Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), a co-chair on Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, faced a grilling on Tuesday over Harris’s lack of media appearances and interviews compared to her Republican rivals.
Coons appeared on Squawk Box on Tuesday where Joe Kernen, Andrew Ross Sorkin, and Rebecca Quick each questioned Harris’s media strategy. Kernen argued Harris’s campaign is taking a “rope-a-dope” approach, referencing a strategy boxers use where they pretend to be tired and caught up on the ropes, goading their opponent and eventually tiring them out from less effective punches.
“If she would come on, we could get answers to a lot of these things,” Kernen said after Sorkin tried and failed to get further specifics on Harris’s economic policies. “And I’m just wondering, as a campaign surrogate who advises the campaign, there is an effort to rope-a-dope this thing right until the election, in my view, and the other side’s done 40 or 50 interviews with JD Vance. I don’t think I have to take my shoes off to count on my fingers and toes how many interviews she’s done, along with Gov. Walz, and that looks like a deliberate effort just not to face the hard questions.”
Kernen asked if this strategy of mostly avoiding national media could backfire with voters. Harris has upped her interactions with the media compared to the beginning of her campaign. She recently spoke with the National Association of Black Journalists (NAJB), conducted an interview with supporter Oprah Winfrey, as well as local media interviews.
Coons defended Harris, saying many of her specific policies could be laid out in a second debate with former President Donald Trump, but Trump has said he’s not interested in another debate. Harris accepted a CNN invitation for an October debate on Saturday.
“We just had Vice President Harris say, yes, let’s do another presidential debate and Donald Trump say no. And you have to agree that a nationally televised, hour long debate is one way to answer a lot of direct questions,” Coons said.
“So is just sitting down with an interview with with anyone,” Kernen shot back.
Coons went on to argue Harris is a far more stable leader to put in office compared to Trump, but Kernen brought the conversation back to media.
“The answer is she’s too busy?! That should be in a stack list… that would be number one for my stack list is to be transparent and open about what my plans are if I’m elected president. That’s what I would be doing,” Kernen declared.
Coons argued Trump and Vance do far more interviews, but little substance comes out of them. He also argued Harris has taken a more local approach to media, specifically honing in on seven swing states that will be critical to winning what most agree with be a tight race.
“If you watch any of those dozens of interviews of JC Vance and Donald Trump, I have it, I have a really hard time tracking the line because it goes all over the place.That tells you something,” he said.
Quick questioned the substance of some of Harris’s media appearances, specifically her talk with Winfrey, a vocal supporter of her campaign who spoke in Harris’s favor at the Democratic National Convention.
“To do something like Oprah, who’s a surrogate, along with all of the actors that go along with it. And look, you can say the same thing about some of the places president former President Trump has chosen to go. It’s just I don’t know, maybe I’m old and cranky. I just feel like I know less about these candidates than I do at any point in any presidential election in the past,” Quick said.
Check out the full exchange below:
JOE KERNEN: “If she would come on, we could get answers to a lot of these things. And I’m just wondering, as a surrogate who advises the campaign, there is an effort to rope-a-dope this thing to the election, in my view. And the other side’s done 40 or 50 interviews with JD Vance, which I think I don’t have to take my shoes off to count on my fingers and toes how many interviews that that she’s done alone with with with Governor Walz, and that looks like a deliberate effort just not to face the hard questions and to try to — I think Americans might finally say, you know, I don’t like the way this is working. I think Andrew was getting at that in another way, that we would like to know something. We’d like to see questions asked and answers provided for all these things. And we may never get that. We only got 40 days left.”
CHRIS COONS: “We just had Vice President Harris say, yes, let’s do another presidential debate and Donald Trump say no. And you have to agree that a nationally televised, hour long debate is one way to answer a lot of direct questions.”
KERNEN: “So is just sitting down with an interview with with anyone.”
COONS: “And one of the concerns I’ve heard, I’m here in New York for the UN General Assembly, I’ve met with heads of state from South America, from Africa, from Europe, from Asia, foreign ministers, defense ministers, heads of state. All of them have questions about the reliability of the United States and our relationships with core allies. That’s one of the key factors I also hope voters will take into account, is that Donald Trump promised he would be an unconventional president and he overperformed.”
KERNEN: “But the answer is she’s too busy?! That should be in a stack list. I got to learn how to use the term stack list. That would be number one for my stack list is to be transparent and open about what my plans are if I’m elected president. That’s what I would be doing.”
COONS: “If you watch any of those dozens of interviews of JC Vance and Donald Trump, I have it, I have a really hard time tracking the line because it goes all over the place.That tells you something. What you’re learning about Vice President Harris is that she’s cautious, thoughtful, responsible, and isn’t just throwing out ideas every day.”
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: “But there is a political calculus on her on her side in her campaign right now about how much to be out there or not. The focus appears to almost be a local kind of campaign, right? Seven states.”
COONS: “We’ve got seven states that are going to decide the next president.”
SORKIN: “The rest of the country almost doesn’t matter. No, no. I would say that her campaign seems to approach it that way. There’s seven states. We hear about those seven states. We care about nothing else.”
COONS: “You know it’s not at all true that they care about nothing else, but in terms of answering media questions, if you are in one of those seven states, yes. She just did a long interview in Wisconsin with public radio in Wisconsin. Yes. And is not doing interviews in New York City. I wouldn’t recommend that she come spend time in New York City campaigning. I do recommend that she spends more time answering questions. I thought a presidential debate was a great way to do it. We’ve got a vice presidential debate coming up early next week, and it’s going to be a doozy.”
REBECCA QUICK: “To do something like Oprah, who’s a surrogate, along with all of the actors that go along with it. And look, you can say the same thing about some of the places president former President Trump has chosen to go. It’s just I don’t know, maybe I’m old and cranky. I just feel like I know less about these candidates than I do at any point in any presidential election in the past.”
Watch above via CNBC.
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