Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms argued Friday that the reason Vice President Kamala Harris has done so few media interviews is because she’s “very busy.”
Harris, 59, is on pace to grant the fewest interviews of any major party’s presidential nominee ever. She has been slammed by both allies and critics for giving just six sitdown interviews since President Biden ended his re-election bid on July 21.
Bottoms, a senior adviser for the Harris-Walz campaign, suggested that the vice president doesn’t have time to do interviews when asked about her reluctance to speak with the media during an appearance on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”
“She’s a very busy person,” Bottoms said. “She’s the vice president as well as a candidate.”
The Harris aide argued that the Democratic nominee is already effectively articulating her policy positions to voters via her scripted campaign rallies.
“We heard her today talk about her views on these policies,” Bottoms said. “It may not be in the format that the media would like. It may not be that she’s sitting down doing a one-on-one interview, but we heard her today in Georgia talk about her stance on reproductive freedom.”
Harris’ first sitdown interview since replacing Biden on Democratic ticket came almost a month after the 81-year-old president endorsed her to run in his stead.
She brought along her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, 60, to sit beside her for the Aug. 29 interview with CNN’s Dana Bash.
Harris has also sat down with Philadelphia’s ABC station, Spanish-language radio host Chiquibaby and a panel at a gathering of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).
By comparison, former President Donald Trump, 78, has done at least three times as many interviews in the same period, with some lasting at least an hour — such as his recent one-on-one over X Spaces with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Meanwhile, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, 40, the Republican vice presidential candidate, has become a regular guest on the Sunday morning network public affairs programs.
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