The interview: Kamala Harris’ inaugural sit-down was most notable for seeming ordinary

After avoiding a probing interview by a journalist for the first month of her sudden presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris‘ first one Thursday was notable mostly in how routine it seemed. CNN’s Dana Bash, sitting down with Harris and running mate Tim Walz in a Georgia restaurant, asked her about some issues where she had changed positions, the historical nature of her candidacy, what she would do in her first day as president and whether she’d invite a Republican to be a Cabinet member (yes, she said).

What Bash didn’t ask — and the Democratic nominee didn’t volunteer — is why it took so long to submit to an interview and whether she will do more again as a candidate.

Quick Read

• After a month of avoiding in-depth interviews since launching her presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris’ first sit-down interview was notable for how routine it seemed.
• Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, were interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash at a Georgia restaurant, where she was questioned about her policy changes, the historical significance of her candidacy, and her plans as president.
• Harris confirmed she would consider appointing a Republican to her Cabinet if elected.
• The interview did not address why Harris waited so long to participate in a sit-down interview or whether she would do more interviews as the campaign progresses.
• Harris faced criticism for not doing an interview earlier, with her campaign’s lack of media access becoming a point of attack for Donald Trump and his campaign.
• During the interview, Bash pressed Harris on her shift in policy regarding fracking, asking her four times about the change from her stance during her 2020 presidential bid.
• Harris was also asked about her approach to achieving a peace deal in the Middle East and whether she would consider withholding military aid to Israel, though she did not provide new specifics.
• When asked about Trump’s comments on her racial identity, Harris quickly dismissed the question with, “Next question.”
• CNN political analyst David Axelrod noted that Harris had raised the stakes by delaying interviews but said she ultimately “did what she needed to do” in the interview.
• Tim Walz was included in the interview, marking a tradition followed by past presidential candidates, though Republicans criticized this as a strategy to use Walz as a crutch for Harris.
• Bash directed only four questions to Walz, and he did not interject during Harris’ responses.
• This interview marked Bash’s second significant moment in the current campaign, following her role as moderator in the June debate between Trump and Biden.

The Associated Press has the story:

The interview: Kamala Harris’ inaugural sit-down was most notable for seeming ordinary

Newslooks- (AP)

After avoiding a probing interview by a journalist for the first month of her sudden presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris‘ first one Thursday was notable mostly in how routine it seemed. CNN’s Dana Bash, sitting down with Harris and running mate Tim Walz in a Georgia restaurant, asked her about some issues where she had changed positions, the historical nature of her candidacy, what she would do in her first day as president and whether she’d invite a Republican to be a Cabinet member (yes, she said).

What Bash didn’t ask — and the Democratic nominee didn’t volunteer — is why it took so long to submit to an interview and whether she will do more again as a candidate.

Harris drew criticism for not doing an interview until now

With no clips from interviews or extended news conferences as a candidate to pick apart, Republican Donald Trump and his campaign had made Harris’ failure to take on journalists an issue in itself. She had promised to rectify that by the end of August, and made it in just under the wire.

In the interview, taped earlier Thursday at Kim’s Cafe in Savannah, Georgia, Bash occasionally had pressed Harris when the vice president failed to answer a question directly. She asked four times, for example, about what led Harris to change her position on fracking — a controversial way to extract natural gas from the landscape — from her brief presidential candidacy in 2020.

“How should voters be looking at some of the changes in policy?” Bash asked, wondering whether experience led Harris down another path. “Should they be completely confident that what you’re saying now is going to be the policy moving forward?”

Bash asked Harris twice whether she would do something different, like withhold some military aid to Israel, to help reach a peace deal in the Mideast. Harris stressed the importance of a deal, but offered no new specifics on achieving it. When Bash sought a response to Trump suggesting that Harris had only recently been emphasizing her Black roots, the vice president swiftly brushed it aside. “Next question,” she said.

CNN political analyst David Axelrod suggested that Harris, by not doing interviews previously, had raised the stakes on what is usually a typical test that presidential candidates face. But after the Bash session aired, Axelrod said that she “did what she needed to do.”

“What she needed to do was be the same person she has been on stage the past month,” said Axelrod, onetime aide to Obama when he was in the White House. He predicted the interview would ultimately make little difference in the campaign.

Tim Walz was included in the interview, too

In seeking a personal connection with viewers, Bash asked Walz for his feelings about his son’s emotional response to this Democratic convention speech, and a memorable photo that depicted Harris’ niece from behind, watching her aunt deliver her address to Democrats.

By including Walz in the interview, Harris joined a tradition followed by Donald Trump and Mike Pence, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and Biden and Harris themselves. But that decision stood out because of her lack of solo interviews and the compressed nature of her campaign.

Republicans complained she would use Walz as a crutch, someone who could smooth over his boss’ rough moments and simply take up time that could have been used for questions directed at Harris. “This is one more Harris campaign insult to American voters,” the Wall Street Journal said in an editorial Thursday.

Ultimately, Bash directed only four questions to Walz — one a followup — and the vice presidential candidate didn’t interject or add to Harris’ responses.

This was the second high profile moment for Bash already this campaign. The “Inside Politics” anchor moderated June’s debate between Trump and President Biden, an event where the journalists were overshadowed by the poor performance by Biden that eventually led to him abandoning his re-election bid.

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