August 29, 2024
By Elizabeth Elkind
House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is joining the wave of critics going after Vice President Kamala Harris for holding her first 2024 campaign interview alongside her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that the first and ONLY interview from Kamala Harris, the anointed Democrat nominee for President of the United States, is done jointly with Tim Walz,” Stefanik said on Thursday.
“It is offensive to ALL women that Kamala has refused to sit for a solo interview when she is running to be commander-in-chief.”
Harris and Walz are sitting down with CNN host Dana Bash for a pre-taped interview Thursday set to air at 9 p.m. ET. It will be both of their first interviews since becoming the Democrats’ presidential ticket.
It will be Harris‘ first formal interview since replacing President Biden at the top of the ticket 39 days ago.
It comes after growing pressure on Harris to participate in an unscripted, on-the-record media event or press conference – something she has not done since becoming the nominee, save for a notable but brief gaggle with reporters earlier this month.
Republicans have seized on her decision to have her first sit-down alongside Walz, arguing it shows Harris is not capable of defending her platform on her own.
Stefanik also accused the media of complicity, continuing her statement, “The Democrats’ stenographers in the mainstream media just blindly regurgitate the talking points provided to them directly by the Kamala Harris campaign.”
“Kamala Harris and her entire campaign is an affront to the American people,” she said.
Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt responded to Stefanik‘s statement, saying, “For at least 20 years, every ticket, Republican and Democrat, sat for a joint interview. The only exception was when Donald Trump walked out of his joint interview four years ago with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, because he couldn’t handle her holding him accountable on his extreme, unpopular record.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for a response.
Meanwhile, some journalists are also skeptical of the campaign’s decision.
Former CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller wrote on X, “Should CNN have insisted on a one-on-one interview with Harris and turned down a joint interview with Harris and Walz? Too tough to walk away from. But first question to Harris ought to be why [she] couldn’t appear solo.”
It’s not unusual for presidential candidates and their running mates to do joint interviews – a fact that Harris allies have repeatedly utilized in her defense.
Politico Playbook quoted a campaign official who responded to the uproar with a list of joint interviews by a presidential ticket going back two decades, telling the outlet, “Obviously she will do solo interviews, too.”
