New Yorker reporter urges media to ask Harris actual questions: ‘Job of the press’ to be ‘demanding answers’
'It’s the job of the press in a healthy democracy to make sure that voters know whom they’re supporting,' said writer Jay Caspian King
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A major liberal media outlet published a piece calling on journalists to ask Vice President Kamala Harris questions about her policies ahead of the election so that voters know who she really is.
The New Yorker staff writer Jay Caspian King wrote about Harris’ campaign strategy on Thursday, saying it involves her staying away from the press and waiting for former President Trump to make a mistake. However, he argued that it is the media’s job not to let the Democratic candidate get away with hiding prior to potentially assuming the most powerful office in the world.
He wrote that "it’s the job of the press in a healthy democracy to make sure that voters know whom they’re supporting. An unexamined candidate can become anything, and can work under the influence of anyone, when they assume power."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}WALZ'S HANDLING OF BLM RIOTS, STRICT COVID RULES UNDER MICROSCOPE AFTER HARRIS VP PICK
A new article from The New Yorker called on the media to start asking Vice President Kamala Harris actual questions about her policy. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
King agreed with GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s assessment that she has been dodging the media. Harris took questions briefly from reporters on Thursday in an informal Q&A on a tarmac in Michigan, but she has not held a formal presser or sit-down interview since emerging last month as the presumptive Democratic nominee in place of President Biden.
"This appears to be Campaign Kamala’s strategy: don’t make any unforced errors, keep things vanilla, and eventually Trump or Vance will implode. Harris – as Vance has repeatedly pointed out on Twitter, with the hashtag #wheresKamala – has taken almost no questions from reporters, and has spent most of her time giving stump speeches at rallies."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The writer continued, pointing out Harris' flip-flopping and lack of transparency on key issues. "She has not explained what, exactly, happened in Washington after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate; or why she has changed her mind on fracking, which she once said should be banned, and has wobbled on Medicare for All, which she once supported."
Additionally, he said the campaign hasn’t even mentioned how "a Harris Administration would handle the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East."
King then turned to the media, saying the press has "handled Harris quite gently."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"But, to date, there have not been particularly loud or widespread calls for her to sit down and answer questions, as there were for Biden after his catastrophic debate," he wrote.
He said that even if Harris’ campaign strategy is working for her, she should not be immune from explaining her policies. "If Harris is running a campaign that’s full of energy but short on specifics, we should say that, even if we think that Harris’s content-light approach is an optimal strategy for winning in November," he said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance tried to confront Vice President Harris about her lack of media appearances in Wisconsin on Wednesday. (Getty Images)
"But I do not think that it will help anyone if the media allows Harris to run her campaign with zero criticism, or any probing into where she stands on contentious issues – even if such questioning is met with pushback on social media," King added.
"The press, it seems, will have to persist in the thankless task of demanding answers, even if we risk disrupting the good times."
The Harris campaign defended its strategy as one to best reach voters in a short campaign season.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"With under 90 days to go, the Vice President’s top priority is earning the support of the voters who will decide this election," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "In a limited time period and a fragmented media environment, that requires us being strategic, creative, and expeditious in getting our message to those voters in the ways that are most impactful – through paid media, on the ground organizing, an aggressive campaign schedule, and of course interviews that reach our target voters. It’s a far cry from Trump’s losing, ineffective strategy of rage-posting, accosting reporters, and insulting the voters he’ll need to win."
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Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.