Staff Reports
Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have discovered a unique approach to campaigning in her bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination: avoidance. Since she clinched her party’s nomination, she has managed an astonishing two minutes of press interaction. One has to wonder if she misplaced the memo that suggested transparency is essential for a presidential candidate.
Critics, including former President Donald Trump, have speculated that Harris’s reluctance to engage with reporters stems from her struggles with the press. If she can’t manage a simple Q&A session, how can she hope to navigate the complexities of running the nation? The fact that she has yet to hold a packed press conference is raising eyebrows across the political spectrum. It seems that Harris’s idea of diplomacy relies heavily on carefully crafted speeches rather than any unscripted exchanges that require real-time thinking.
BREAKING: Kamala Harris’s campaign reportedly “declined requests for comment” about when Harris will stop declining the media’s requests for comment.
— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) August 9, 2024
Her public appearances since becoming the Democratic nominee have been plentiful, but interaction with journalists has been conspicuously scarce. The first glimpse of her unscripted communication came during a prisoner swap involving a Wall Street Journal reporter, where she offered remarks that could generously be described as perplexing. With a phraseology that could make even the most seasoned professionals scratch their heads, Harris emphasized the “power of diplomacy” while simultaneously stumbling over her musings. If diplomacy requires such extended, convoluted explanations, one might wonder how effective her strategies could be in actual practice.
The clicks of the camera shutters at her campaign stop reveal yet another layer of the Harris strategy: sticking to the script, and quite rigorously at that. It’s a stark and amusing contrast to her predecessor, Donald Trump, known for his spontaneous – and often entertaining – exchanges with the press. In the ongoing game of political dodgeball, Harris seems to be crouching behind the nearest wall while Trump continues to volley rapid-fire questions, or as he puts it, doing a normal press conference – a notion Harris seems to be simultaneously afraid of and incapable of executing.
This entire scenario illustrates a fundamental difference in approach between the current administration and the Trump era. Under Trump, the press was treated to nearly hourly interactions filled with candid banter and the occasional fiery debate. Fast forward to today, and anyone trying to catch a glimpse of Harris engaging with the media can be likened to searching for Bigfoot. Trump’s latest Mar-a-Lago press encounter lasted over an hour, filled with unscripted interaction and direct questioning. This only serves to amplify the glaring absence of Harris’s candidacy, where brevity is not just the soul of wit; it’s the entirety of her communication strategy.
