Ian Sams, a spokesperson for Vice President Harris’s campaign, took a slight swing at Fox News anchor Dana Perino during an interview Friday.
“Is it a risk to put all your chips on one debate, when she hasn’t really been able to do any sort of Q and A with anybody, except for in debate prep?” Perino asked Sams on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom,” referring to Harris.
Sams replied, “Well, I reject that, she sat down with Dana Bash for a long interview on CNN…”
Perino intejected, “One interview in 47 days?”
Later in the conversation, he argued that the host was acting as if Harris is “in the witness protection program.”
“She’s been travelin’ across the battleground states, talkin’ to thousands of people in packed arenas,” Sams, who previously served as spokesperson for oversight in the White House Counsel’s Office, added.
Prior to Harris’ recent interview with Bash, she faced increasing pressure to sit for an interview following her ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket after President Biden decided to withdraw from the race. Harris did the interview with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), for which she also received scrutiny.
“It’s clear that her own team and her own party think she needs a babysitter,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) said last week. “And that’s why they’re putting her vice presidential nominee on the stage with her, so that he can step in and answer questions if things go like the clips we just saw, like she has done in previous interviews.”
Despite the criticism, the vice president survived the interview, with no major gaffes and making no major news.
Sams’s defense comes as Harris and former President Trump are set to go head-to-head in a debate next Tuesday night hosted by ABC News.
In the last presidential debate, Biden’s rough performance led to mounting calls from Democrats for him to step aside from the race. He ultimately made the decision to do so in late July, throwing his support behind Harris.