Jim Acosta GRILLS Kamala Spox On CNN: ‘Campaign Rally Is NOT A Press Conference’

A spokesman for Vice President Kamala Harris received less than a warm welcome on CNN where longtime reporter Jim Acosta, a frequent sparring partner with the Trump administration, wasn’t buying his excuse for Harris ducking questions from the media.

Michael Tyler did his best to spin Harris’s disappearing act on the campaign trail, where she has largely stuck to teleprompters and controlled rallies with voters while avoiding the traveling press corps. The vice president hasn’t held an extended media appearance since the start of her campaign last month, and judging from Acosta’s reaction, the stiff-arming is beginning to wear on reporters.

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“Michael, you know that a campaign rally is not a press conference,” the host said in response to Tyler’s line about Harris being “busy crisscrossing this country” with running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, as he laughed off an initial question. “We absolutely are” going to take questions from the press, the spokesman continued. “You heard her do it as she’s out on the stump,” a likely reference to a 70-second stop that Harris made in front of a steel gate keeping reporters at bay last week. “She said we’re going to be having a sit-down interview here before the end of the month. What she’s going to be focused on, and what this campaign’s going to be focused on, is communicating directly with the voters that are going to be deciding the pathway to 270 electoral votes.”

“Can you commit to a press conference this week?” interrupted Acosta, but Tyler continued on as if he didn’t the question. “Yeah,” the reporter sighed before trying again. “Yeah, but Michael one interview by the end of the month… I don’t want to belabor this, but one interview before the end of the month, I mean, that’s not a lot.” Asking him again, Acosta did his best to back the Harris spokesman into a corner but was unsuccessful. “We will commit to engaging with the voters that are actually going to decide this election,” Tyler replied.

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Harris advisors have every right to be concerned about what the vice president and Democratic nominee may say in an unscripted setting. Her head-scratching statement about falling “out of a coconut tree” has been held up by conservatives as emblematic of how absurd Harris’s answers to questions can be while her allies have attempted to rally around the line, turning it into an online meme. Throughout the Biden administration she has struggled to adopt various roles as the “border czar,” ambassador to Africa, and point person on artificial intelligence. Defending President Joe Biden last year, she stated he is “very much alive.”

During his own recent press conference, former President Donald Trump declared that his new rival is “not very smart” and contrasted his winding, hour-long appearance with Harris’s lack of transparency. The two continue to tango over the terms of presidential debates, with President Trump offering to debate Harris on all networks at any time after previously demanding that the original September 10th interview be moved to Fox News from ABC, where he is suing George Stephanopoulos and claims a conflict of interest would deny him fair coverage.

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