Kamala Harris and Tim Walz Set First Joint Interview This Week at CNN

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz set their first joint interview with CNN, the network announced Tuesday.

The Democratic presidential nominee and her running mate will sit with CNN anchor and chief political correspondent Dana Bash. The segment is due to air Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on CNN, CNN International, CNN en Español, CNN Max, CNN.com and on CNN apps.

The exclusive sit-down will be filmed in Georgia, a major battleground state for the Democratic campaign. It marks not only Harris’ first joint interview with Walz, but her first interview since becoming the Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden ended his campaign for reelection last month. Calls for Harris to sit for an extensive interview with a prominent news outlet have been mounting since last week’s Democratic National Convention wrapped Thursday.

Many speculated where that commitment may land, with pundits like “Pod Save America” hosts and former aides for Barack Obama Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor speculating as recently as Tuesday morning that the gig would go to “60 Minutes” on CBS.

Thursday’s CNN interview marks one of two major network events Harris has on her calendar since the DNC’s conclusion. She is scheduled to debate Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump on ABC Sept. 10 — though disagreements over the rules around said debate began percolating Monday.

The Harris and Trump camps are in disagreement over whether microphones will be muted while the candidate is not speaking, according to multiple media reports. The first debate of the 2024 presidential cycle, hosted by CNN on June 27 between Trump and Biden, used muted microphones, rules which were mutually agreed upon at the time between the two nominees. The Harris campaign is now looking to renegotiate said rules, looking for microphones to be hot during the entire ABC News debate. 

The Trump campaign is pushing back against the strategy, with Jason Miller, senior adviser for Trump telling Politico, “Enough with the games.” Trump, meanwhile, has said he doesn’t care one way or another.