Harris faces extra scrutiny in first interview as nominee

• Harris' interview fulfills the tentative timeline she set at the beginning of the month, telling reporters she hoped to have one scheduled by the end of August.
• If the Harris-Walz conversation is successful, it could extend their post-convention wave and neutralize the attacks Harris has faced for her lack of formal interviews since starting her campaign.
• But if there are stumbles, it could feed the GOP's ire in the final weeks before early voting begins.

Zoom out: Harris has leaned into social, paid and earned media in the weeks since her campaign began. That method was evident at the Democratic National Convention, where Harris taped multiple interviews with social media creators rather than traditional journalists.

• The campaign itself has dove into content creation, with the @KamalaHarris TikTok account gaining 2 million followers in the first 24 hours after she became the presidential nominee. The account now shares posts to over 4.8 million followers.
• Meanwhile, the @KamalaHQ page, rebranded from @BidenHQ, shares campaign trail content, election day information and, of course, memes to its 3.9 million TikTok followers.
• It's a sign the campaign is trying to reach audiences — notably, younger voters — where they are.
• While she's yet to sit with a reporter, she's answered some questions on the go, occasionally speaking to the press pool.

Yes, but: That's done little to taper the fire from former President Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance. Vance has sat for several recent network interviews (though he's repeatedly faced questioning about his own unsurfaced blunders, like his now-infamous "childless cat ladies" comment).

• Trump has also recently strayed away from traditional media interactions, with multiple podcast appearances and a glitchy conversation with X's CEO Elon Musk.
• The former president, who said at a news conference earlier this month that Harris was "barely competent" and "can't do an interview," has called into Fox News multiple times in the past weeks, most notably, to deliver a rambling rebuttal to Harris' DNC speech.

Between the lines: Awkward media moments are a headache Harris has largely avoided since her campaign launched.

• Her lack of an interview reflects a larger pattern of her being risk-averse, leaning on more choreographed, scripted appearances, Axios' Alex Thompson reports.

Flashback: Harris' 2021 interview with Lester Holt — one that prompted a shaky response on why she had not visited the U.S.-Mexico border — was an early stumble that marked a major moment in her media approach.

• But more recent interviews struck a more measured tone, such as her defense of Biden on CNN after the disastrous debate performance that triggered calls for him to step aside from the presidential race.
• As VP, Harris has done several on-camera and print interviews — "often at a pace more frequent than Biden," the AP reported. She often speaks with media on Air Force Two, but those chats are off the record.

The bottom line: For some Harris supporters, traditional media interviews may not carry much weight.

• But Harris and Walz's off-script moment could put policy proposals beneath a microscope — and perhaps give Harris a chance to show how her presidency would differ from Biden's.
• The interview is set to air at 9 p.m. ET Thursday on CNN.

Go deeper: Harris ramps up strategy for sprint to the election