Vice President Kamala Harris dodged the press for weeks and weeks after being anointed the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. 

It's not surprising that she would run and hide from the press, as like her boss, President Joe Biden, speaking and giving substantive press conferences isn't exactly her strong suit.

But once she agreed to do a sit-down interview with a media outlet, what could have been a saving moment for her candidacy turned into a heap of controversy, as she decided to bring along her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.

Harris was criticized up and down and from all sides for bringing someone with her instead of conducting a solo interview.

What's going on?

Political pundits and operatives from both sides of the aisle slammed Harris for once again failing to give the press a solo interview which people considering voting for her deserve, as they need to know where she truly stands on the issues on which they're voting.

Scott Jennings, a former special assistant to President George W Bush, torched VP Harris during a recent CNN appearance.

"I think it’s incredibly weak, weak sauce, to show up with your running mate," Jennings said, adding that the struggling vice president has shown a "troubling lack of confidence" in her ability to communicate politically.

The BBC noted:

But since Mr Biden passed the torch to her late last month, Ms Harris has limited most of her engagement with the press to scripted and highly-controlled environments. Her last formal sit-down interview was on 24 June, more than two months and a political lifetime ago.

Former President Donald Trump had plenty to say about his Democratic opponents unwillingness to go solo and take the tough questions.

"She’s not smart enough to do a news conference," Trump said earlier in August. "She won’t do interviews with friendly people because she can’t do better than Biden."

Republican strategist and Trump critic Chip Felkel added, "She’s got to show that she can think under pressure, because that’s part of what the president has to do."

Flip-flopping

Aside from dealing with the fallout from the multiple lies her running mate, Walz, has told during his time in office, Harris is also under heavy fire for flip-flopping on many key issues, such as Medicare and fracking.

The BBC noted:

She has abandoned pledges to support Medicare for all (giving all Americans access to government-funded healthcare) and to ban fracking. And the vice-president now supports a bipartisan border bill that includes hundreds of millions of dollars on a border wall, something Ms Harris once called "un-American".

Harris might be experiencing a polling boost due to recent events, but as Americans want to know more about how she will act and conduct herself as president, they'll be looking for a confident leader. And she's clearly not that.