CNN’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has surpassed a similar interview with former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance in the ratings.

Harris and Walz sat down for an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday, marking the Democratic presidential nominee’s first joint interview and Harris’ first major interview since taking her place at the top of the ticket. The interview follows a period of intense Republican criticism over a lack of interviews and press conferences for Harris.

Initial ratings released by Nielsen on Friday, which were expected to rise slightly in the final tally, showed Harris and Walz’s interview drew just under 6 million viewers. That was the cable news network’s best ratings in the 9 p.m. time slot since 9.5 million tuned in to watch the June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

For comparison, Trump’s first joint television interview with Vance, aired on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime on July 22, was watched by 4.266 million. The interview aired a day after Biden dropped out of the race and just over a week after Trump survived an assassination attempt.

In response to a request for comment, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung claimed that other statistics, which could not be verified, indicated that the ratings for the Republican interview “far exceed those of the low-rated Harris-Walz interview.”

“America was eagerly awaiting an interview in which Comrade Kamala and Tampon Tim would actually answer questions — after 39 days of refusing to give interviews or press conferences — but what they got was a shameful display of lies about policy positions and basic facts,” Cheung said. “America has entered a train wreck.”

“Meanwhile, President Trump and Senator Vance’s joint interview was a world-class demonstration of how to articulate clear policies that help all Americans,” he added. “When you add up all the Nielsen ratings, digital viewership and other media, the Trump-Vance interview far outshines the low-rated, poorly received Comrade-Tampon disaster.”

Newsweek reached out to Harris’s campaign via email for comment on Friday.

Despite Cheung’s comments that Harris was getting “low” ratings, verifiable television ratings data shows the Democratic candidate has outspent the former president on more than one occasion recently.

In addition to the joint interviews, last week’s Democratic National Convention (DNC), where Harris and Walz formally accepted their nominations for president and vice president, performed better in the ratings than last month’s Republican National Convention (RNC).

Final viewing figures show that a total of 21.797 million viewers watched all four days of the DNC, while 19.065 million viewers watched all four days of the RNC.

Harris’ acceptance speech was watched by 28.9 million people, surpassing Trump’s acceptance speech, which was watched by 28.4 million people. This despite the fact that the former president’s speech was his first televised address since the assassination attempt.

Trump has long been fixated on ratings for himself and his political opponents. Since 2010, he has mentioned “ratings” in at least 546 posts on his X, formerly Twitter, and Truth Social accounts. He has also frequently called “low ratings” an insult, while treating high ratings as praise.