Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

CNBC Host Grills Harris Surrogate About Her ‘Rope-A-Dope’ Strategy To Run Out Clock Before Election

CNBC's Joe Kernen and Sen. Chris Coons

CNBC host Joe Kernen grilled Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons on Tuesday about Vice President Kamala Harris’ “rope-a-dope” strategy to avoid press appearances before the election.

Kernen accused the Harris campaign of deliberately helping the vice president duck interviews until the election in November, saying that Americans would like her to publicly answer questions about her policies. Coons, who advises the campaign, argued Harris participating in debates is enough for the American people to understand where she stands.

“If she would come on, we could get answers to a lot of these things,” Kernen said. “And I’m just wondering, as a surrogate that advises the campaign, there is an effort to rope-a-dope this thing right to the election in my view. The other side has done 40 or 50 interviews with J.D. Vance. I don’t think I have to take my shoes off and count on my fingers and toes how many interviews that she’s done along with [Minnesota] Gov. [Tim] Walz. And that looks like a deliberate effort, just not to face the hard questions, and to try to, I don’t know, I think Americans might finally say, ‘You know what, I don’t like the way this is working.'”

WATCH:

Kernen pushed back against Coons when he then argued that debates are an effective way to get questions answered.

“We just had Vice President Harris say, ‘Yes, let’s do another presidential debate,’ and Donald Trump said no. And you have to agree that a nationally televised presidential debate is one way to answer a lot of direct questions,” Coons said.

“So is just sitting down for an interview with anyone,” Kernen added.

The Harris-Walz ticket has done fewer interviews than any other presidential candidate in modern history, Axios reported Thursday. The campaign’s strategy is to reportedly participate in as few interviews as possible as they run down the clock to Election Day, despite many voters saying they want to learn more about the vice president.

Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, have participated in more than 70 interviews and press conferences throughout the election cycle, while Harris and Walz have sat down for 7, Axios reported. Harris’ first interview occurred on Aug. 29, over a month after she launched her presidential campaign, where she failed to give a detailed answer about her recent changes in several key policy positions that she exposed in other campaigns and as her time as a senator.

Coons further argued foreign leaders are concerned about Trump being re-elected, leading Kernen to continue pressing him on Harris’ lack of interviews.

“She’s too busy? But the answer is she’s too busy?” Kernen asked. “That should be … that would be #1 for my stack list, is to be transparent and open about what my plans are if I were elected president. That’s what I would be doing.”

The Delaware senator said he finds it difficult to understand what Trump and Vance’s policies are despite them doing many interviews and press conferences, and said he recommends that Harris spend more time answering questions.

The vice president recently sat down for interviews with Oprah Winfrey and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), which received criticisms from some liberals and Democrats for lacking specific answers to questions and appearing “out of touch.”