Before they were for Harris doing interviews, media outlets were against it.

As we approach Election Day, the news is not good for Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party.

According to Polymarket’s “2024 Election Forecast” at the close of last week, President Donald Trump was leading Harris 60.7% to 39.4%.

In some Democratic Party circles, fear is running rampant and the finger-pointing has already begun.

“Tensions rise between Harris and Biden teams as election nears,” Alex Thompson spilled for Axios on October 13, 2024. “Biden’s team wants Harris to win the election, but many senior Biden aides remain wounded by the president being pushed out of his re-election bid and are still adjusting to being in a supporting role on the campaign trail.”

VP Harris has been hitting the media circuit hard since her polling numbers began to slide. During the heady, halcyon days immediately after she was thrust into the role as presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, Harris avoided interviews.

“The Harris-Walz media strategy: Hide from the press,” Alex Thompson and Torey Van Oot reported for Axios on September 19, 2024.

“Harris has been a candidate for 59 days and Walz for 44 days because of President Biden’s sudden withdrawal as the Democratic nominee on July 21,” they revealed. “During those 59 days, Republicans Donald Trump and JD Vance have participated in more than 70 interviews and press conferences with TV and print reporters while Harris and Walz have taken part in seven, according to an Axios analysis.”

“Vance alone has participated in more than seven times more interviews and press conferences than Harris and Walz combined during that time,” they added.

“Harris’ Interview-Dodging Is All Part of the Plan — Apparently,” excused Sean Craig for the Daily Beast on September 19, 2024. “The vice president’s camp reportedly think it’s the way to go, even if it annoys journalists.”

Far from being annoyed, however, many progressive journalists and Democratic Party boosters were happy to give Harris a pass.

“Kamala Harris is doing fine avoiding interviews,” argued Jim Geraghty for the Washington Post on August 12, 2024, noting that “Kamala Harris is paying no price for ducking reporters and not holding news conferences.”

“Harris is the vice president,” Geraghty lectured loftily. “If she wanted to do a sit-down interview with a major TV network, newspaper or magazine, she could probably get it arranged within an hour or two.”

“But Harris apparently doesn’t have to explain, or at least isn’t feeling much pressure to do so, because anyone supporting her candidacy — and, let’s face it, that includes plenty of reporters — knows that quizzing Harris closely about her agenda risks helping Trump,” admitted Craig, perhaps not realizing the implications of such an admission.

“Kamala Harris Isn’t Giving Interviews: Any Questions? ” snarked Michael Grynbaum for the New York Times. “Critics say the vice president has been too cautious with the press. Her supporters think it’s the right strategy at the right time.”

“Candidate Kamala Harris hasn’t sat for interviews,” journalist Leslie Gray Streeter went even further for the Baltimore Banner on August 19, 2024. “I don’t blame her.”

“Since becoming the presumptive Democratic candidate for president, Vice President Kamala Harris has done myriad public appearances and given speeches,” began Streeter. “She will give her biggest one yet when she formally accepts the nomination Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention. But she has not, as of this writing, talked to journalists outside a brief session on the tarmac before a flight.”

“I’m a journalist and have been for more than half my life,” admitted Streeter. “And you know what? I don’t blame her one bit.”

Newsweek even dug up a “Former GOP Strategist” who was willing to say so publicly. It was a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, but who’s counting?

“Former GOP Strategist Says Harris Doesn’t Need to do Media Interviews,” wrote reporter Joe Edwards for Newsweek on August 20. “Speaking on the Fast Politics podcast, one-time GOP strategist turned Trump critic Rick Wilson said there is no necessity for the Harris campaign to engage in media appearances and press interviews, as their current strategy already appears to be effective.”

“Why should Harris give interviews that might threaten her popularity?” these laureates reasoned. Once her poll numbers started to slide, however, Harris’s team began pushing an increasingly aggressive schedule of media appearances, political rallies, and marketing junkets.

There are even rumors that Harris may appear on the Joe Rogan podcast.

“Kamala Harris on Joe Rogan’s show?” marveled the New York Post editorial board in a tone of wonderment, noting that “‘Hail Mary’ moves could be her best bet.”

“Kamala Harris’ campaign is scrambling: Either her staff don’t know what they’re doing, or they’ve realized it’s Hail Mary time,” began the NYP. “She’s agreed to an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, the first time she’s deigned to sit down with a reporter from a right-leaning outlet as the Democratic nominee — and after even CBS’s best efforts couldn’t save her from looking awful in a friendly-but-professional sitdown with Bill Whitaker.”

“And she may still wind up looking worse if CBS does as it should, by releasing the full transcript,” added the NYP in an aside. “Even riskier, she’s reportedly in talks to guest on Joe Rogan’s mega-popular podcast, whose audience skews heavily male (and conservative) — and whose sitdowns typically run for hours.”

“Neither move would be notable for almost any other candidate: Donald Trump has been sitting down with opposing, even hostile, interviewers since he launched his campaign,” the editorial board noted. “But Harris’ handlers have largely restricted her to rallies with teleprompters and crowds of supporters or sitdowns with friendly alt-media types who tee up easy questions with few follow-ups.”

Perhaps VP Harris wouldn’t be in her current polling predicament if media progressives had demanded she give interviews sooner.

Of course a presidential candidate in — what Democrats keep assuring us — The Most Important Presidential Election Ever when Democracy Is On the Ballot has a duty to explain policy positions at every given opportunity.

Harris has a very small window in which to make her case to the American people. It was wrong of media outlets to excuse or defend an unwillingness to do so.

(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)