A CNN panel warned Thursday that the longer Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Waltz, R-Minn., avoid interviews, the more afraid they appear.
Harris has not given an interview since she launched her campaign after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed Harris on July 21. Waltz has also not given an interview since being selected as Harris' running mate on Tuesday. CNN media correspondent Hadas Gold and political commentator S.E. Kapp told “CNN News Central” that their strategy will only come under more scrutiny and backlash over time. (Related article: “Kamala was in on it too”: Pro-Trump PAC pulls anti-Kamala Harris ad within two hours of Biden's departure)
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'The drums are getting louder': CNN panel warns Harris, Waltz interview goes on longer, 'the more scared they seem' pic.twitter.com/g17ByU0nqx
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 8, 2024
“The drum of attack is getting louder, and not just from the Trump campaign, which is continuing this attack. You're hearing it from the reporters themselves,” Gold said. “Veteran … former White House press secretary Ron Fournier said that every day she doesn't speak to the media is what he called 'political malfeasance.' Until she finally gives an interview, that drum will get louder and louder. And for now, it's an easy drum of attack for the Trump campaign.”
Fournier, who worked for the Associated Press, Said “This is not good for democracy,” the Daily Beast reported.
“The attitude that I don't need the media, I'm not going to answer questions, that doesn't look good. I'm not going to be swayed by the media, I'm going to go with the flow, and they're going with the flow, I get that. This campaign is so abbreviated. They had to do everything so quickly,” Kapp said. And I believe they're going to face reporters, but they need to… These don't have to be mortal questions, but they need to answer them and they need to show that they're strong enough to do it. And they need to show that they're not that scared to do it. And the longer they take to sit down, the more scared they're going to look.”
CNN's Van Jones also warned Wednesday that Harris's interview avoidance “will not last,” noting that it is a necessity for anyone running for president.
“There's a difference between visibility and accountability. Visibility is great. She's not hiding. They're out there, they're holding rallies, they're meeting voters, they're shaking hands, they're delivering one-liners. It's great,” Kopp said at the start of the show. “I think Kamala Harris is giving Tim Walz some time to introduce himself to the public. But they also have to be accountable — for her record as vice president and senator, and him as governor and representative. And they have to be accountable for an agenda that they haven't even put forward yet. Voters, especially in battleground states, want to know.”
“Swing state voters don't want their vice presidential candidate to tell them to be afraid of a cat lady with no kids. They want to be told, 'I have solutions to the issues that really matter to you.' And swing state voters, undecided voters, are undecided because no one has come up with the solutions yet. So Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have to explain what their platforms are. They have to match their records,” she added. “Tim Walz in Minnesota has a very progressive record and social policies are very out of step with the majority of American voters. He has to explain that and explain whether that will be integrated into Harris' platform, if there is one. Are they integrating platforms? Voters want to know that.”
Walz has a far-left record on immigration issues, opposing border security and supporting policies that favor illegal immigrants as governor and in the House of Representatives, and he also signed the “Trans Refugee Bill” in 2023, allowing the state of Minnesota to make custody decisions if a child is unable to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
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