After originally running a cloistered campaign, Harris and Walz have become more media friendly, though predominately with friendly outlets. However, opening up to the media, whether it be 60 Minutes, The View, the Call Your Daddy podcast, or the Howard Stern Show, has also opened them up to criticism and underscored why the campaign may have protected them in the first place.

Since the summer, when Harris and Walz sat down with CNN for their maiden interview as the 2024 Democratic nominees, Harris’s media appearances have been carefully curated, with Walz not doing as many in comparison. However, as polls close between them and former President Donald Trump, Harris and Walz have been conducting a media blitz — and created political problems for themselves.

The problem for Harris and Walz is that “in reality, neither is ready to be president and vice president,” according to former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

“Harris is unsteady, unreliable, and untested,” Fleischer told the Washington Examiner. “Walz is a junior varsity player who is not ready for varsity.”

For former Republican National Committee communications director Doug Heye, Harris’s media circuit performance has provided evidence as to why she “hasn’t done many interviews.”

“She’s just not good at them,” Heye told the Washington Examiner. “Friendly confines with a question put on a T for her to knock out of the park, and she just whipped.”

Citing Harris’s appearance on The View, during which the vice president did not differentiate herself from President Joe Biden when voters have told pollsters they want change, Heye contended “if she can’t answer anything substantively of what she would do on the economy or what she would do differently than Biden, she’s just not a good candidate.”

Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), seized on Harris’s admission, arguing the vice president has no regrets for policies that drove up inflation and increased border crossings to record levels. At rallies Wednesday in Pennsylvania and Arizona, respectively, they both played The View segment of Harris saying there was “not a thing” she would do differently than Biden.

“To me, that is a disqualifying answer. That should disqualify her from even running,” Trump said.

However, Democratic strategist Garry South pointed to Trump’s own media appearances, arguing he has repeatedly made “outrageous, incendiary statements” and “otherwise makes a fool and a pest of himself.”

“I am all in favor of [Harris and Walz] sitting down for interviews with non-traditional media outlets,” South told the Washington Examiner. “Their joint interview with CNN basically turned into them being read Trump-Republican attack lines and asked to respond to them. ‘Donald Trump says you’re not black, how do you reply to that?’”

To that end, the Trump campaign has capitalized on Harris’s media blitz, imploring 60 Minutes to publish the transcript of its interview with Harris after the former president did not participate in the program because of a disagreement over fact-checking.

“On Sunday, 60 Minutes teased Kamala’s highly-anticipated sit-down interview with one of her worst word salads to date, which received significant criticism on social media,” Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “During the full interview on Monday evening, the word salad was deceptively edited to lessen Kamala’s idiotic response. Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air?”

One preview of Harris’s 60 Minutes interview that did not air included correspondent Bill Whittaker pressing the vice president on her and Biden’s relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region,” Harris said.

Whittaker also pushed Harris on her and Biden’s immigration policies, as well as her gun ownership. Critics have speculated whether Harris’s gun is properly registered, considering many of the brand’s models are restricted in her home state of California. Vance has also criticized Harris for describing Iran, and not China, as the country’s “greatest adversary.”

During her taping of The View, Harris, who is portraying herself as a change candidate, did not distinguish herself from Biden until later in the program when she promised, if elected, to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet, unlike him.

“We’re obviously two different people, and we have a lot of shared life experiences,” she said of Biden. “There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of [anything that she would have done differently], and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact on the work that we have done.”

Then, on The Late Show, Harris had a beer with comedian Stephen Colbert after spending the day feuding with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for politicizing Hurricane Milton and not speaking with her on a phone call before the storm made landfall. One day later, after taking part in a public federal emergency response briefing with Biden, Harris phoned CNN and The Weather Channel to discuss the storm.

Meanwhile, Walz told Fox News last weekend during his first Sunday show interview since becoming the vice presidential nominee that Harris did not support driver’s licenses, free tuition at state universities, or free healthcare through state programs for illegal immigrants, despite her espousing those positions in the past.

Then, days later, during fundraisers in Sacramento, California, and Seattle, Walz advocated the abolition of the Electoral College, which Harris does not support.

“Gov. Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College, and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket,” Teddy Tschann, a Walz-Harris campaign spokesman, told the Washington Examiner. “He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts.”

In response, the Harris campaign has tried to flip the script by emphasizing Trump’s “last 26 interviews have been conservative bubble softballs.”

“Even in his conservative safe spaces, Trump has stumbled over softball questions, which raises concerns about what he can handle,” Harris campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “Americans are starting to have real questions about Donald Trump’s capacity. He is cocooned in his safe spaces in right-wing media, he backed out of 60 Minutes, and he refuses to stand before the American people in another debate.”