During Kamala Harris’ thrill ride that has upended the 2024 presidential campaign, journalists for the most part have been on the outside looking in. The vice president hasn’t given an interview and has barely engaged with reporters since becoming the Democratic choice to replace Joe Biden. That’s about to change, now that it has become a campaign issue.
But for journalists, the larger lesson is that their role as presidential gatekeepers is probably diminishing forever. Harris travels with reporters on Air Force Two and frequently talks to them, but her campaign staff insists the conversations are off the record. Outside of the plane on Thursday, she approached cameras and notebooks to publicly answer some questions, and one of them was about when she would sit down for an in-depth interview.
“I’ve talked to my team,” she said. “I want us to get an interview together by the end of the month.” She spoke on the same afternoon that her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, gave a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, in part to draw a contrast with Harris.
“She’s not smart enough to do a news conference,” Trump said. His vice presidential candidate, J.D.
Vance, posted a comment on social media to point out that Trump was doing something that Harris hadn’t. Given that modern presidential campaigns are essentially marketing operations, Harris’ stance is not surprising. For the teams behind candidates, “the goal is to control the messa.