Democrats are in no hurry for Vice President Kamala Harris to do a sit-down news interview and are making the unprecedented case that their presidential candidate shouldn’t risk answering questions.
Ms. Harris has dodged the media, refusing to do an unscripted interview or a press conference in the five weeks since she made her late entry into the presidential race — inviting comparisons to President Biden’s “basement strategy” in 2020.
Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said staying silent is working for Ms. Harris as she has pulled ahead of Mr. Trump in national polls by about 3 points.
“The basement strategy is a clear winner,” he said. “The more Trump talks the more he gets himself into trouble.”
Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher joined the chorus urging Ms. Harris to sidestep the media.
“No, she should be talking to the voters and barnstorming,” Mr. Belcher said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked if she should do media interviews.
The no-interviews tactic also got a thumbs-up from Ms. Harris’ supporters in Hollywood.
“Pulp Fiction” director Quentin Tarantino urged Ms. Harris to keep avoiding the media until after the election.
“This is about f—-ing winning,” he said on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast. “It’s a mad f——ing dash and she is running it. She’s not stopping to stumble and … I’m going to vote for her f—-ing anyway no matter what she says in the stupid f—-ing interview so don’t f—- s—- up.”
Indeed, media appearances are fraught with risks for Ms. Harris who has stumbled in interviews before, including in 2019 before she pulled the plug on her 2020 presidential bid.
She recently declined an interview with Time Magazine, even after the outlet wrote a glowing cover story of her rise to the top of the Democratic ticket. President Biden and former President Donald Trump both sat down for lengthy interviews with Time magazine as candidates.
Republicans say voters deserve to hear directly from Ms. Harris, especially since she recast herself as a centrist compared to the 2020 campaign when she endorsed far-left positions on immigration, health care and guns. Her new campaign has disavowed those positions through statements to the press attributed to unnamed campaign officials, but she has not explained herself.
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Ms. Harris previously was in favor of banning fracking but an anonymous campaign official told Politico she “would not ban fracking” as president. She once pledged to decriminalize border crossings but an anonymous campaign official told Axios that Ms. Harris believes “unauthorized border crossings are illegal.”
Ms. Harris is also a two-time co-sponsor of a bill that would eliminate private health insurance in favor of a single-payer system. She later endorsed that plan during a 2019 town hall. Now Ms. Harris doesn’t support single-payer health care, also known as Medicare for All, an anonymous campaign official told The Hill.
“If she has changed her position, she owes it to the American people to come out and say in her own words when she changed and why she changed,” Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, said on ABC News’ “This Week.”
Ms. Harris is inching toward an interview as the Labor Day holiday weekend approaches.
Harris campaign deputy manager Quentin Fulks told Fox News’ “Media Buzz” that Ms. Harris will do an interview by the end of the month.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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