Kamala Harris, accused of dodging the press by Donald Trump and his allies, will sit down in a major and crucial interview with CNN alongside Tim Walz on Friday morning (AEST).

The interview, which is one of the major events of the campaign so far for Harris, comes as polls show her taking the lead in key swing states integral to victory and increasing her lead in national surveys.

Harris is leading in a poll, commissioned by Fox News, by either 1 or 2 per cent in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, while trailing Trump by 1 per cent in North Carolina, which Trump carried by less than 1.5 per cent in 2020.

It should be noted that Fox News polls in 2020 vastly overstated Joe Biden’s lead over Trump, with the current president leading by 10 per cent in early October and the final result landing at 4.5 per cent, with similar results across the key swing states.

The poll remained in line with other polls conducted after the Democratic National Convention, with Harris increasing her lead to 3.5 per cent, according to election expert Nate Silver, and three per cent on the New York Times polling averages.

Facing the press

Harris and Walz have agreed to a sit-down interview with Dana Bash on CNN, representing the first interview since being named Democratic nominees.

She said earlier in the month that she was working towards it and held true to her word.

“I’ve talked to my team,” she said.

“I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month.”

CNN said the “extensive interview” would air as a prime-time special on Thursday in the United States.

Interviewing the former prosecutor is no easy feat, with a New York Times reporter describing Harris making him “feel on trial”.

“She didn’t break eye contact,” Astead Herndon said.

“It was intense.”

More attacks

Presidential candidates have historically sat down for a joint interview following the vice presidential nomination, with Trump and JD Vance appearing on Fox for theirs, but it hasn’t stopped criticism that Harris is scared or hiding from interviews and journalists from Republicans.

Trump and Vance also sat down for a joint interview following the Ohio senator’s nomination. Photo: Getty

Trump’s campaign accused Harris of being scared to face an interview by herself in response to the announcement, despite their own interview.

Trump and JD Vance have latched onto Kamala’s lack of appearances on major news networks and attacked her for not talking to the press.

“For the past 16 days and counting, the American media has been unable to ask her a question,” Vance said during a campaign stop at the start of August.

“Now agree or disagree with me and President Trump: Nobody would dispute that we will go anywhere and we will talk to anyone.”

Vance was still hosing down the fallout from comments about childless women that have helped make him one of the most unpopular vice presidential picks in history before new audio surfacing of Vance attacking the head of a teachers union.

“The head of the most powerful teachers’ union in the country, she doesn’t have a single child,” he said.

“If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”