Under pressure since her campaign debut to give a proper interview, US Vice President Kamala Harris will answer questions from CNN on Thursday, a highly anticipated interview ten weeks before the presidential election.
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The Democratic candidate, who will face Republican Donald Trump on November 5, has had a few quick exchanges with reporters since taking over from President Joe Biden, who crashed out of the race on July 21.
But to date, she has not yet agreed to a more in-depth and formal interview.
The interview, which will take place in Georgia (south) where she is campaigning, will be conducted by CNN journalist Dana Bash.
The latter co-hosted the debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in June, marked by a catastrophic performance from the 81-year-old Democrat.
The interview with Kamala Harris is scheduled to be recorded at 1:45 p.m. local time (5:45 p.m. GMT), before she holds a town hall meeting in Savannah, and aired at 9 p.m. local time (1 a.m. GMT).
“False step”
The 59-year-old Democrat will be accompanied by her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, which Donald Trump seized on to attack his rival.
“‘Tampon Tim’ should not be present during the interview to help with the inevitable missteps of Kamala,” who is “totally incapable of fulfilling the role of president,” he wrote in his Truth network.
Trump supporters gave Tim Walz this mocking nickname in reference to a decision the governor made on the distribution of sanitary protection in schools.
The former president, who like Kamala Harris is scouring the swing states, i.e. states that promise to be particularly contested in November, is going to Michigan on Thursday, then to Wisconsin.
“Having an interview with the duo of candidates in the summer has been a tradition in election campaigns for twenty years,” stressed one of the spokespersons for the Democratic candidate, Ian Sams, in X.
Except that this time, in this completely disrupted electoral calendar, much more condensed, the expectations surrounding the vice-president are in fact different and particularly strong.
Donald Trump, for his part, has had numerous opportunities to answer questions posed by journalists or other interlocutors, some of which were more or less difficult depending on the case.
Trump and Musk
Trump had a particularly heated exchange with an association of African-American journalists at the end of July.
On August 13, he had a long conversation with his very wealthy supporter Elon Musk, in a much more comfortable, even downright friendly, atmosphere.
The billionaire also gave two press conferences in August, during which he delivered long, sometimes confused monologues and answered often complacent questions.
This does not prevent the Republican camp from highlighting the contrast with Kamala Harris, who has been keen since the start of her campaign to control her communication as much as possible, without dwelling on traditional media.
At the recent nomination convention in Chicago, for example, the Democratic Party invited 200 influencers and gave them privileged access.
With this interview with CNN, the Democratic candidate will undergo a sort of grand oral examination.
Kamala Harris has a bitter memory of a June 2021 interview with NBC on the highly sensitive topic of immigration. She appeared ill-prepared and unsure of herself, particularly when the reporter caught her out on an answer.
Most polls give the Democrat a slight advantage over Donald Trump, but their duel remains very undecided, particularly in certain highly coveted states.
After this interview, the next expected highlight of this extraordinary election campaign will be the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, which will be held on September 10 in Pennsylvania, on ABC.
