Kamala Harris’ campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, didn’t mince words in a recent interview. She called media criticism of Harris’ early campaign interviews “completely bulls—.”
“I do think a narrative, 107 days … two weeks talking about how she didn’t do interviews, which you know she was doing plenty,” Dillon said. “But we were doing it in our own way. We had to be the nominee, find a running mate, and do a roll-out. All these things factored in.”
Speaking on “Pod Save America,” Dillon claimed the narrative misled people. “Real people heard we were not going to have interviews, which was both not true and also counter to any standard Trump faced. That was a problem,” she said.
Dillon joined top Harris campaign officials David Plouffe, Quentin Fulks, and Stephanie Cutter for the podcast. It was their first interview since Donald Trump’s decisive victory three weeks ago.
After President Biden exited the race on July 21, Harris quickly became the Democratic ticket’s leader. But her first interview, alongside running mate Tim Walz, didn’t happen until August 29, 39 days after Biden’s announcement.
“The idea that we weren’t doing anything or were afraid to have interviews is completely bulls—,” Dillon said. “It gave us another thing to fight against that Trump never had to worry about.”
She criticized the type of questions Harris faced when she did interviews. “They were small and processy,” she said, with Cutter adding they were often “dumb.” Both argued the questions didn’t inform voters.
Cutter emphasized that voters didn’t care about the questions Harris was asked. “I’m not here to say the system was focused on us incorrectly,” she said. “But it does a disservice to voters. Maybe we should have signaled our strategy earlier, but we had limited time to reach people.”
Harris’ lack of early interviews drew media criticism. When she started appearing on traditional and local media, she was accused of dodging questions and avoiding specifics.
The campaign had considered an interview with Joe Rogan, but it fell through. Rogan suggested Harris’ team conditioned the interview on avoiding “marijuana legalization” talk.
In hindsight, Harris’ campaign faced intense scrutiny. A moment on “The View” where she said she wouldn’t have done anything differently than Biden highlighted that pressure. Critics seized on it in the aftermath of her loss.