Vice President Kamala Harris sits down with CNN this week for her first interview since President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid.
The Democratic presidential nominee will be joined by his running mate in Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in an interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash in Savannah, Georgia. The interview airs on Friday at 8:00 PM Central Time.
Harris’ lack of access has become one of Republicans’ key lines of attack against her as she rose to the top of the Democratic ticket following Biden’s July 21 announcement. The CNN interview could be an opportunity for Harris to quell criticism that she is unprepared for uncontrolled environments, but it could also pose risks as her team tries to build on momentum from the ticket shakeup and the Democratic National Convention.
During her three-plus years as vice president, she has done on-camera and print interviews with The Associated Press and many other outlets, often at a higher rate than Biden.
The Trump campaign has kept a tally of the days she has gone as a candidate without giving an interview. On Tuesday, the campaign responded to the news by noting that the interview was joint and saying “she’s not competent enough to do it on her own.”
Earlier this month, Harris had told reporters she wanted to do her first formal interview before the end of August.
Harris travels with members of the media on Air Force Two for all trips and almost always comes to the back of the plane to talk to them for a few minutes before takeoff. However, her office insists these conversations are off-the-record, so what she says cannot be used publicly.
She will rally voters in Savannah on Thursday as part of a bus tour that starts Wednesday.