Vice President Kamala Harris finds herself in a media storm in the final stretch of the presidential campaign.

In recent days, Harris chatted with the hosts of “The View,” drank beer with Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show,” and appeared on popular podcasts like “Call Her Daddy” and “The Breakfast Club” with Charlamagne tha God. She even called the Weather Channel before Hurricane Milton made landfall.

And on Wednesday evening, she took the boldest step of all and entered the lion’s den of the country’s most famous conservative television network: Fox News.

In an arena where Democratic voices are unrepresented, Democratic politicians are mocked and Democratic policies are misrepresented, Harris made her case without apologizing. Despite repeated interruptions and malicious accusations from host Bret Baier, the vice president stood her ground and pointed out the misrepresentations.

It seems to have worked. According to Google Trends, searches for “Kamala Harris” increased dramatically as the interview aired, particularly in the key swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

But to be clear: Kamala Harris didn’t do it have to conduct this interview. And much of the discourse about their media strategy reveals a double standard. Harris is being scrutinized in a way that her opponent, former President Donald Trump, is not. And with more than 8 million ballots already cast and millions more Americans heading to the polls for early voting, this double standard could have an impact.

I’m not saying Harris should be treated with kid gloves. In an interview on Wednesday, she herself admitted: “This is an election for President of the United States. It shouldn’t be easy.”

But Trump’s case for another term in the White House should be examined under the same scrutiny that Harris has welcomed. But despite being a former president on the campaign trail for the third time in the White House, Trump will not be held accountable for his lack of tough interviews, his murky political knowledge or the anti-democratic tone of some of his statements.

Let’s compare how their media strategy is handled. While Harris conducted her interviews, Trump interrupted a town hall meeting moderated by a supporter to sway on stage and listen to music for over half an hour. He has turned down interviews with CNBC and CBS’s “60 Minutes,” often opting instead for the safe spaces of conservative news outlets.

In the performances he has His lack of political knowledge and lack of concrete proposals are immediately apparent. Attend his Univision town hall last Wednesday. Asked by a farmer who would do the work often done by the millions of undocumented immigrants Trump wants to deport, the former president replied: “We have to bring great people into our country.” But we want them in, and I want her even more than you.”

When asked about climate change, he named his golf course: “I own Doral right next door, and we did it in a very environment – I get awards, environmental awards for the way I built it, for the water , the way I use it.” the water, the sand, the mixture of sand and water.”

During an all-female Fox News panel on Wednesday, Trump acknowledged his ignorance about in vitro fertilization, a key reproductive rights issue that Republicans in Congress have repeatedly rejected protecting. The former president said he had to ask Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, whom he described as a “fantastically attractive person,” to explain the procedure: “I said explain IVF, very, IVF, very quickly and within about two . “In minutes I understood it. I said, no, no, we’re all for IVF.”

This despite the fact that just a few seconds earlier he had described himself as the “father of IVF”.

How was this contrast received? Key experts say Harris is too vague about her policies – despite the 80 pages of plans on her website – or they analyze small moments in interviews, such as when she failed to mention any difference she might have had with President Joe Biden could have last four years. These are not two candidates who are judged according to the same criteria.

There’s another double standard at work here that black women are all too familiar with: the tone of the two candidates.

During her interview with Fox News, Harris echoed Baier’s confrontational energy, refusing to be challenged and making clear his deceptive portrayal of Trump’s positions. Harris spoke passionately at several points, but at no point did she belittle Baier or shy away from difficult questions. She even recognized him as a “serious journalist.”

That’s a stark contrast to Trump’s Tuesday interview at the Economic Club of Chicago. When challenged by the moderator, the far more reserved Bloomberg editor John Micklethwait, Trump responded: “You’re wrong. You were wrong. You’ve been wrong about this all your life.”

Trump was angered by certain news organizations’ reporting and responded that the government should revoke their licenses. At the National Association of Black Journalists convention earlier this year, he berated a journalist who had asked what he said was a “disgraceful” and “rude” question and said, “Are you at ABC?” Because I think you are “It’s a fake news network, a terrible network.” Trump regularly describes journalists as “enemies of the people.”

But moments after the Fox News interview aired, it happened Harris described the panelists as “combative” and even “angry.”

This double standard is not about two individuals. It’s so much bigger. At stake is the direction of our democracy and whether voters will have access to all the information they need to make their decision by November 5th.

The bar has been raised for Harris, while it continues to sink lower for Trump, who still fails to clear the bar. Not only is this unfair to Harris, it is also unfair to the millions of voters who are watching all this and trying to decide which direction the country should go. We all deserve better.

Find more thought-provoking insights from Symone Sanders-Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez here “The weekend” every Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. ET on MSNBC.