Harris set aside her message of “joy” to issue dark warnings against electing former President Donald Trump and she’s doing so with a revved-up media booking schedule, including a Fox News interview on Wednesday. 

Though she still hasn’t held a single press conference, Harris’s schedule reflects a sharp turn from earlier this summer when Harris waited weeks to hold a single news interview as voters were left wondering where she stood on key issues. 

Democrats have embraced Harris’s sharper criticism of Trump, from describing him as “weak” and “dangerous” to accusing him of “hiding” by declining another debate, dodging a CBS 60 Minutes interview, and not releasing new medical records.

But with the polls tightening and early voting underway in critical battleground states, Harris is running out of time to change the minds of any remaining undecided voters.

Charlie Comfort, an Iowa city councilman and school board president, said Democrats “wish she had been this aggressive earlier” instead of being a joyful warrior.

“A month ago I felt great about the vice president’s chances,” Comfort told the Washington Examiner. “Today, I am a little less bullish. I am concerned that she slipped into that above-the-fray statesman-like image and it cost her.

“So yes, I wish she had been this aggressive for the past two months,” he said. “I wish that she had also been more open with the media early and engaged with them more.”

Part of Harris’s new offensive strategy is sitting down for her first interview with Fox News, specifically anchor Bret Baier, on Wednesday as she criticizes Trump for only speaking with friendly outlets despite not granting any interviews until more than a month into her presidential campaign. While the Harris campaign is also reportedly negotiating an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, with Rogan a prominent voice who has scrutinized both the vice president and Trump, many of her own appearances have been with friendly outlets.

After Harris and her campaign’s criticism, Trump participated in a contentious interview with Bloomberg News at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday, with Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait revealing Harris has “declined so far” to take part in a counterpart event. Earlier in the day, Trump withdrew from a CNBC Squawk Box interview, his campaign citing “a scheduling conflict.”

Claremont McKenna College politics professor John Pitney contended Harris’s Baier Fox News interview “makes sense” for the vice president because although she may not be able to persuade his “hardcore” audience, she can demonstrate a willingness “to go outside her comfort zone.”

“The issue is broader than ‘hiding,’” Pitney told the Washington Examiner. “It’s about Trump’s mental state. He is 78 years old and will be 82 at the end of the next presidential term. He is showing clear signs of cognitive decline.”

For Pitney, that issue could be “very effective” for Harris, as it was for Trump against President Joe Biden, because policies can appear “remote and abstract to voters.”

For example, Harris has mocked Trump for spending 40 minutes of a town hall with Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) this week in Oaks, Pennsylvania dancing, which did start as attendees received medical treatment for heat-related health concerns, with the vice president asking if the former president is “OK.”

“Most of us have dealt with aging relatives who have abruptly gone into cognitive decline,” Pitney said. “Trump’s responses aren’t helping him. To paraphrase the old joke: Being mentally fit is like being a lady. If you have to say you are, you ain’t.”

One of Trump’s responses has been his reaction to Harris’s own medical records, calling her seasonal allergies on social media “deeply serious conditions that clearly impact her functioning.”

The Harris campaign did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s inquiries regarding whether the vice president should have adopted her more aggressive strategy earlier but spokesman Ian Sams underscored the comparison between her, Trump, and their respective closing arguments.

“It does raise questions about what his approach here is,” Sams told CNN. “Why there aren’t more opportunities for the voters who are still trying to make up their mind. Not hardcore, base voters like he has on lock in the MAGA movement but real undecided voters in Pennsylvania and Arizona and Michigan who are trying to make up their minds. Why is he not speaking to them?”

For political historian Brian Rosenwald, who wrote the book Talk Radio’s America: How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States, Harris going on Fox News is “a narrowcasting effort,” encouraging her to discuss the economy more.

“Just like she’s doing Charlamagne [tha God] and Roland Martin to target black men, The View to target middle-aged women, and Call Her Daddy to target young women, this gambit represents a play for Liz Cheney-, Nikki Haley-type conservatives,” Rosenwald told the Washington Examiner. “Most of the audience is not persuadable, but there are a fair number of right or center-right folks who watch Bret Baier, even if they might’ve soured on the Fox opinion shows-Trump.”

“Remember, she’s not trying to win a majority of his audience,” he said. “It’s all about cutting losses at the margins.”

The Trump campaign has mocked Harris for her slide in the polls since the initial euphoria wore off among Democrats when she replaced Biden this summer at the top of the presidential ticket.

“Given the vast amount of money her campaign has spent and the willingness of the [legacy media] to give her a pass at every turn, how is it possible that she’s gone backward in our internal and public polling?” Trump campaign aides Susie Wiles, Chris LaCivita, and Tony Fabrizio wrote in a memo this week. “Because she can’t convince the voters that she is ‘the change agent’ in the race, that she will be better on the economy, inflation, immigration, crime, or improving people’s financial situation. The bottom line is that voters say President Trump will do a better job.”

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Despite his thoughts on her strategy, Comfort, the Iowan Democrat who lives in the Republican stronghold of Oskaloosa, argued Harris’s momentum has not “completely stalled.”

“In my rural county in Iowa, a county that went 70-plus percent for Trump compared to only 57 and 59% for [John] McCain and [Mitt] Romney, respectively, in 2008 and 2012, I am seeing signs of some momentum for Democrats,” he said. “The number of Harris-[Tim] Walz signs I see around compared to Biden-Harris and even [Hillary] Clinton–[Tim] Kaine signs in 2020 and 2016 is much higher.”