Campaign Memo: Kamala Harris to Sit for Interviews After Debate Debacle

Vice President Kamala Harris, who only sat for one interview since joining the presidential race, will answer questions in a couple of local and national interviews in the next few weeks, according to a campaign memo reported by the New York Times. 

The announcement is a reversal in strategy and comes just two days after Harris appeared to avoid most questions during her first presidential debate. Political pundits slammed her for appearing evasive particularly on the first question on the economy, the number one issue for voters.

“Despite the economy being the number one issue facing the country, the sitting vice president generally reverted to talking points about a few of her policy proposals,” CNN’s Jake Tapper said after the debate. “Even Harris allies today are saying that she needs to talk more about what she will do for Americans if elected.”

Harris has been in power for three and a half years. Under the Biden-Harris administration, inflation soared about 20 percent across the board on average.

“When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?” ABC News debate host David Muir asked Harris.

Harris responded to Muir by avoiding the question: “So, I was raised as a middle class kid. And I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America.”

Harris will sit for local interviews in battleground media markets, the memo indicated, and “will participate in an interview next week with the National Association of Black Journalists,” the Times reported:

While Ms. Harris’s top aides are thrilled with her debate showing and Mr. Trump’s inability to push consistent and coherent attacks, they are looking to tweak their strategy only around the edges. The next steps, close advisers say, are ramping up her visibility on the campaign trail, including retail politicking in communities, increased press appearances, and putting herself in front of as many voters as possible in battleground states. Aides believe that at its heart, the race is unchanged.

But Ms. Harris remains a key part of an unpopular incumbent administration in a nation where many voters say they want a decisive change and have expressed unhappiness with President Biden’s leadership.

Her quandary was encapsulated in the debate’s very first question, when Ms. Harris was asked if she thought Americans were better off now than they were four years ago. Instead of giving a direct answer, she talked about her middle-class upbringing and her plans to help working families. It was almost as if she felt it would be unwise either to embrace Mr. Biden too closely or to obviously distance herself from him.

The Harris campaign faces a conundrum: Harris cannot campaign on policies to fix crime, inflation, and border security without undermining the Biden-Harris administration’s policies, but she must tout the administration’s policies to validate her record and candidacy.