A former top aide to Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign says her team found little to gain from granting interviews to mainstream media organizations.
“There’s just no value — with respect to my colleagues in the mainstream press — in a general election, to speaking to the New York Times or speaking to the Washington Post, because those [readers] are already with us,” deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said during an extensive interview with the news outlet Semafor.
“When Trump did the McDonald’s thing, it was smart, because it was a thing that obviously drove television coverage, but it also drove social media engagement too,” he added.
Flaherty cited Harris high-profile sit down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier in October as “one of the most important moments of the campaign,” both from a fundraising and social engagement perspective. She also sat for an intense interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” earlier this year.
Harris, like President-elect Trump, participated in a number of interviews along the campaign trail with podcasters, athletes and internet personalities as she ran for president.
The vice president notably did not sit for an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, as Trump did before the popular commentator endorsed him.
“The reason folks are seeking alternative sources of media and are turning away from political news is because they don’t trust our institutions,” Flaherty said. “They don’t trust elites, they don’t trust the media, they don’t trust all this stuff.”
“So, the party of elites and institutions is going to have a hard time selling to people in these places,” he added.
