MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle on Friday scorched Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign for being unreachable ahead of the November election. By contrast, she said she could readily contact President-elect Donald Trump.
"If I were to want to connect with VP Harris or President Biden, there's 50 people between me and them. I could write a note that maybe could get to somebody to get somebody; then, through Pony Express and a pigeon, something might end up in a mailbox near them," Ruhle said during an appearance on So Many Issues with Lukas Thimm.
Ruhle was the first of only a few journalists to interview Harris after the vice president replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee. The 11th Hour host said she could quickly reach Trump on his personal phone.
"I called him and said, 'I want an interview with you.' Obviously, he said no, but my point is, I was able to get to him by dialing his phone," Ruhle said. "I called DJT to say, 'Yo, can I have an interview?' and he told me to go f— myself, but I still was able to connect with him."
Ruhle's story contradicts Harris campaign chairwoman Jen O'Malley Dillon, who called the narrative that Harris didn't do enough interviews "bulls—."
"A narrative that we weren't doing anything, or we were afraid to have interviews, is completely bullshit and also, like, took hold a little bit. And we just… [It] gave us another thing we had to fight back [against] that Trump never had to worry about," O'Malley Dillon said during a November 26 appearance on the podcast Pod Save America.
Ruhle didn't interview Harris until September 25—66 days after the vice president replaced Biden as the nominee.
Harris deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty also contradicted O'Malley Dillon's claim.
"There's just no value—with respect to my colleagues in the mainstream press—in a general election, to speaking to the New York Times or speaking to the Washington Post, because those [readers] are already with us," Flaherty told Semafor earlier this month.