Vice President Kamala Harris had not done a press conference nor an interview since Democratic Party elites installed her as their presidential nominee following a coup against President Joe Biden. But, amid their coverage of Night Three of the Democratic National Convention on The Situation Room on Wednesday, CNN host Erin Burnett floated the idea that Harris should just ignore the growing calls for her to make herself available to the media and press on with her campaign.
Essentially suggesting that CNN was fine with being irrelevant to the election process, Burnett rolled out her idea during an interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God and podcaster Angela Rye (a former CNN commentator).
CNN's Erin Burnett wonders if Kamala Harris should "ignore all those calls to talk" to the media "and just keep doing what she's doing." pic.twitter.com/UsiaKDebMP
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 21, 2024
Burnett looked for support from Charlamagne since Harris had previously done two interviews with him. “She hasn't done a big interview in a while here and certainly not since announcing,” she admitted, before adding: “Are you going to talk to her soon? What do you think? What do you think she should do or does she do better to ignore all those calls to talk and just keep doing what she's doing?”
Charlamagne was all for it and bizarrely argued that media interviews were somehow a new phenomenon that weren’t worth much:
I think what she's been doing has worked because you know what she's been doing is hitting the ground. And I think, you know, sometimes we forget about the ground game in this digital era that we're in this era of interviews. Sometimes, you know – not sometimes, all the time when you're actually on the ground shaking hands, you know, kissing babies, actually touching people, that goes a long way.
And I think she'll get to – she'll get to interviews after the DNC. But, you know, this week I think she got – she got bigger fish to fry, like going out there tomorrow and knocking a homerun speech out the park.
Rye took a different approach and suggested that while Harris may not be talking to the press publicly, she was “certainly” having private conversations with journalists:
You know, the one thing on this that I think is so important is, folks are spending a lot of time talking about what she's doing on the camera. There's also a behind the cameras side. And I think one thing that's very consistent about Kamala Harris is you can best believe she's having conversations. She's going to have them on air, and she certainly having them off air and there's no gap between those two.
Helluva consolation prize. So helpful to the American voter.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Situation Room
August 21, 2024
5:37:52 p.m. Eastern(…)
ERIN BURNETT: Charlamagne, you've interviewed Kamala Harris.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Yep. Two times.
BURNETT: All right, and you everybody's come on your radio show, everybody has to come on your radio show. She hasn't done a big interview in a while here and certainly not since announcing. Are you going to talk to her soon? What do you think? What do you think she should do or does she do better to ignore all those calls to talk and just keep doing what she's doing?
CHARLAMAGNE: I think what she's been doing has worked because you know what she's been doing is hitting the ground. And I think, you know, sometimes we forget about the ground game in this digital era that we're in this era of interviews. Sometimes, you know – not sometimes, all the time when you're actually on the ground shaking hands, you know, kissing babies, actually touching people, that goes a long way.
And I think she'll get to – she'll get to interviews after the DNC. But, you know, this week I think she got – she got bigger fish to fry, like going out there tomorrow and knocking a homerun speech out the park.
ANGELA RYE: You know, the one thing on this that I think is so important is, folks are spending a lot of time talking about what she's doing on the camera. There's also a behind the cameras side. And I think one thing that's very consistent about Kamala Harris is you can best believe she's having conversations. She's going to have them on air, and she certainly having them off air and there's no gap between those two.
BURNETT: All right.
