In an interview with Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine on Thursday, the hosts of CBS This Morning actually grilled the Virgnia senator over Hillary Clinton refusing to talk to the press. Fill-in co-host Demarco Morgan lead off the contentious exchange: “Senator, this was Donald Trump's first meeting with a head of state as the nominee and he immediately opened up the floor to reporters for questions. When will we see Hillary open up the floor and take questions from reporters at any event?”

Kaine laughably argued: “Well, you see Hillary take questions from reporters every day. She does – she talks to the press everywhere she goes.” Incredulous co-host Norah O’Donnell could be heard replying: “Really?” Kaine continued: “...she did a press conference when she was at the recent meeting of the African-American and Hispanic newspaper publishers.” Morgan pushed back: “But that was the first time in a long time, Senator. She doesn't do it that often.”

The veep candidate struggled to defend Clinton: “Well, look. I don't see what the massive difference is between a press conference and talking to the press everywhere you go. She talks to the press a lot and I've been with her when she’s talked to the press.” O’Donnell corrected him: “But just to set the record straight, it has been 272 days since she has had a formal news conference.”

Moments later, she pressed:

The New York Times recently reported – and this is true and I’ve covered – that unlike any other presidential nominee in history, she is not allowing journalists to accompany her on the plane – the campaign plane. This is something that has been standard since I’ve covered presidential campaigns. Why is that the case? Do you believe in transparency? Do you think this will change?

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Kaine feebly suggested it was a merely a matter of logistics: “I travel in a small plane and the press travels in a plane with me. We’re not on the plane together....And I think that’s fairly common during campaigns, that you often fly in small planes and then you get in to the end and you start flying in larger planes.”

Wrapping up the segment, fill-in co-host Josh Elliott took one final jab: “Well, we look forward to that next press conference. Senator Tim Kaine, we appreciate the time this morning.”

On Wednesday, the morning show similarly hit Clinton for a lack of press conferences, with an on-screen headline declaring: “No Questions, Please; Clinton Criticized for Having Few News Conferences.”

In contrast to CBS’s substantive questioning of Kaine, NBC’s Today could only get tough with VP nominee when asking horse race political questions. Co-host Savannah Guthrie fretted over Clinton not “putting away” the race:

Senator, let's talk about the state of the race. Because most national polls, we're seeing some battleground polls, show a tightening race. That's the trend. And if you look into some of those polls, what you see really is – it's more a matter of Hillary Clinton's favorability ratings actually going down. The question to you is, if Trump is as weak a candidate as you portray, why isn't she putting it away?

ABC’s Good Morning America similarly focused on political strategy over issues. Co-host George Stephanopoulos wondered:

Meanwhile, Trump does appear to be closing the gap in some of these national polls right now. They are tightening. And our new poll shows that secretary Clinton is now as unpopular as Donald Trump. You see her at 59% unfavorable. He's at 60% unfavorable. How do you explain it and how do you fix it?

At the end of the exchange, Stephanopoulos threw Kaine a softball about NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick disrespecting the National Anthem, but edited out the football player also labeling Clinton a criminal.

Here is a full transcript of the September 1 interview with Kaine on CBS This Morning: