TheGrio to moderate NABJ-WHYY interview with Vice President Kamala Harris
The interview will be co-moderated by Gerren Keith Gaynor, theGrio’s White House correspondent and managing editor of politics.
Vice President Kamala Harris will participate in an interview on Tuesday hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and WHYY. The interview will be moderated by theGrio’s very own White House correspondent and managing editor of politics, Gerren Keith Gaynor.
Gaynor, who has covered Harris extensively throughout the Biden-Harris administration, will be joined by co-moderators Eugene Daniels, White House correspondent and Playbook co-author at Politico, and Tonya Mosley, co-host of NPR WHYY’s “Fresh Air.”
The moderated conversation will be held in Philadelphia at WHYY Studios and live-streamed on TheGrio, NABJ and WHYY’s YouTube and Facebook platforms. It will be Harris’ third sit-down interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. The presidential hopeful’s first interview was with CNN’s Dana Bash on Aug. 29, alongside her vice presidential running Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. Harris participated in her first solo interview with the local TV station 6abc in Philadelphia last Friday.
“We look forward to our members and student journalists hearing from Vice President Harris as our panel asks the tough questions that are most pressing to the communities served by NABJ members,” NABJ President Ken Lemon said in a statement.
“The interview with Vice President Harris is designed to inform the public and give our members access to help inform their reporting. It is our hope that this event will also help provide real-time training for our emerging storytellers,” said Lemon.
He added, “We are thrilled we were able to work with the Harris team to deliver an in-person interview as we did with her opponent.”
Harris’ participation in an in-person interview with NABJ comes after agreeing to reschedule a moderated panel discussion after being unable to do so during the 49-year-old organization’s national convention in July due to scheduling conflicts with her then-newly launched campaign.
At the convention, NABJ hosted a similar panel interview with former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. The 34-minute interview ended in controversy after Trump made disparaging comments about Harris’ racial identity, lambasted NABJ’s equipment and called moderator Rachel Scott of ABC News “hostile” and accused of her having a “nasty tone.”
“Just as we demonstrated during our convention interview with former President Trump, this event will not be a campaign rally but will be handled with respect to journalistic principles,” Lemon said of the Harris interview.
Harris has built energy and excitement around her historic candidacy as the first Black woman and first Indian American to be a party nominee. The presidential hopeful has raised record funding for her presidential campaign, raking up more than $540 million. However, national polls show many voters want to know more about Harris and her plans to address a range of policy issues, including the economy, immigration, public safety and health care.
Black voters, considered the backbone of the Democratic Party and the party’s most loyal voting bloc, overwhelmingly prefer Harris to Trump. However, a sizable number of them remain undecided. According to a recent survey released by the NAACP, 66% of Black voters said they support or lean toward supporting Vice President Harris, compared to 14% of those who back Trump. Twelve percent of the more than 1,200 Black voters conducted in 12 states remain undecided.
Younger Black male voters particularly lag in their support for Harris, with more than 1 in 4 of them saying they plan on casting their ballot for Trump.
TheGrio’s participation in the Harris interview marks yet another pivotal moment for the news organization. In 2022, theGrio became the first Black-owned digital media company to secure a designated seat in the White House press briefing room. TheGrio later joined the presidential press pool of news outlets covering President Joe Biden’s daily movements.
“TheGrio is a vital source of news and comprehensive analysis of America’s political landscape and what is at stake for our entire nation,” said Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group. “We hope that viewers will watch the conversation on our platforms including theGrio.com, Facebook and YouTube as they register to vote and prepare for the upcoming presidential election.”
Gaynor has been a White House correspondent since 2021 and first came to theGrio in 2016. He has covered the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and is shepherding theGrio’s 2024 election coverage.
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