Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to hold her first one-on-one interview with a legacy media outlet since rising to the top of the Democrat presidential ticket, and she picked a face to conduct it.
MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle, who has called former President Donald Trump a threat to democracy on several occasions, was scheduled to sit down with Harris for a pretaped interview in Pittsburgh that will be broadcast at 7 p.m. Wednesday, according to multiple media reports.
Harris has given few one-on-one interviews and no news conferences since replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democrat ticket in late July, and only one interview with a legacy media outlet — she and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, talked to another friendly face, CNN's Dana Bash, last month.
Heading into Wednesday, Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance have given 58 interviews since the Harris-Walz ticket was announced, according to Fox News. Harris and Walz, during that same time, have given 21 total interviews.
As a guest Sept. 20 on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher," Ruhle came to Harris' defense when another guest complained about the vice president's lack of media interviews since she became the Democrat presidential nominee. A video was widely shared on social media.
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens told Ruhle it would be great to hear Harris clarify her stance on whether she is in favor of a Palestinian state if the Iranian-backed Hamas terror group is going to run that state. Ruhle said she wasn't as concerned about Harris' silence as she was about the "threat" of another Trump presidency.
"Let's say you don't like her answer — are you going to vote for Donald Trump?" Ruhle said. "Kamala Harris is not running for perfect; she's running against Trump.
"We have two choices, so there are some things you might not know her answer to. And in 2024 — unlike 2016, for a lot of the American people — we know exactly what Trump will do, who he is, and the kind of threat he is to democracy."
Stephens told Ruhle that he's not voting for Trump, but that would still like to hear more from Harris.
"I don't think it's a lot to ask her to sit down for a real interview, as opposed to a puff piece in which she describes growing up in Oakland with nice lawns," Stephens said.
"I would just say to that, when you move to Nirvana, give me your real estate broker's number, and I'll be your next-door neighbor," Ruhle said. "We don't live there."
Trump, reacting to the show in a Truth Social post on Saturday morning, referred to Ruhle as a "dumb as a rock bimbo."