“Real Time” host Bill Maher suggested Vice President Kamala Harris’ cold shoulder to the press is “more insulting” than former President Trump’s years-long verbal attacks against news organizations.
“What do you think about the fact that Kamala doesn’t talk to the press?” Maher asked CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday.
“In a way, I feel like it’s more insulting than what Trump does,” Maher continued. “Trump says you’re ‘the enemy of the people,’ which is pretty bad. What she’s kind of saying is, ‘I don’t need you. I’m not talking to you. You don’t matter. You’re not relevant anymore to me.’ To me, that’s even worse than ‘I hate you.’ It’s like ‘I don’t think about you.’”
“I don’t know if it’s worse than denigrating the press on a daily basis, which is what Donald Trump did,” Collins responded. “I covered him in the White House every day as a correspondent. And, you know, oftentimes to kind of, you know, shake you if you’re asking him a question, he would try to get into a personal argument with you, or just deny or lie about what you were asking about. And so I don’t know if I would compare the two.”
“I do think she should talk to the press. I think anyone who wants to have access to the nuclear codes should be willing to sit down and take questions. And we want to have her on the show,” Collins added.
“I’d love to too,” Maher responded. “But I’m not going to hold my breath.”
It has been over a month since Harris emerged as the Democratic nominee, and she has yet to do any interviews or hold news conferences.
Trump, meanwhile, has regularly made himself available to the press granting both interviews and news conferences.
Earlier this month, Harris suggested she would schedule an interview before the end of August.
On Thursday, when asked by Fox News’ Peter Doocy whether she was ready to grant an interview with Fox News, Harris jokingly replied “I’m working toward it.”
Harris has faced little scrutiny during her meteoric rise to the top of the Democratic ticket.
Among the top questions swirling around her include the litany of progressive positions she has shifted away from since her first candidacy in 2019, what concrete policy plans she intends to pursue as president as well as the cover-up of President Biden’s mental decline.