Many Democrats are not happy with the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris has been hiding from the press. 

NBC News reports:

Even as polling shows the presidential race is a toss-up, Vice President Kamala Harris has been running with a measure of risk aversion that some Democratic strategists and activists worry has failed to fully capitalize on the excitement surrounding her entry into the race in July.

By "risk aversion," the outlet is clearly referring to the fact that Harris has refused to do unscripted interviews or events for fear that she may hurt her campaign by speaking her own thoughts.

NBC spoke to several Democrats who argued that this refusal to engage with voters could seriously hurt Harris in the upcoming election.

"The voters deserve better"

Steve Shurtleff, a former Democratic speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, was among those who criticized Harris for hiding from the public.

"They're trying to keep her away. It's like seeing your favorite Hollywood actor and then they're on a talk show and they can't even speak," Shurtleff said.

He added, "The president of the United States has to be able to be on their toes all the time and answer questions. It’s so obvious she’s been avoiding the one-on-one interviews, and the voters deserve better."

Other Democrats agreed. A strategist named Chris Kofinis also argued that the idea that Harris can win the election by former President Donald Trump's weaknesses alone could be flawed.

He said:

The campaign is taking a chance that they can run out the clock and Trump’s weaknesses will be enough to win. But the danger in that is if you don’t define your own candidacy well enough, people will start defining it themselves.

Background

Just the News recently put the situation referred to above into perspective.

It reported:

former President Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance have done a combined 63 interviews compared to 23 for Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn. Harris has not done a formal news conference in 75 days since emerging as the presumptive Democratic nominee after Biden left the 2024 race.

Fox News reports that the numbers are even worse than they sound.

The outlet writes:

While Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have stepped up their interviews in recent weeks, she has also faced criticism from media critics for being evasive, even in interviews with friendly liberal outlets like MSNBC.

We will know soon enough whether this strategy of hiding from the voters pays off for Harris.