Fresh out of Barnard College with a degree in political science, Riley is learning the ropes as a writer and reporter for GZERO. When she isn’t writing about global politics, you can find her making GZERO’s crossword puzzles, conducting research on American politics, or persisting in her lifelong quest to learn French. Riley spends her time outside of work grilling, dancing, and wearing many hats (both literally and figuratively).
On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris will tape her first interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, sitting down with CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz. The interview will air later that night at 9 p.m. ET.
Harris will face questions about how her policy has evolved and pivoted from when she ran in 2019 – like backtracking on a fracking and offshore drilling ban and support for single-payer health care – and how her approach differs from President Joe Biden.
Harris holding her first official interview since Biden dropped out is notable – and doing it with Walz signals that she is presenting them as a package deal while continuing to introduce him to a national audience. It also occurs in the middle of their bus tour through Georgia, where Harris hopes her running mate’s Minnesota charm can appeal to the swing state’s rural voters.
Donald Trump has been critical that Harris has gone over a month as the Democrats’ nominee without facing the scrutiny of a sit-down interview. Now, his team says Harris is cherrypicking a sympathetic journalist and “incapable” of doing it live or without Walz.
Harris, meanwhile, is trying to keep up the momentum from last week’s Democratic National Convention in the run-up to her first presidential debate. We’ll be watching to see how she responds to scrutiny of her policies, and Trump’s team will likely be looking for ways to attack Harris when they meet on the debate stage on Sept. 10.
