Kamala Harris tries to help voters know her better by participating in interviews

US Election: Vice President Kamala Harris has been participating in many interviews over the last several days in an attempt to get to know voters better, but things have not gone quite as planned.

Since taking President Joe Biden’s place at the head of the Democratic ticket, Harris has come under fire for mostly avoiding sit-down interviews with mainstream media and the challenging questions that accompany them.

Four weeks before Election Day, her media blitz included appearances on CBS’s 60 Minutes, ABC’s The View, and Late Program With Stephen Colbert. She also appeared on Howard Stern’s radio program and Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast. Her goal was to reach as many undecided voters as possible.

According to polls, Harris and the former president Donald Trump are still in a very tight contest. Newsweek sent an email requesting a response on Wednesday to the camps of Harris and Trump.

Thomas Gift, head of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London and associate professor of political science, told Newsweek that this week “showed why Harris’s staff was previously shielding her from doing impromptu interviews with the media.”

To be fair, she’s not very good at reacting quickly to hostile queries. Republicans, as well as some journalists, were criticizing Harris for not doing any in-person interviews in the past. Her inner circle is probably wishing right now that Harris had kept taking the heat instead of enduring the barrage of negative comments that have been directed at her this week.

Harris was pressed hard on a variety of issues in a 60 Minutes interview that aired on Monday, including immigration, the economy, and the Middle East.

A heated question was posed to Harris on whether she regretted the Biden administration’s early decision to relax immigration laws since it resulted in a flood of newcomers. Her response to the administration’s strategy was, “It’s a long-standing problem, and solutions are at hand, and from Day One, literally, we have been offering solutions.”

The 60 Minutes interview invitation was extended to her opponent for the presidency as well, but CBS News reported that the Trump team eventually withdrew it. Steven Cheung, the Republican’s spokesperson, denied ever having consented to be interviewed by 60 Minutes.

Harris’s Tuesday visit on The View demonstrated that it may be difficult to negotiate appearances, even on friendly programs.

Harris said, “We’re obviously two different people,” when asked how she would differ from Biden. She then found it difficult to think of a single instance in which she would have behaved differently. The vice president said, “There’s nothing that comes to mind.”

That comment has been widely embraced by Republicans. Trump said on social media that it was her “dumbest answer so far” and that she “was being exposed as a ‘dummy’ every time she does a show.”

Later in the program, Harris said that she will choose a Republican to her Cabinet, in contrast to the president she has worked with for the last four years.

Her response illustrated how difficult it has been for Harris to maintain her loyalty to Biden while also projecting herself as a candidate who, after joining the race less than three months ago, can bring about change for Americans. She was seen as more likely than Trump to symbolize change, according to a New York Times/Siena survey conducted hours before the program.

Political analyst Chris Cillizza referred to Harris’ response as “an unforced error” that would hurt her candidacy since most Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of problems like immigration and the economy.

Cillizza commented on X, previously Twitter, “In a single sentence, she, on camera, owned every policy Biden has pushed over the last four years.” This TV commercial for Donald Trump is premade. a present. Harris made an inadvertent mistake as well. One that, with the campaign so tight, she cannot have in this last month.”

During a Tuesday night filming of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Harris was asked a question that was similar to this one.

When asked what significant changes she would make if elected president, Harris was mum.

She began by saying, “I’m obviously not Joe Biden, so that would be one change,” before clarifying that she is not Trump either.

In the meantime, there was outrage on social media after Harris’s participation on Call Her Daddy, a show that is well-liked by young women and well-known for its candid conversations about sex and relationships.

Following the interview’s online release on Sunday, Cooper, the podcast’s presenter, lost listeners. While some listeners expressed disapproval of her political material, others criticized her for not discussing the administration’s reaction to Hurricane Helene and accused her of selling Democratic Party propaganda.