The owner of Time magazine called out Vice President Kamala Harris for turning down multiple interview requests as the presidential campaign enters its final weeks.
Marc Benioff, who has owned Time since 2018, criticized the Democratic nominee on Sunday for failing to "engage with the public." As if "the public" and the liberal media are the same thing. But this must have confused the Kamala camp, since Time gave her a glowing cover story in August about "Her Moment" without saying yes to an interview.
Despite multiple requests, TIME has not been granted an interview with Kamala Harris—unlike every other Presidential candidate. We believe in transparency and publish each interview in full. Why isn’t the Vice President engaging with the public on the same level? #TrustMatters…
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) October 13, 2024
In a new article by Charlotte Alter, they noted the failure to accept interview requests:
What she means, according to her aides, is that her goals remain the same—affordable health care, a strong middle class—but she is flexible about how to achieve them. Yet she has skirted the thorough accounting of her policy evolution that Lopez is seeking, in part by speaking infrequently to reporters. When she does do interviews, she mostly favors local media, culture podcasts, or friendly talk shows. Harris declined repeated requests for an interview for this story. In contrast, Trump talked about his policy vision with a TIME reporter for 90 minutes across two interviews. Biden spoke to TIME at similar length before dropping out of the race.
Similar length?? Click on the links, and it says the Trump interview transcript is 83 minutes, while the Biden on is 28 minutes. As we noted at the time, their "fact check" on Trump was a "21 Minute Read," or almost as long as the Biden transcript. And even then, Time joked around with Biden on questions about his mental fitness. The imbalance of aggression in the interviews was obvious.
Even now, Alter is claiming Harris isn't really ideological this time around:
TIME spoke with 20 current and former Harris campaign advisers, former aides in her vice presidential and Senate offices, senior officials from each of the past five presidential administrations, and a range of policy experts. The portrait that emerged was of a politician who is more practical than ideological—a cautious candidate running in a change election, juggling the liabilities and benefits of her ties to her boss, President Joe Biden, as well as her own past positions, all while trying to keep the focus on her opponent.
Benioff, a longtime Democrat donor before he bought the magazine, donated $2,700 to Harris in early 2019.
