presidential election.
According to a Farleigh Dickinson University poll issued last week, Ms. Harris leads Trump by seven points nationally, 50 percent to 43 percent.
It is a remarkable change of fortunes for Democrats, who were trailing Republicans in several elections when Mr. Biden was nominated.
Polls routinely showed the president trailing his predecessor by many points as well.
