CNBC Corners Kamala Surrogate Over Campaign’s ‘Rope-A-Dope’ Media Strategy

CNBC’s Joe Kernen cornered Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) during a Tuesday morning appearance on the network, challenging him to defend Vice President Kamala Harris‘ steadfast refusal to take the tough questions from media.

Kernen spoke to Coons — who served as an advisor to his longtime friend President Joe Biden until his abrupt exit from the 2024 presidential race — about the fact that Harris has been the Democrats’ de facto candidate for over two months and has rarely taken questions at all, much less from any outlet that might be considered adversarial.

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CNBC's Joe Kernen grilled Harris surrogate Chris Coons on Harris' lack of interviews this am

Harris and Walz have participated in 7 interviews, while Trump and Vance have done over 70 interviews and press conferences@DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/zkAOIOKle4

— Nicole Silverio (@NicoleMSilverio) September 24, 2024

“If she would come on, we could get answers to a lot of these things,” Kernen said, noting that he’d also like the chance to speak with former President Donald Trump.

“And 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,” he continued. “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 Governor Walz, and that looks like a deliberate effort just not to face the hard questions.”

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Axios recently did a side-by-side comparison of the two major-party campaigns and their media availability, and it was not even close. “The Harris-Walz ticket is on pace to do fewer interviews and press conferences than any major party’s presidential pairing in modern U.S. history,” the outlet reported.

At the time the Axios report was published, Trump had done seven local interviews to Harris’ one. Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance (R-OH) had done 15 and Harris’ — Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) — had done three. And the stats only got worse from there: neither Harris nor Walz has held an official press conference, while Trump has held three and Vance has held 12. Trump and Vance have also done numerous national television interviews (two and 24, respectively) compared to the Harris-Walz ticket’s one joint pre-recorded interview with friendly host Dana Bash on CNN.