Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz – the Democratic candidate for US president – have agreed to do their first joint interview.
The two politicians will be interviewed by CNN in Georgia and will air on Thursday at 21:00 EDT (02:00 BST).
It will be the candidates’ first in-depth conversation with reporters since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Ms. Harris as his replacement more than five weeks ago.
Since the vice president took office, Republicans have criticized her for seemingly avoiding the press and accused her of keeping voters in the dark about her plans to run for president.
The interview will be the first major test of Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz as running mates, and it gives them a chance to address those criticisms. It also fulfills a promise the vice president made to schedule a meeting before the end of the month.
The interview follows the pair’s high-profile speeches at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago – a well-scripted and elaborate affair – and Ms Harris will continue on a bus tour of the battleground state of Georgia after the interview.
This will be one of the few opportunities for voters nationwide to hear more details about the Harris-Walz campaign’s policy positions before Election Day, just 70 days away.
Republicans — as well as members of the media — have been more vocal about a handful of specific policy positions or interviews during Ms. Harris’s truncated and unprecedented presidential campaign.
This has left her campaign open to criticism and insults from opponents.
At a recent press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said Harris “cannot do interviews” because she is “barely competent.”
Ohio Senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, has criticized the media and Ms Harris for avoiding the press, saying earlier this month that it was “disgraceful” that Ms Harris would not “answer a single substantive question from a reporter.”
“She (Harris) is adopting a strategy of avoiding reporters instead of coming forward and answering tough questions about her record and letting the American people know who she is.”
Mr. Vance frequently noted that both he and Trump had held numerous interviews and press conferences, often facing “hostile questions” from the press.
Vice President Harris – who enjoyed a campaign that has been a huge success with “positive sentiment” so far – However, it avoided some of the mistakes and errors that the Republican ticket had to endure in front of the press.
That could be a problem, as she had some bad experiences with the press during her first two years as vice president.
A disastrous 2021 interview with NBC’s Lester Holt about immigration and the southern US border appears to have led to a subsequent curtailment of her press involvement.
It remains to be seen how the interview might affect Harris’ campaign, as many national polls show her leading Trump ahead of November’s presidential election.
A Farleigh Dickinson University poll released last week showed Ms Harris leading Mr Trump nationally, 50% to 43%.
It was a complete reversal of fortunes for Democrats, who began to fall behind Republicans in many races when Mr Biden was the nominee.
Polls often show the president trailing his predecessor by a few points.
