Donald Trump, the insane felon, is desperately trying to slow down the Kamala mentality that is threatening to overwhelm him. His current ploy, amplified by his lightweight running mate and his MAGA media backers, is to attack Harris for not speaking at length to the press he hates.
Three weeks after her sudden candidacy, she has still not held a press conference or given interviews. Trump thinks he knows why. During his date with fellow oligarch Elon Musk, he slurred: “She’s not smart. She’s not a smart person, by the way.”
The fool who thinks Harris’ crowds are fake and windmills cause cancer is clearly not qualified to judge the intelligence of others. In fact, Harris is smart enough right now to know she doesn’t need to mess with the Fourth Estate.
Seriously, why should she?
She and Coach Walz pack their rallies, raise tons of money and stomp on Trump’s ego. And in the short time since Joe Biden resigned, she’s been pretty busy behind the scenes – doing little things like choosing a running mate, unifying the party, talking to donors, drumming up grassroots support, writing a campaign speech, planning next week’s convention and crafting a platform.
Rest assured, Harris will meet with the press on her own schedule. With the wind at her back, she can afford that luxury.
Does it matter to the average voter that Harris hasn’t done any interviews? No. The polls are clear. She has taken the lead in three key swing states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. A new poll shows she is more trusted than Trump on economic issues, reversing the traditional Republican-leaning criterion. In North Carolina, which was Republican in 2016 and 2020, she is reportedly tied with Trump.
All in all, it would be difficult to find a voter who would say, “I will not support her until she sits down with the New York Times.”
Harris’ priority this month is to connect with non-MAGA voters, and her efforts are paying off. The press gatekeepers will have to wait.
As a former political reporter on the campaign trail, I had a little trouble writing that last sentence. But reality prevails. In our splintered communications environment, there are countless ways to connect directly with persuadable voters and for persuadable voters to connect with each other — starting with TikTok, targeted text messages, tweets, and interactive Zoom. The latter in particular: win over black women, white men for Harris, Latino men for Harris, Republicans for Harris (70,000 on the call this week), Dead Heads for Harris, and more. She’s rising without sitting down for interviews.
Granted, she will eventually have to answer legitimate questions. Why has she changed her stance on health insurance (when she briefly ran for president in 2019, she supported eliminating private health insurance)? Why has she changed her stance on fracking (then for a ban, now against a ban), a key issue in all-important Pennsylvania? Does she disagree with Joe Biden on how to handle the Israel-Palestine impasse? Should voters believe her recent TV ads taking a hard line on the border, given that she has previously stated that illegal immigrants crossing the border should not be prosecuted?
But I understand why she’s currently wary of engaging with the press. Her answers on policy issues are inevitably chopped up on page one and endlessly analyzed – while Trump’s delusions, fascist rants and blatant ignorance (thanks to climate change: “You’ll have more oceanfront property”) are rarely highlighted, because, hey, Trump is Trump and his being crazy is nothing new. When Harris leaves the room after her first press conference, the old, tired mainstream media bias for “balance” will emerge; reporters always strive to show they can be tougher on Democrats.
Hence her strategic appearance in August: she will present herself in her own way to voters she can convince, whip up the enthusiasm of the Democrats to the limit (especially at the convention next week), keep the momentum in the polls going at full throttle… and then face the press. In this way, she will be sufficiently protected when she inevitably has to suffer some setbacks.
That’s the plan, and so far it’s working. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist from Philadelphia and writer in residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at [email protected].
