Palin to Sit Down With ABC News' Charlie Gibson
McCain campaign shrugs off suggestion Palin is ducking press.
Sept. 7, 2008— -- Gov. Sarah Palin will sit down with ABC News' Charlie Gibson for her first interview since winning the Republican vice presidential nomination, the network's news division confirmed today.
Palin accepted the nomination to be Sen. John McCain's running mate 10 days ago, but has yet to submit to questions from reporters covering the election.
The Alaskan governor was taunted by the spokesman of her Democratic counterpart, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, for not submitting to a grilling by the press.
Reporters covering Biden gave the candidate a cardboard cutout of McCain, and Biden spokesman David Wade promptly used the gag to take a poke at Palin.
"You realize you could've made history if you'd found a cardboard cut-out of Governor Palin," Wade said. "That's the closest she would've been to taking tough questions from the national media since she was selected."
"Then again, I guess the Republicans are continuing their recent history of keeping their vice-presidential picks in secure, undisclosed locations," he added, in reference to Vice President Dick Cheney's use of an "undisclosed location" after the Sept. 11 attacks. "Yet another way that McCain-Palin is more of the same."
The McCain campaign, however, has complained that the press coverage of Palin has been sexist and intrusive in asking whether she is capable of being a mother to five children and vice president at the same time, and delving into the pregnancy of her 17-year-old umarried daughter.
Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, told Fox News today that Palin wouldn't subject herself to any tough questions from reporters "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."
Davis shrugged off the criticism and said Palin would do interviews, "When we think it's time and when she feels comfortable doing it."
"She's not scared to answer questions. But you know what? We run our campaign, not the news media. And we'll do things on our timetable," Davis said.
Palin was campaigning in New Mexico today.
ABC News did not release details of when the interview would take place.
Palin has proven to be a difficult target for the Democrats to attack without hurting themselves.
For now, according to Obama insiders, the Obama campaign, fearing a backlash, will not ask surrogates including Hillary Clinton to launch an all-out bashing of Palin. Instead, the Obama campaign will aim its heaviest artillery at McCain while waiting and hoping that Sarah Palin makes a mistake.
In addition, the Christian book publisher Zondervan is coming out with a biography of Palin in October. It will be entitled "Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader."
The Associated Press and ABC News' John Cochran, Jake Tapper and Matthew Jaffe contributed to this report