NEW YORK (AP) — When Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for an interview with podcaster Alex Cooper, the conversation didn’t start by parsing policy positions. The goal, Cooper told the Democratic nominee, was “to get to know you as a person.”
And that was just fine with Harris, who said she was on the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast because “one of the best ways to communicate with people is to be real.”
Long past the midway point of her unexpected presidential campaign and with voting already underway, Harris is still introducing herself to Americans who will determine her fate in this year’s presidential election.
On Tuesday, her media blitz will take her to studios across Manhattan as the Democratic nominee tries to reach as many people as possible in the shortest period of time. It’s a sharp shift after largely avoiding interviews since replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, and it’s an implicit acknowledgment that she needs to do more to edge out Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Harris will sit for a conversation with the women of ABC’s “The View,” speak with longtime radio host Howard Stern and tape a show with late-night comedian Stephen Colbert. The trio of appearances comes after Harris granted interviews to CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which aired Monday night, and Cooper’s podcast, which was released Sunday.
“Call Her Daddy” is often raunchy, with frank talk about sex, but Harris and Cooper began by talking about their mothers.
Harris said her mother’s first instinct was never to comfort her eldest daughter when she ran into problems. Instead, she asked, “What did you do?”
Although that might sound cold, the vice president said, “she was actually teaching me, think about where you had agency in that moment, and think about what you had the choice to do or not do. Don’t let things just happen to you.”
It’s interactions like those that Harris’ team is prioritizing for the vice president in the final four weeks before Election Day. She has yet to give an interview to a newspaper or magazine, but her staff is pondering additional podcasts where they believe Harris can reach voters who aren’t following traditional news sources.