If Joe Biden did this, the media would be up in arms. But Kamala Harris is getting away with it scot free.
By “this,” of course, I mean completely ignoring the media or any requests for an interview. It’s been nearly a month now since the vice president became the de facto favorite to become the Democratic Party’s nominee, and not only has she not done a news conference, she hasn’t even bothered to do an interview yet. None. Zero. Zip.
As you may recall, even the president — a man who now sounds like he borrowed a few of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s brain worms to completely eradicate whatever grey matter he has left over the past four years — did several sit-down interviews after he bombed the June 27 debate with former President Donald Trump.
Sure, they were terrible and incoherent (sometimes even when using questions Biden’s own campaign fed to reporters), but he did them. Kamala is supposed to be this fresh face ready to take over, but she seems even more reticent to answer questions than the man she hopes to replace, who set a new low bar in terms of media interaction. Biden has what appears to be some form of dementia. What’s her excuse, then?
Enter Phil Murphy, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, who has an excuse for the veep: Look, you’ve got plenty of time to ask her questions.
Murphy was appearing on CNN Tuesday when he was asked about Donald Trump’s interview with Elon Musk on X Spaces — along with the fact that Harris hadn’t done interviews of her own yet and whether that would be a problem for her.
“You won’t be surprised to hear, I had no time for the Musk-Trump interviews,” he said, according to a CNN transcript. “So, I can’t comment on any content. But, no, not at all.”
“I think she’s had an extraordinary several weeks,” he continued. “Tim Walz is an inspired pick. She’s on a roll. She is – as he has said, she’s brought joy back into the whole arena of politics.
“There’ll be plenty of time to do interviews. And God knows one thing about last night, without having heard it, that was no interview. So, when she does interviews, she’ll do it with real journalists like yourself.”
Is Kamala Harris afraid to do interviews?
Oh, well, thanks for avouching for her, Gov. Murphy. She’ll take interviews when she’s ready. There’s plenty of time to do them! Like, after Election Day. Maybe when she’s being inaugurated? Would you take March?
By this logic, she’s also had plenty of time to do interviews — and there’s still plenty of time to not do interviews, as well. For instance, consider the fact that, when she was asked about when she would do an interview last week, she said she could probably fit one in before Sept. 1.
Wow! @KamalaHarris had to take a question today after Trump took 40 in an hour. She said she’d like to do an interview…BEFORE THE END OF THE MONTH! It’s August 8!!!
pic.twitter.com/CpbLmloscT— Garret Lewis (@GarretLewis) August 8, 2024
This isn’t like trying to schedule a colonoscopy in between a busy job. If you’re a candidate for president, these are the things you’re expected to do.
As I write this, it’s been a full 25 days since President Joe Biden essentially broke up with America via text message on X and then, shortly thereafter, endorsed Harris:
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
At the very least, she owed us a few answers — like what she knew about the president’s deteriorating mental condition, when she knew it, how the endorsement for president was done, stuff like that.
Candidates who have already secured the nomination usually don’t quit via flounce posts on social media, particularly when they’re president. So, you know, it’d be nice to hear what happened from someone who was there.
But that’s the thing: Kamala wants to memory hole all of this until she brings so much “joy back into the arena of politics” — to use Gov. Murphy’s nauseatingly saccharine phraseology — that her lackeys forget about all of that mess and just ask nice questions.
Oh, and avoid stuff like this:
Never forget:
HOLT: Why not go to the border?
KAMALA: We’ve been to the border. So this whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.
Holt: You haven’t been to the border.
Kamala: … and I haven’t been to Europe.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) July 21, 2024
This was Kamala Harris, border czarina, explaining to Lester Holt that she’d been to the border — and, when he called her out on that fact, noting she hadn’t been to Europe, either. Sure, why not?
Remember, this is still who Kamala Harris is. She’s not just avoiding interviews because there are plenty of time for them. She’s avoiding it because she wants to avoid talking in an unscripted manner for as long as possible.
When even CNN is asking questions, however, things can’t stay that way forever, no matter how long her allies try to postpone the inevitable.
