Mark Penn, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, said this week that it is not fair for Vice President Kamala Harris to avoid the media.
“Harris hasn’t done a single interview or news release since she started her campaign in July. Her website doesn’t have any policies, and she has only agreed to a debate on ABC News on September 10,” Penn said on “America’s Newsroom.” “Harris’s campaign approach will make voters less informed, which will stop the presidential race from being a real democratic process.”
Penn continued, “I don’t know what kind of interview people do in these last few days. I guess everything is available online now, but I think it’s wrong for candidates to run away during this time. It seems to me that there should be three debates for president instead of just one. You should have policy papers on your website instead of a page where people can give you money. You should talk to the press every two or three days, too, because it’s not a democracy with real votes if people aren’t aware.”
In July, Harris became the Democratic choice after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and backed her, even though they both didn’t get much support from primary voters.
On Monday, the radio show host Charlamagne Tha God said that Harris is getting more attention because of how she got nominated and how short the presidential campaign will be because of it.
“For three weeks, she didn’t do an interview. Do you know why that was such a big deal,” Charlamagne said. “Because she only had more than 90 days to win. She has more than 70 days to win now. There will be even more attention on her because of how she ran her campaign and how she became the candidate.”
In a podcast on Thursday, Chris Cuomo, host of NewsNation, said that the vice president is dodging the press because she is weaker than other Democratic presidential candidates.
'Not A Democracy': Former Clinton Adviser Says Harris Ducking Media And Debates Is 'Unacceptable' pic.twitter.com/bi1YkhNXG4
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 26, 2024
“They don’t want to show her to the press, but that has lessons for us too. You don’t want to show her to the press because you think it could be dangerous,” Cuomo said. “They wouldn’t have done that with Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama because they didn’t think there was any risk in putting those people in charge. In this case, they do see some danger.”
