Walz's lack of media exposure hurt him in debate, commentators admit: 'Out of practice'

Several political commentators and critics linked Gov. Tim Walz's debate performance to an overall lack of media exposure following his vice presidential debate performance against Sen. JD Vance. 

"I think the lack of interviews he has done with national media, with local media, it showed," CNN host Dana Bash, who interviewed Walz in August alongside Vice President Kamala Harris for their first interview since Harris became the nominee, said. 

Former President Trump and Vance have done at least 61 interviews since the Harris-Walz ticket was formed, compared to 23 non-scripted interviews for the Democratic presidential ticket thus far.

"I think that Walz did seem unsteady," ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl said after the debate. "And frankly, what I saw is somebody who has not faced questions on a national stage since he became the Democratic nominee. He was simply out of practice. I mean, I don't know why they've done it, but they've kept him out of the limelight. They've kept him away from reporters. They haven't had him do any interviews. And he was clearly unsteady through much of that debate. In contrast, JD Vance was very smooth."

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"Hate to say it but Walz would have benefitted from doing a few Sunday morning shows, as Vance has been," Financial Times associate editor Edward Luce said.

Vance has done several appearances on Sunday morning news programs since joining the Trump ticket, including with CNN's Bash, NBC's Kristen Welker, ABC's Jonathan Karl, CBS' Margaret Brennan – one of the debate's moderators – and Fox News' Shannon Bream. 

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell said Wednesday that Walz was "notably rusty" due to his lack of media exposure, although she incorrectly said he hadn't done "any solo interviews" since he joined the ticket. Walz has done several local TV and radio hits and did interviews on MSNBC and ABC after the Trump-Harris debate last month, but he has done far fewer formal media sit-downs as a running mate than Vance.

Abby Phillip, a host on CNN, said the Minnesota governor was unprepared for Tuesday night's showdown.

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"He didn’t respond to a lot of the criticisms and attacks that Vance put on the table. He allowed some clear falsehoods to just go completely unanswered," Phillip added.

"It took him several sentences to get to the part of his answer, Walz’s answer, where he actually responded to that," she said. "I mean, I think there was a clear lack of preparation and execution here on Walz’s part."

GOP flack Matt Gorman said during an appearance on CNN on Wednesday that Vance's prep and interview experience showed through the debate.

"And when you saw with Walz, who hasn‘t done really many interviews, only really outside of it with Dana Bash, obviously, not having that interview prep, not having the tough questions and the ability to refine your arguments made him a little tougher to kind of pivot out of those trickier subjects," Gorman said.

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Politico's analysis of the debate also said Vance and Walz had different preparation strategies. 

"The Democrats’ campaign chose a different path for Walz, as well as his running mate — essentially avoiding tough environments. And it showed. At times, Walz seemed unprepared either to defend himself (such as his whereabouts during the Tiananmen Square protests) or to summon the most effective lines of attack against Vance and Trump," the analysis read.

Walz joined MSNBC and ABC for brief appearances after his running mate's debate against Donald Trump. He's also done some interviews with smaller, local news outlets. 

Former Obama adviser David Axelrod said he was surprised by the lack of media exposure Harris and Walz have had. 

"I've been bewildered a little bit by the absence of both the presidential candidate and the vice presidential candidate on television since they became the nominees, because that's how people get to know you. And they haven't really spent a lot of time with either of them before now," Axelrod said. "He was all over before he became the nominee when he was campaigning for vice president."

Axelrod concluded that Walz put himself at a disadvantage. 

"So I also think that it may be a little bit of a problem for Walz having not done this. Sitting with [the media] is good prep for debates. It's good batting practice for these events. Walz has not been doing it. So I do question that," he said, "It's bewildering." 

The Harris-Walz campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Fox News' Hannah Grossman, Brian Flood and David Rutz contributed to this report.