Harris, Walz to Hold First Joint TV Interview on CNN

SAVANNAH, Georgia (Reuters) – Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will participate in their first joint television interview on Thursday since being nominated as the Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Harris has recently engaged with journalists on the campaign trail and participated in a TikTok interview. However, she has not yet conducted a one-on-one interview with a major network or print journalist, nor has she held a formal press conference since taking the top spot on the Democratic ticket. This shift came after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign on July 21.

CNN’s Dana Bash, who co-anchored Biden’s June 27 debate against Republican candidate Donald Trump, will hold the interview in Savannah, Georgia. This interview coincides with Harris’s bus tour of the battleground state. The segment is set to air at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT Friday), with CNN scheduled to release short excerpts prior to the full airing.

Before being selected as Harris’s running mate for the November 5 election, Walz had already completed a series of interviews with major television networks. On Tuesday, Harris and Walz began a bus tour of Georgia. They are traveling in a large blue bus with the slogan “A New Way Forward” as they work to attract voters in a state narrowly won by Biden in 2020, which could be crucial in this year’s election.

Harris, alongside representative Nikema Williams, will make stops at small businesses and thank volunteers in Chatham County, Georgia, where Democrats have seen steady growth in support in recent years. At around 5:15 p.m. EDT, Harris is scheduled to speak at a campaign rally in Savannah’s Enmarket Arena, marking her as the first presidential candidate to campaign in Savannah since the 1990s.

Student government president Katelyn Green from Savannah State University, the state’s oldest historically Black college and university, will introduce Harris at the rally.

The campaign reaches out to students across battleground states to help boost voter turnout. However, it also faces potential protests from pro-Palestinian groups angered by U.S. arms sales to Israel. One protest by the group Savannah for Palestine is planned for 2 p.m., according to organizers.

Harris’s limited number of interviews has led to criticism from opponents and some concern among supporters that she may not be as sharp during unscripted moments compared to her prepared speeches with a TelePrompter. In contrast, Trump frequently holds press conferences and grants interviews to conservative news outlets, often using these occasions to criticize Harris and Biden.

The upcoming CNN interview will be monitored closely to see how Harris handles a less scripted setting and to hear any new details about her policies and goals should she win the presidency. Early in her vice-presidential tenure, Harris faced criticism during an interview with NBC anchor Lester Holt when she responded to a question about not visiting the U.S.-Mexico border by pointing out she hadn’t been to Europe either.

During the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week, the Harris-Walz campaign kept traditional journalists at a distance while offering more access to numerous social media influencers.

Recently, Harris was interviewed by Track Star Show, a TikTok account with over 380,000 followers, discussing her admiration for musicians Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis. A video on the campaign’s YouTube channel featuring Harris and Walz talking about his taco preferences, America’s division, shared social programs, and their appreciation for musician Prince, has garnered over 1.8 million views.

Source: Reuters