Vice President Kamala Harris’s refusal to conduct an interview since she became the presumptive presidential nominee makes her the least accessible candidate in years, a Washington Free Beacon analysis found.
Harris has conducted fewer interviews—zero, to be precise—since she became presumptive nominee than President Joe Biden had at this point of his "basement campaign" in 2020. Biden, who, in the words of the New York Times, was "walled off from voters" for much of the summer and fall of that year, still managed to squeeze in two interviews from July 21 to Aug. 5 of that year.
Harris’s strategy of avoiding media contact comes as she faces a litany of questions about her record. Spokespeople for her campaign have told various media outlets that she has reversed her position on a wide array of issues since her 2020 run.
Those individuals, not Harris herself, have told reporters that she no longer supports abolishing private health insurance, outlawing fracking, slashing the budgets of police departments, eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement, mandatory gun buybacks, or instituting a federal job guarantee. Nor does her campaign website have a policy section—instead it simply tells voters that "she is leading the charge to protect fundamental freedoms, including the right to an abortion and the right to vote."
Harris’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Previous presidential candidates have opted for a different approach. Former president Donald Trump conducted at least five interviews from July 21, 2020, through Aug. 5 of that year.
Some of those interviews were conducted in friendly territory, as was the case with his July 23 appearance with Fox News’s Sean Hannity. Others, such as his interview with Axios on July 29, presented a challenge for the then-president as he gave his pitch to voters for a second term.
During his first presidential run, Trump, during that same 15-day stretch, was interviewed by the Hollywood Reporter, ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, the Washington Post, and NBC’s Meet the Press. On July 20, he sat for a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times.
His opponent at the time, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, sat for a July 24 60 Minutes interview with her vice presidential pick Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) and then another on July 31 on Fox News.
Biden’s interviews in 2020 were relatively brief or with a favorable host. His July 23 interview was on C-SPAN and hosted by former president Barack Obama.
But even those favorable conditions allowed Biden to outline some of his policy proposals, such as building upon the Affordable Care Act or boosting Social Security payments. Two days earlier, Biden was interviewed by a local ABC affiliate in Arizona.
There, Biden expressed his disapproval of the "defund the police movement" as well as criticized Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.