Harris adviser says she isn't doing many interviews due to being a ‘very busy person’
Harris-Walz campaign senior adviser Keisha Lance Bottoms defended the relatively small number of unscripted media appearances done by Vice President Kamala Harris.
A senior adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris suggested she's too "busy" to talk to the press more often as she enters the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election.
Former Atlanta mayor-turned-prominent Harris surrogate Keisha Lance Bottoms was pressed by CNN's Jake Tapper about how the vice president hasn't been "sitting down for regular interviews or fielding questions from the press," particularly in comparison to her GOP rival, former President Trump.
"Why?" Tapper asked. "Why is she not doing more interviews to talk about her policies and answer some of the questions that voters have about her policies and her change on her views on some of them?
"Well, Jake, she’s done interviews," Lance-Bottoms pushed back. "And I know that we would love- or you would love to see her sit down every single day with CNN and do interviews. But it’s that she’s a very busy person. She’s the vice president as well as a candidate."
Harris-Walz campaign senior adviser Keisha Lance Bottoms defended the vice president as she was pressed over the Democratic nominee not granting more interviews. (Screenshot/CNN)
"And we heard her today talk about her views on these policies," she continued. "It may not be in the format that the media would like. It may not be that she’s sitting down doing a one-on-one interview, but we heard her today in Georgia talk about her stance on reproductive freedom and if she's elected as president of the United States, how she would use the power of the pen to make sure that these freedoms are protected."
Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., have done a combined 15 interviews since last month, while Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have done a combined 55.
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Other news outlets, including The New York Times and Axios, have been calling out Harris and Walz for dodging the media, noting that Harris has been more reclusive in the first two months of her thriving campaign than President Biden was in the last two months of his faltering campaign.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris holds a discussion hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Most recently, Harris sat down for a lengthy conversation with Oprah Winfrey alongside a roster of A-list supporters including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Jennifer Lopez.
Harris has yet to hold a formal press conference since she emerged as the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, Trump has held several in recent weeks.
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