Democratic strategists David Axelrod and James Carville downplayed the fact that Kamala Harris has not held a press conference since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, arguing that she has no reason to do anything differently.
The two strategists joined CNN’s Michael Smerconish, who framed the vice president’s lack of media availability as “inexcusable,” but neither seemed to agree with him on Saturday.
“If I were her team, I would want to be doing what she’s been doing,” said Axelrod, a former senior adviser in the Obama White House. “I would want to be riding this wave and organizing through these big rallies and creating a sense of momentum, and so I don’t fault them for that.”
Axelrod conceded that Harris would have to engage with the media eventually, adding that if he were her, he would speak to reporters on campaign trips “just to make these interviews less eventful.” He predicted that she and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), her running mate, would do a “60 Minutes-type interview” after next week’s Democratic National Convention.
“But then she’s going to have to get into a routine of it, and I think that she will, and that will be a test that she will have to pass,” Axelrod said.
Carville, who was widely credited for his work on Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign, was more dismissive of Harris’s lack of engagement with reporters, citing the nature of her young campaign, relative to that of former President Donald Trump.
“First of all, she’s been a tad busy,” Carville said. “It’s not been four weeks, she’s picked a vice president, she had to plan a convention, she had to merge two campaigns together, she had to do all of this.”
Carville mentioned Trump’s remarks about Congressional Medal of Honor recipients and “stupid, asinine” comments Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the Republican vice presidential nominee, makes “every other day” that are subject to public scrutiny as evidence for Harris to keep out of the spotlight.
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“There’s a doctrine in presidential politics that says, ‘If your opponent keeps shooting himself, don’t get in his way,” Carville said, adding that the Republican line of attack on Harris “doesn’t make any sense.”
The Democratic National Convention is slated to begin Monday in Chicago. Harris will address the convention on Thursday, the final night, just under three weeks before she is set to debate Trump on Sept. 10.
