Senate

Klobuchar brushes off concerns Harris should do more interviews

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) arrives for the weekly Senate Democratic policy luncheon on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) dismissed concerns that Vice President Harris has not done enough media interviews since launching her White House bid after President Biden announced he would not seek reelection.

ABC News’s “This Week” anchor Jonathan Karl noted Sunday that it has been three weeks since Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris as his successor, but she has yet to hold a press conference and has taken few questions from reporters.

“Twenty-one days, Jonathan. Three weeks [she] started running for president. Before that, she did tons of interviews. She’s done interviews with you. She’s done interviews, I’m sure she’s going to do interviews,” Klobuchar said.

The Minnesota Democrat argued next month’s debate between Harris and Trump will be a “premier moment” for each candidate to lay out their “very different visions” for the nation.

“If you look at what’s happening with the momentum and the polls and what’s happening in swing states like Wisconsin, with the numbers changing, what’s happening in Michigan, what’s happening in Pennsylvania, it is incredible,” she added.

Harris has come under scrutiny from the Trump campaign for declining to take questions from reporters in the nearly three weeks since launching her White House bid.

She fielded questions from reporters traveling with her in Michigan last Thursday and said she hoped to sit for an extended interview before the end of the month.

“I’ve talked to my team. I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month,” Harris said before boarding Air Force Two.

Harris has energized the Democratic base since she replaced Biden atop the ticket in late July and has seen a surge in the polls against former President Trump.

Her campaign said she drew 14,000 people to Philadelphia last Tuesday alongside her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), and 15,000 people attended the vice president’s rally in Detroit last Wednesday.

“The people of this country, independents, moderate Republicans, as well as, of course, Democrats, are saying, ‘Wait a minute, I don’t want to go back to this world of Donald Trump; I want to move forward and get someone that’s going to work on things that matter to me and not just matter to himself,'” Klobuchar said.

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s vice presidential running mate, has repeatedly criticized Harris’s lack of media engagement while on the campaign trail. He has posted daily updates on social media about how long Harris has gone without taking questions.