Vice President Kamala Harris has stepped up her media appearances, giving interviews to outlets big and small in an effort to appeal to voters in the final weeks of the United States presidential race.
The Democratic nominee continued with her media blitz on Tuesday, granting interviews to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the talk show The View and veteran broadcaster Howard Stern – who was once a friend of former President Donald Trump.
Early in her campaign for the presidency, Harris faced criticism for failing to make a major media appearance.
She announced her presidential bid on July 21, and it was more than a month later, on August 29, that she gave her first TV interview since launching her campaign.
That gap created scrutiny over her media strategy. Veteran media critic Margaret Sullivan, for instance, wrote in The Guardian newspaper that Harris had an obligation to tell the US public “in an unscripted, open way” what she stands for.
“Harris should show that she understands that, in a democracy, the press – at least in theory – represents the public, and that the sometimes adversarial relationship between the press and government is foundational,” Sullivan said.
Surveys have also indicated a desire among the electorate to know more about the Democratic nominee.
A September poll from Siena College and The New York Times indicated that as many as 28 percent of likely voters felt they wanted to know more about Harris.
Harris’s campaign has responded to the criticism with a whirlwind of media appearances over the past week. She is currently locked in a tight race with Trump, the Republican nominee, heading into the November 5 election.
Harris’s sprint across networks and platforms on Tuesday included what was billed as her first live solo interview, with The View.
Speaking to the all-woman talk-show panel, Harris aligned herself closely with the outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden. Harris replaced Biden as the party’s nominee after concerns about his age and ability prompted him to step aside.
Harris told The View she was unable to name a decision she would have made differently than Biden.
“We’re obviously two different people,” Harris said, adding that “I will bring those sensibilities to how I lead”.
When she was pressed on where she might have diverged from Biden had she been in charge, Harris said: “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”
Harris’s appearance with Stern, a radio host, also came with another first: Media critics believe it is her longest uninterrupted interview since becoming the Democratic nominee.
When she spoke to Stern, Harris took shots at Trump, who had a public falling-out with the radio host.
At one point, she and Stern discussed how Trump has refused to say he would accept the results of the 2024 election even if he lost.
Mimicking the former president, Stern said: “‘If I win, it’s a fair election. If I lose, Kamala Harris and her buddies fixed it.’” He summed up that viewpoint by saying, “That’s delusional.”
“In America, we call that a sore loser,” Harris responded.
Trump was a regular guest on the shock jock’s radio show in the 1990s and 2000s, using it to boost his New York tabloid fame.
He once told Stern that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was his “personal Vietnam”.
Harris appeals to Republicans
Tuesday’s cavalcade of interviews came after a high-profile interview on Monday with 60 Minutes, known as the oldest television newsmagazine in the US.
On 60 Minutes, Harris suggested that a number of Republicans agreed with her views, especially about economic issues.
“You know, when you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress, they know exactly what I’m talking about because their constituents know exactly what I’m talking about; their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses,” she said.
Her appearance on 60 Minutes was meant to be half of an election-season special: The news programme had invited Trump to interview as well, and he accepted.
But Trump pulled out of the interview shortly before it was scheduled to be recorded, according to a statement from the newsmagazine.
“It’s been a tradition for more than half a century that the major party candidates for president sit down with 60 Minutes in October,” host Scott Pelley said in a statement.
Pelley explained that the Trump team offered “shifting explanations” for the cancellation, including objecting to the on-air fact-checking of his statements.
“Trump has said his opponent doesn’t do interviews because she can’t handle them. He had previously declined another debate with Harris,” Pelley said on Monday.
“So tonight may have been the largest audience for the candidates between now and Election Day.”
More important to hit the battleground states
Polls suggest the race between Harris and Trump is extremely close.
The poll-tracking website FiveThirtyEight currently has Harris pulling in 48.6 percent support nationally and Trump with 45.9, a difference that falls within the margin of error. Polls for the nearly half-dozen swing states – like Wisconsin and Georgia – are similarly close.
Political analysts speculated that the Harris campaign was initially focused on hitting those battleground states with rallies and tours, rather than giving media interviews.
After all, she and her running mate Tim Walz enjoyed a surge of public enthusiasm in the weeks after announcing their ticket.
But as the novelty has died down, both Harris and Walz have turned to media appearances to keep up their momentum.
This week, for instance, Harris recorded a session of the Call Her Daddy podcast with Alex Cooper, which has a huge social media following: Two million people follow the podcast on Instagram alone.
Said to be the most popular podcast in America for women, Call Her Daddy gave Harris a platform to speak about how voters are “frustrated and just exhausted with politics in general”.
“Why should we trust you?” Cooper asked.
“You can look at my career to know what I care about,” Harris responded.
She added: “I care about making sure that people are entitled to and receive the freedoms that they are due. I care about lifting people up and making sure that you are protected from harm.”
A tracking poll by the website FiveThirtyEight this week has Harris at 48.6 and Trump at 45.9, a difference with the margin on error. Polls for the half-dozen swing states are similarly close.
