Today's Edition
Savannah (AFP)
US Vice President Kamala Harris will give her first interview on Thursday since becoming the Democratic standard-bearer.
Harris and her running mate Tim Walz will sit down with CNN during a campaign trip to Georgia, in a major test of the buzz surrounding her campaign on the 10-week sprint to election day.
Donald Trump's spokesman has slammed her for not doing the interview alone and accused her of using energetic Minnesota Governor Walz as a "human shield."
Republican former president Trump, itching to take the limelight back from Harris after her rapid rise, will separately be campaigning in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin on Thursday.
The CNN encounter with journalist Dana Bash, which is being broadcast at 9:00 pm local time (0100 GMT Friday) will be the first in-depth interview for Harris and Walz since President Joe Biden dropped out of the White House race on July 21.
It is also the first since the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which saw the party riding a wave of energy following her nomination.
Harris's spokesman Ian Sams responded to the Republican criticisms by saying the "joint ticket interview is an election year summer tradition going back 20 years."
He cited previous interviews given "almost always" around convention time, including by Trump and his then-running mate Mike Pence, and Biden and Harris.
"Harris/Walz join this rich tradition on CNN tomorrow," Sams said on X.
But then, the 2024 election is anything but traditional.
A relatively untested Harris, 59, has been thrust onto the campaign stage at record speed after one of the biggest upheavals in US political history.
Yet so far she has only had a handful of exchanges with reporters on the campaign trail.
'Human shield'
Her failure to give an interview or press conference in that time has given Republicans fodder for attacks, saying voters have been left in the dark about her policies.
"They have a candidate they can't wheel out to the media," Trump spokesman Jason Miller told Newsmax on Wednesday.
Harris said on August 8 that she wanted to get an interview scheduled by the end of the month, so she has just lived up to her pledge.
Her interview will be closely watched in an extraordinary year where big set-piece political events have shown their ability to produce surprises.
As a former prosecutor, Harris may well be looking to her first debate with Trump on September 10 to make a bigger impact.
