Kamala's press corps gets private briefings so they don't complain about lack of access: report

Kamala Harris, the current vice president, has been the Democrat candidate for president for 18 days, and in those 18 days, she has not publicly taken questions from reporters, nor sat for interviews. Politico’s Playbook revealed on Wednesday that Harris has "routinely interacted with the reporters who travel with her," though speaking only off the record. 

Playbook noted that Harris "often visits with the press pool seated at the back of her plane," but speaks to them "only off the record." When she does choose to comment on the record about something, she addresses the pool on the tarmac, but does not answer questions, they said.

Harris has come under fire for her lack of question answering, with Trump’s VP pick JD Vance approaching reporters outside Air Force Two on Wednesday, as both he and Harris arrived in Eau Claire, Wisconsin at the same time. The reporters were waiting for Harris, but she never materialized to speak to them. Harris also has not announced a platform on which she is running.

"I also thought you guys might get lonely, because the Vice President doesn’t answer questions from reporters, and hasn’t for 17 days," Vance told the reporters in Eau Claire. "I hope that she changes her mind because it would be good for the American people, and I think it would be good for you all, if she actually ran a real campaign instead of one from a basement with a teleprompter."

Vance took aim at Harris again during a campaign speech at aviation manufacturing company Wollard International, telling reporters before answering their questions, "I think it's really disgraceful both for Kamala Harris but also for a lot of the American media that participates in this stuff to have a person who's been the presumptive nominee of the Democrat party for 17 days and refuses to take a single question from the American media."

One person close to the campaign told Playbook, "What is the incentive for her [to take more questions]? She’s getting out exactly the message she wants to get out."

One Harris ally told the newsletter that Harris could hold off on taking big interviews until after Labor Day, adding, "There’s really no need. The voters that she needs are at the local level. They’re not reading the national press."

Harris’ last formal television interview was on June 24, well ahead of Harris taking the reins for the Democratic party in 2024.