CNN’s Erin Burnett wondered on Wednesday whether Vice President Harris would be better off ignoring interview requests from the media, as she continues to avoid the press in the early weeks of her campaign.
“She hasn’t done a big interview in a while here and certainly not since announcing,” Burnett told media personality Charlamagne Tha God. “Are you going to talk to her soon? What do you think? What do you think she should do? Or does she do better to ignore all those calls to talk and just keep doing what she’s doing?”
Harris has gone 32 days without holding a press conference or giving a formal interview since emerging as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
“I think what she’s been doing has worked because you know what she’s been doing is hitting the ground. And I think, you know, sometimes we forget about the ground game in this digital era that we’re in this era of interviews. Sometimes, you know – not sometimes, all the time when you’re actually on the ground shaking hands, you know, kissing babies, actually touching people, that goes a long way,” Charlamagne responded.
CNN’s Erin Burnett wonders if VP Harris should continue to avoid the media, as her poll numbers have only increased. (Screenshot/CNN)
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“She’ll get to interviews after the DNC. But, you know, this week I think she got – she’s got bigger fish to fry, like going out there tomorrow and knocking a home run speech out the park,” he continued.
Liberal commentator Angela Rye argued during the conversation that Harris was having conversations with journalists off-air.
“Folks are spending a lot of time talking about what she’s doing on the camera. There’s also a behind the cameras side. And I think one thing that’s very consistent about Kamala Harris is you can best believe she’s having conversations. She’s going to have them on air, and she certainly having them off air, and there’s no gap between those two,” Rye said.
Outside some short press gaggles and off-the-record conversations with reporters on her campaign plane, Harris has kept the media sidelined while lapping up positive media coverage as she tries to knock off former President Trump.
Charlamagne tha God speaks on stage during day 2 of the Cry Out 2024 at George R. Brown Convention Center on June 22, 2024 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Marcus Ingram/Getty Images) ((Photo by Marcus Ingram/Getty Images))
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She told reporters during a brief gaggle in early August that she hopes to schedule an interview by the end of August.
During an interview with ABC News’ Jon Karl that aired on August 11, Charlamagne said Harris “does need to do more interviews.”
“I mean, it’s the bottom of the ninth inning, right?” Charlamagne told Karl, who agreed it was “striking” that Harris hadn’t taken many questions from the media. “Like, I feel like she should be any and everywhere, you know, having these conversations.”
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Charlamagne said in January that he had some “regrets” about backing the Biden ticket in 2020, and said Harris “disappeared” in the administration. However, he has also repeatedly sounded the alarm about the possibility of another Trump term.
Fox News’ Brian Flood, David Rutz and Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.