Harris surrogate pressed on 'deliberate effort' by VP to avoid hard questions from the press

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CNBC host Joe Kernen presses Harris campaign chair on 'deliberate effort' by VP to avoid media

CNBC host Joe Kernen pressed Harris campaign co-chair Sen. Chris Coons about what he described as a "deliberate effort" by Kamala Harris to avoid tough questions from the media.

CNBC's Joe Kernen pressed Harris campaign co-chair Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., on Tuesday over what the host said appeared to be a "deliberate effort" by Vice President Kamala Harris to avoid difficult questions from the media.

"I’m just wondering, as a campaign surrogate who advises the campaign, there is an effort to rope-a-dope this thing right until the election, in my view, and the other side’s done 40 or 50 interviews with JD Vance. I don’t think I have to take my shoes off to count on my fingers and toes how many interviews she’s done, along with Gov. Walz, and that looks like a deliberate effort just not to face the hard questions," Kernen said, lamenting a lack of answers on economic policies from Harris. 

Harris has done a handful of interviews, including one alongside her running mate Gov. Tim Walz, since emerging as the nominee. She has yet to hold a formal press conference.

"I think Americans finally say, 'I don't like the way this is working,'" Kernen said. "We'd like to see questions asked and answers provided for all these things, we may never get that."

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CNBC's Joe Kernen questioned Sen. Chris Coons, a Harris campaign chair, on Tuesday about why VP Harris is avoiding the media. (Screenshot/CNBC)

Coons pointed to Harris agreeing to a second debate with former President Trump and said it was a perfect way to have the vice president answer questions.

"So is just sitting down with an interview with anyone," Kernen said. 

Harris sat for her first interview alongside Walz with CNN more than a month after she emerged as the nominee, and recently did a sit-down with the National Association of Black Journalists. She's sat for interviews with local news and radio stations and did one with Oprah Winfrey, who endorsed Harris for president, at a campaign event. 

The vice president has also been criticized for lacking specific answers or dodging questions during the interviews she has done.

"This week she couldn’t or wouldn’t answer a single question straight, and people could see it. She is an artless dodger," The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan wrote in a column following several of the interviews. 

"She owes us these answers. It is wrong that she can’t or won’t address them. It is disrespectful to the electorate," Noonan wrote, arguing that avoiding questions on illegal immigration was "political malpractice."

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Sen. Chris Coons joined CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. (Screenshot/CNBC)

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Coons then argued that Trump wouldn't be an effective leader on the world stage as Kernen insisted that Harris should be focused on being transparent with voters.

CNBC co-host Becky Quick also lamented that she knew much less about either candidate than in any previous elections.