NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� When Vice President sat down for an interview with podcaster Alex Cooper, the conversation didn鈥檛 start by parsing policy positions. The goal, Cooper told the Democratic nominee, was 鈥渢o get to know you as a person.鈥�
And that was just fine with Harris, who said she was on because 鈥渙ne of the best ways to communicate with people is to be real.鈥�
Long past the midway point of her unexpected presidential campaign and with voting already underway, Harris is still introducing herself to Americans who will determine her fate in this year's presidential election.
On Tuesday, her media blitz will take her to studios across Manhattan as the Democratic nominee tries to reach as many people as possible in the shortest period of time. It's a sharp shift after largely avoiding interviews since replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, and it's an implicit acknowledgment that she needs to do more to edge out Republican candidate
Harris will sit for a conversation with the women of ABC's 鈥淭he View,鈥� speak with longtime radio host Howard Stern and tape a show with late-night comedian Stephen Colbert. The trio of appearances comes after Harris granted interviews to CBS' 鈥�60 Minutes,鈥� which aired Monday night, and Cooper's podcast, which was released Sunday.
鈥淐all Her Daddy鈥� is often raunchy, with frank talk about sex, but Harris and Cooper began by talking about their mothers.
Harris said her mother's first instinct was never to comfort her eldest daughter when she ran into problems. Instead, she asked, 鈥淲hat did you do?鈥�
Although that might sound cold, the vice president said, 鈥渟he was actually teaching me, think about where you had agency in that moment, and think about what you had the choice to do or not do. Don鈥檛 let things just happen to you.鈥�
It鈥檚 interactions like those that Harris鈥� team is prioritizing for the vice president in the final four weeks before Election Day. She has yet to give an interview to a newspaper or magazine, but her staff is pondering additional podcasts where they believe Harris can reach voters who aren't following traditional news sources.
Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, said Harris has to energize people who have tuned out politics because they believe 鈥渁ll the politicians are the same, they all say the same thing, they don鈥檛 know anything about my life, I can鈥檛 relate to them at all."
鈥淭hey want to like and trust you," she said.
Jennifer Harris, the former White House senior director of international economics, said Harris has a steeper hill to climb because of the way she became the Democratic nominee.
鈥淲e did not have a good long primary to meet Kamala Harris in the way most voters are accustomed to,鈥� she said. Harris has to find a way to demonstrate the instincts and principles that 鈥漺ill be guiding any number of hundreds of specific policy questions that will come up in the course of the presidency.鈥�
While Harris has unveiled some policy proposals during her two and half months at the top of the ticket 鈥� such as increasing the child income tax credit and taking a range of actions to help lower the cost of housing 鈥� she鈥檚 given prime billing to speeches about her 鈥渆conomic philosophy,鈥� like one she delivered
There, Harris pushed back against Trump鈥檚 claims that she鈥檚 advancing 鈥渃ommunist鈥� ideas, embraced capitalism and positioned herself as a pragmatist who 鈥渨ould take good ideas from wherever they come.鈥�
鈥淎s president, I will be grounded in my fundamental values of fairness, dignity and opportunity,鈥� Harris said. 鈥淎nd I promise you, I will be pragmatic in my approach.鈥�
Senior campaign officials have largely blocked out criticism from some corners that Harris hasn鈥檛 articulated more policy positions. Instead, they say that small yet pivotal numbers of still-undecided voters say they want to know more about Harris before making up their minds, and that the more those voters see Harris, the more they like her.
Republican communications strategist Kevin Madden said defining Harris in voters' eyes is the central challenge of the campaign.
鈥淭his race is actually pretty simple in the sense that the next few weeks are about who鈥檚 going to fill in the blanks on who Harris is,鈥� he said.
Being a vice president confers a certain amount of basic name recognition. In October 2019, while Harris was one of many candidates in the Democratic presidential primary, AP-NORC polling found that about 3 in 10 Americans didn鈥檛 know enough about her to have an opinion. That share dropped to around 1 in 10 Americans by early 2021, when she and Biden took office, where it stayed until earlier this summer.
Now, nearly all Americans know enough to have at least a surface opinion 鈥� whether positive or negative 鈥� of Harris.
But that doesn鈥檛 mean perspectives on Harris are settled, or that Americans know as much as they would like about her. Harris鈥� favorability numbers shifted slightly over the course of the summer, suggesting that opinion of her may still be somewhat malleable.
Other polls indicate that some voters are still looking for more information about Harris, while views of Trump appear to be more settled. One-quarter of likely voters said they still feel like they need to learn more about Harris, according to a conducted after , while about three-quarters say they pretty much already know what they need to know about her.
Trump, on the hand, was more of a known quantity. One in 10 likely voters said they feel like they need to learn more about Trump, while roughly 9 in 10 said they pretty much already know what they need to know.
On 鈥淐all Her Daddy,鈥� Cooper told Harris that people are 鈥渇rustrated and just exhausted with politics in general.鈥�
鈥淲hy should we trust you?鈥� she asked.
Harris answered by saying 鈥測ou can look at my career to know what I care about.鈥�
She continued: 鈥淚 care about making sure that people are entitled to and receive the freedoms that they are due. I care about lifting people up and making sure that you are protected from harm.鈥�
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Megerian reported from Washington. AP writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
Zeke Miller And Chris Megerian, The Associated Press
