CNN anchor Dana Bash pushed back against claims made by her colleague, Jeff Zeleny, during a segment of “Inside Politics,” marking a rare moment where the network’s narrative was openly challenged on air. Zeleny asserted that former President Donald Trump had only done “friendly” interviews throughout the year, sticking mostly to conservative news outlets. However, Bash was quick to remind him that Trump had recently faced unscripted questions at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), a point Zeleny tried to downplay.
Zeleny’s argument was that Trump’s media strategy was intentionally limited to softball interviews with right-leaning media, suggesting that the former president was avoiding tougher, more critical platforms. He pointed to Trump’s appearance on “Meet the Press” with Kristen Welker in September 2023 as the last time he faced a challenging interview. “The criticism from the right about, ‘Oh, these are all softball things,’ my recollection is the last difficult interview that former President Trump has done was on ‘Meet the Press,’” Zeleny said, asserting that Trump had mostly declined interviews with mainstream outlets like “60 Minutes.”
Bash interjected with a pointed reminder, “Well, he did NABJ,” referring to Trump’s participation in the National Association of Black Journalists’ event in July. Zeleny, attempting to salvage his point, dismissed the NABJ appearance as merely a “roundtable conversation” rather than a formal interview. Despite this, other sources, including The Daily Caller, noted that Trump has taken questions from multiple outlets, including CNBC and various local media stations, indicating that his media appearances have been broader and more varied than Zeleny suggested.
If I didn’t see it myself, I’d never believed it.
CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash praised President Trump’s press conference addressing the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday, saying he demonstrated the kind of leadership Americans need in a crisis.pic.twitter.com/VeSQGGE5tp— Unimpressed American Voter (@RiverWalker_1) March 18, 2020
This exchange comes against the backdrop of scrutiny toward Vice President Kamala Harris’s media strategy. Critics within her own party are reportedly concerned that Harris is relying too heavily on controlled, scripted formats in order to avoid the kind of public gaffes that have plagued her in the past. Unlike Trump, who has faced unscripted questions on the campaign trail, Harris’s approach has been more cautious. Her recent interview with Bill Whitaker on “60 Minutes” is a case in point: for over two painful minutes, she dodged questions about the surge in illegal border crossings, instead trying to shift the blame onto Trump for killing a bipartisan border bill.
Whitaker pressed Harris to acknowledge that illegal crossings have “quadrupled on your watch.” Harris, visibly flustered, responded with a claim that seemed detached from the facts: “We have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half. We have cut the flow of fentanyl by half. But we need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem.” This attempt to pivot away from her own administration’s policies only underscored her struggle to offer a straightforward answer on the border crisis.
This inconsistency between the narratives surrounding Trump and Harris’s media strategies has not gone unnoticed. While Trump’s unscripted engagements are often dismissed by critics as strategic plays to friendly audiences, Harris is increasingly seen as avoiding any setting that might put her on the defensive. Her sit-downs with programs like “Call Her Daddy” and upcoming interviews with “The View” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” appear designed to provide a comfortable environment rather than challenge her on substantive issues.
The reality is that both candidates are being judged not just on their policies but on their ability to handle tough questions and engage with voters transparently. Trump has faced multiple instances where he’s taken unscripted, challenging questions, pushing back against the narrative that he only plays to sympathetic crowds. In contrast, Harris’s performance in more controlled interviews has drawn criticism even from within her own party, as she continues to dodge key issues, from the border crisis to her vision for America’s future.
The Democratic nominee’s unwillingness to step outside her comfort zone in interviews, combined with her struggles to articulate clear policy differences from the Biden administration, has made it difficult for her to shake off the image of being over-prepared and inauthentic. Meanwhile, Trump’s more varied media engagements, regardless of their nature, suggest a willingness to at least confront tougher questions on occasion—a quality that some voters might find appealing in a candidate.