Vice President Kamala Harris has gone 10 days without holding a press conference since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Harris announced that she’d locked up the nomination late on July 22, declaring that she’d won commitments of backing from a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention. She’s since hit the campaign trail, spoken at various events, and even chatted with reporters here and there, but hasn’t done a formal press conference or wide-ranging interview in the 10 days that have followed.
Harris, who became the likely nominee without receiving a single primary vote when President Biden announced he would step aside, has been so elusive that The New York Times published excerpts from an interview she conducted last year to see where her answers “land now.”
Much of the Democratic Party – including governors, senators and House members as well as party leaders – quickly coalesced behind Harris following Biden’s blockbuster news. But critics have started to take notice that Harris hasn’t faced tough questions since.
National Review senior writer Noah Rothman asked his social media followers on Wednesday, “When is Kamala Harris going to hold a press conference?”
The RNC Research account on X noted that she has only done “teleprompter speeches” over the past 10 days and conservative pundit Ben Shapiro said Harris “has not answered ONE difficult question in the last week and a half.”