Democrats appear rattled that they could lose Senate, House, and presidential elections if Vice President Kamala Harris is transparent about policy solutions to reverse the administration’s failures.
Harris, who has not held an unscripted press conference for 26 days since joining the race, is facing calls to not only remain hidden from the press but to keep her proposed policies a secret as she prepares to deliver economic proposals in North Carolina on Friday.
Harris, however, already published several policies, such as socialist-style price controls, subsidies for homeowners, and two policies that copy the Trump-Vance ticket: a child tax credit and no tax on tips.
“She doesn’t need to negotiate against herself. We’ve got the biggest possible tent right now,” Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH), told Politico. “I don’t think there’s a real strong reason for her to try to weed out any points of view right now.”
Harris’s honeymoon phase of the campaign energized some Democrats, while others raised concerns against doing anything that could end the phase.
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“They [voters] have very little knowledge about who she is, what her job has actually been,” one battleground-district House Democrat said. “They know Trump. They know what his policies are. They don’t know Kamala. And so Kamala has a ton of room right now to define herself.”
Seventy percent of registered Democrats and independents who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 are mostly in the dark about many of Harris’s controversial and radical positions, a recent poll showed.
The warnings appear to be sinking in. Harris campaign advisers worry about publicly releasing “thorny details” of their economic plan because the specifics might backfire on the campaign, several people familiar with the discussions told the Wall Street Journal.
“Instead, they expect small shifts in emphasis that highlight her résumé and priorities” to hide the details of her agenda “amid concerns from some Democrats that releasing a lengthy plan could open the vice president up to criticism from Republicans and members of her party,” the Journal reported.
“Kamala needs to stop insulting the intelligence of voters and speak for herself to explain why she is running from every liberal policy she has ever supported,” the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement, ripping Harris. “The mainstream media needs to stop being complicit in her lies and demand answers.”
The media have not interviewed Harris on television since June 24, 2024. The last time the press reportedly questioned her at a solo news conference was eight months ago — on December 2, 2023.
One reason Harris could be running a “basement” media strategy is to navigate policy debates within her own party. Anonymous campaign aides reportedly flipped-flopped on five of her radical-left policies, such as socialized medicine and fracking.
“There’s already uncertainty with just what does she believe, what she would do,” Jeff Nobers, executive director of Pittsburgh Works Together, told the Washington Post about Harris’s promise to ban fracking. “And if she doesn’t support a ban on fracking, what is her energy policy plan?”
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