Softballs and snacks: Columnist shares reasoning behind Harris’ unconventional media tour

“Juicy tidbits” revealed in Kamala Harris’ sit-down interview with Howard Stern as part of the vice president’s media tour of non-traditional news shows serve a specific purpose, according to a New York Times opinion writer.

While viewers looking for serious policy talk on the Stern show “were out of luck,” Michelle Cottle wrote in a New York Times op-ed Tuesday that “the personal tidbits we learned” about Harris – including that she isn’t a napper, “that she digs Doritos and jigsaw puzzles,” and that she saw U2 at the Sphere – is more about helping voters get to know her than anything else.

“Honestly, any voters still undecided at this late date are unlikely to be making their decision based on the nitty-gritty of the candidates’ tax plans,” according to Cottle. “The goal of these chats is to help voters feel as if they know Harris, so the personal tidbits serve a purpose.”

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Harris’ hourlong interview with Stern on Tuesday was her latest political stop in an “unconventional media tour” that also included a stop on the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast and another on the “View” on Tuesday.

Cottle writes in her op-ed that “softballs” Stern threw at the Democratic nominee during their interview included talks about her biography and “marveling at how horrible Donald Trump is.” She noted though that Stern “for all his shock-jock nastiness” has become a regular political stop for heavy hitters, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton

“In general, Stern was a little too openly butt-smoochy for my taste, but I like a little more spice in my political interviews,” she concluded. “So my vote for Harris’s next stop? ‘Hot Ones.’”