Harris’ ‘worst moments’ as VP came during live interviews, may be why she’s avoiding press: CNN analyst

CNN political analyst and Axios national political reporter Alex Thompson said Monday that while Vice President Harris was “definitely” going to sit for an interview, she was being cautious because a lot of her “worst moments” in the Biden administration came during live interviews. 

“The question is, who is it with? Is it with a much more friendly host? Is it with a more serious, like a serious in-depth interview, how long is it, is it edited, is it live? Like all of these questions are part of Harris’ caution, extraordinary caution when it comes to interviews is why some Democrats were nervous about making her the nominee. It’s why people like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were more in favor of an open process because the fact is that almost all of her worst moments as vice president have come in live interviews,” Thompson said.

Harris has gone 36 days without doing an interview with the media or a formal press conference since she emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee at the end of July. 

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Matt Gorman, a former adviser on Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential campaign, said Harris needed to do an interview, but that he understood why she was hesitant. 

“The other side of this is that, look I‘ve seen this with candidate after candidate, debate prep is also media prep. Media prep is debate prep. You hear the lines, you can refine your arguments, you get better. Every candidate I‘ve ever worked with gets better the more they do interviews, because they get sharper and they know what really, outside of the bubble, what the people are going to attack them on or question them on,” Gorman said. 

Meghan Hays, who worked in the Biden White House, said she didn’t think Harris had to sit for interviews, but said she needed to start doing debate prep. 

“I think it’s a media story, right? And I think that if you don’t take control of it, it will just continue to snowball in the media, and then it becomes more of a high-stakes thing than if you just did the interview. So where now she’s passed the convention, she has the momentum, they’ve raised a ton of money. I think she should probably sit down for an interview,” she said.

Hays suggested starting with a morning show or a “softer” interview and suggested they build from there. She reiterated that she didn’t think Harris needed to give an interview leading up to the convention because of the positive momentum she had. 

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Harris recently declined an interview with TIME magazine, who gave the vice president a glowing cover story.

Thompson said that the stakes for Harris doing an interview were now much higher. 

“Any one mistake she’s going to make is going to immediately get seized upon by Trump and his campaign,” he added.