“That’s part of the president’s job”

AUSTIN, Texas – The biographer of the late legendary radio host Barbara Walters says the cult journalist would have expected Vice President Kamala Harris to give more interviews in the run-up to the presidential election.

“I think Barbara Walters would court them,” author Susan Page said in an interview with Fox News Digital at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival. “I think they're courting with the expectation that part of the president's job is to talk to the American people, and one of the ways to talk to the American people is through the news media.”

“You would expect both candidates to give interviews to reputable journalists during a presidential campaign,” Page added.

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For nearly 40 days since she was announced as the Democratic candidate, Harris avoided answering questions from the press before finally giving an interview to CNN's Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Tim Walz.

Since then, she has only given two radio interviews and has not yet held an official press conference.

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Former President Trump, meanwhile, sought to highlight the difference in the two's media presence by giving several interviews, holding several press conferences, and participating in a televised town hall meeting with Fox News' Sean Hannity.

Even after Tuesday's presidential debate, Trump answered reporters' questions in the spin room and gave additional interviews.

Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today and author of “The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters,” talked about what inspired her to write about the journalism pioneer.

“For women journalists, no one was a more iconic figure than Barbara Walters,” Page said. “That's true for women in television journalism, that's true for women in print journalism, like me. And there's never been a proper biography written about Barbara Walters, and I thought she deserved one.”

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Over the course of her decades-long career, Walters repeatedly made history: first as the first female co-anchor of NBC's “Today Show,” then later as the highest-paid news anchor of all time after moving to ABC News.

“Anyone who grew up with Barbara Walters would never think that a woman cannot give major interviews, cannot interview presidents, prime ministers, despots and murderers. And it would never occur to them that a woman cannot earn as much or even more money than her male colleagues,” said Page.

Walters died in December 2022 at the age of 93.

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.

Source of the original article: Barbara Walters would expect Kamala Harris to give interviews, says the author: “That’s part of the president’s job”