Former Bill Clinton adviser Mark Penn said on Monday that Vice President Kamala Harris avoiding the media and only committing to one presidential debate is undemocratic.
Harris has not sat down for a single interview or press conference since launching her campaign in July, while her campaign website does not list any policies and she has only agreed to a Sept. 10 debate on ABC News. Penn, on “America’s Newsroom,” said Harris’ campaign strategy will lead to an uninformed electorate, preventing a true democratic process from occurring in the presidential election. (RELATED: ‘Kamala Was In On It’: Trump-Aligned PAC Drops Anti-Kamala Harris Ad Less Than Two Hours After Biden Quit)
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‘Not A Democracy’: Former Clinton Adviser Says Harris Ducking Media And Debates Is ‘Unacceptable’ pic.twitter.com/bi1YkhNXG4
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 26, 2024
“I don’t know what kind of interview people do in these last couple of days here that’s going to be meaningful and set up going into the Labor Day weekend,” Penn said. “I suppose everything gets pushed online, but look, I think it’s unacceptable for candidates to go this period. In my book, there should be three presidential debates, not one. There should be position papers, not a donate page on your website. And you should be before the press every two or three days because if voters are not informed, then it’s not a democracy with real votes.”
Harris became the Democratic nominee in July after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed her, despite the vice president garnering almost no primary voter support.
Radio host Charlamagne Tha God on Monday said Harris is receiving increased scrutiny because of the process leading to her nomination and how short the presidential campaign will be as a result.
“She didn’t give an interview for three weeks. You know why everybody made that such a big deal? Because she only had 90-plus days to win,” Charlamagne said. “Now she got 70-plus days to win. Because of the nature of her campaign and how she became the nominee, that’s why she’s going to get even more scrutiny.”
NewsNation host Chris Cuomo said during a Thursday podcast that the vice president is avoiding the press because she is more vulnerable than previous Democratic presidential nominees.
“They don’t want to put her in front of the media, but that teaches us something also. You don’t want to put her in front of the media because you think there’s risk in that,” Cuomo said. “Wouldn’t have done that with Bill Clinton, they wouldn’t have done that with Hillary Clinton, they wouldn’t have done that with Barack Obama, because they felt there was no risk about putting those people in the chair. So here they do see some risk.”
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