Kamala Harris is giving the press — and Americans — the silent treatment.
The vice president is on track to grant the fewest interviews of any major party’s presidential nominee ever — and it’s not just because she entered the race historically late.
Since President Biden ended his re-election bid July 21, his 59-year-old No. 2 has given just six sitdowns, leaving both her allies and critics wanting more.
Harris has scrupulously picked her spots, opting for relatively friendly environments like an Aug. 29 interview with CNN’s Dana Bash where she was joined by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. She has also sat down with Philadelphia’s ABC station, Spanish-language radio host Chiquibaby, and a panel at a gathering of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).
By comparison, former President Donald Trump has done at least three times as many interviews in the same period, with some lasting at least an hour – such as his recent one-on-one over X Spaces with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. He and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) have highlighted Harris’ silence by doing more meetings with the press, with Vance becoming a regular guest on the Sunday morning network public affairs programs.
Even in Harris’ limited public availability, she has been unable to avoid awkward moments and the “word salad” for which her critics have so regularly mocked her.
In the CNN interview, Harris responded to Bash’s first question — asking her to explain the many apparent policy reversals from her failed 2020 run for the White House — by insisting “my values have not changed,” providing the Trump campaign with yet another opening to attack her.
When asked a question about support for slavery reparations by the NABJ panel, she answered thus: “We need to speak truth about the generational impact of our history, in terms of the generational impact of slavery, the generational impact of redlining, of Jim Crow laws. I could go on and on and on. These are facts that have impact, and we need to speak truth about it. And we need to speak truth about it in a way that’s about deriving solutions.”
“We as Americans have beautiful character,” she told Philadelphia’s Action News 6 ABC anchor Brian Taff last week after he asked how she planned to bring down prices. “We have ambitions and aspirations and dreams. But not everyone necessarily has access to the resources that can help them fuel those dreams and ambitions.”
These moments would be enough for any campaign to want their candidate to show their face less, but psychiatrist and body language expert Carole Lieberman told The Post she suspected there was a deeper-seated issue: That Harris is “anxious” under questioning.
“Harris’ campaign team may not fully understand the psychological roots for why she [is] so anxious not to be ‘found out,’ but they see the symptoms and have figured out that the less we see of them, the better,” said Lieberman, who has not treated Harris and acknowledged to The Post that she plans to vote for Trump in November.
“If I were advising her, I would tell her to do less media unless it was in situations where she could be more confident that they like her.”
The Trump campaign and its allies have argued that the reason for Harris’ silence is because she and Walz are hiding their true agenda behind a smokescreen built by left-leaning media outlets.
But it’s not just Republicans and Trump supporters who are calling out the veep’s low profile.
“I think she should be doing more local media — and do two-three [interviews] at every stop,” said a Democratic operative close to the Harris campaign.
“It reaches the actual voters in the battleground states much more than cable news. Those are the voters that will decide the election.”
Lieberman agreed, noting that “focusing on local news outlets in swing states is a safer bet because she would be less anxious and the campaign could more easily hide or distract from any faux pas on a smaller platform than on a national one.”
The Democratic source said that “maybe her strategy is working” — noting Harris is still faring well in polling — but questioned how long that would last.
Kamala Harris is not in the swing of things…
Swing . . . and a miss
In the topics that matter most in three key swing states, Kamala Harris showed that she was out of touch in Thursday’s interview:
ARIZONA
Top issue: Immigration
58% of Arizonans, of either party, think that the United States does not have control over its border — a reality they see every day as a border state, according to a Redfield and Wilton Strategies poll.
Kam’s response: CNN’s Dana Bash claimed Harris was put in charge of “root causes” — avoiding the term used at the time, “border czar” — and even then Harris corrected her, saying she was only tasked with dealing with “Northern Central America.” So she dodged all responsibility on the flood of migrants from Venezuela and other South America nations (and maybe Nicaragua? What counts as “Northern?”) Harris insisted the biggest problem was that a recent border bill didn’t pass, while she has been in office for three-and-a-half years without any action.
MICHIGAN
Top issue: The auto industry
Just 20% of Michiganders, home of much of America’s auto industry, back an electric vehicle mandate, the lowest of any state surveyed, according to Morning Consult.
Kam’s response: “You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.” Harris has previously said those deadlines include getting rid of gas cars.
PENNSYLVANIA
Top issue: Energy and fracking
83% of Pennsylvanians believe drilling for more for gas and oil in the US would lower costs, 86% say it would improve national security, according to Morning Consult.
Kam’s response: “There is no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” she said in 2019. In the interview, she claimed she no longer wanted to ban fracking, but insisted, “My values have not changed.” Harris dubiously said she still favored the Green New Deal but would make an exception for fracking.
“Without any additional big moments, I am not sure how you hold onto the enthusiasm without interviews or social media influencer engagement,” the operative said.
“In politics, ya gotta know when to fight and ya gotta know when to dance,” another Democratic source told The Post. “Harris should sit down with the New York Post and show the American people she can do both.”
The Harris campaign had claimed she was on track to reach voters “not in the traditional ways people have in the past,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told Axios last month.
O’Malley Dillon added the campaign would focus on reaching out to voters by meeting them on the ground and having surrogates and influencers make the message on behalf of Harris.
But that’s left observers wondering what she has to hide.
Lieberman suggested that Harris suffers from “Imposter Syndrome” — doubting her own qualifications to be a heartbeat from the presidency.
“Her cackling, grimacing and large hand movements are reflections of this anxiety,” she added, noting that “Kamala was able to stifle her cackling” during her Sept. 10 debate with Trump – but “made up for it with bigger grimacing.”
While Harris has given hardly any on-record interviews, she often speaks off-the-record with journalists for about five minutes in the rear of Air Force Two on trips — answering questions on a range of issues, but without allowing her words to be printed.
Those informal Q&As are designed to improve relationships between Harris and the press and nudge coverage in a more favorable direction — and began before she replaced Biden atop the Democratic ticket.
The outgoing president did similar Air Force Two gaggles while Barack Obama’s vice president.
Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams told The Post after publication the vice president will continue her “broad” media appearence schedule.
“Voters consume information from more places than ever before, and Vice President Harris and Governor Walz get that. It’s why they’re doing a range of media engagements — yes, traditional TV or sit down interviews like cable news which both Harris and Walz have done or the live TV panel just this week with the National Association of Black Journalists, as well as interviews with the local stations battleground state voters often trust most for their news as they tune in each night at 6 and 11, diverse radio and digital outlets that reach voters of different backgrounds, and digital platforms and creators who ask questions that interest and inform big audiences across the country and world,” Sams said in a statement.
“In each of these settings they answer questions, often tough ones, about the important issues facing Americans in this election and share their views and vision. They’re going to continue this broad array of media engagements throughout the rest of this campaign.”
