A report from NBC News late Thursday caught my eye. Headlined “Harris slowly opens the door to more media interviews” it read:
Fresh off a debate they thought went well for her, Vice President Kamala Harris’ aides are slowly opening up more engagement for her with the media, amid growing concern among allies that she needs to be more accessible — but they have no plans to fundamentally alter their strategy.
The campaign said Harris plans to do more interviews with media in battleground states and speak more with her traveling press corps in the coming days. She will also take questions from members of the National Association of Black Journalists, with whom former President Donald Trump sat for a contentious interview this summer.
Which is interesting.
Regular readers know I am a big believer that, for democracy’s sake, Harris should talk to the press more. And by “more” I mean more than the one time that she has done a TV interview over the past two months.
And it’s not just me! In the New York Times/Siena College national poll released over the weekend, 3 in 10 voters said they felt like they needed to know more about Harris. The best way to do that? Talk to the media!
Numbers from NBC cast the difference in media strategy between the two campaigns in a stark light.
Since President Joe Biden announced he would not run for a 2nd term on July 21, Donald Trump has done 18 media appearances and 6 press conferences. He will do his 7th press conference at noon eastern today.
Harris? One interview with CNN and two appearances on national radio shows.
Now, Trump’s media interviews are largely — though not exclusively — with friendly faces like Sean Hannity and the cast of “Fox & Friends.” And his “press conferences” are often him droning on for 45 minutes and then taking 2-3 questions from the media.
But, he is still out there talking with the media a lot. Harris is simply not.
And that “access vs silence” dynamic extends to their VP picks too. JD Vance has done 44 media interviews since being named as Trump’s number two. Tim Walz? He’s done 2.
I mean…
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