- Harris defends policy shifts, cites unchanged core beliefs
- Trump calls her CNN interview “BORING!!!” on Truth Social
- Moderate immigration stance and consensus-building emphasized
In her first interview since entering the presidential campaign, US Vice President Kamala Harris defended her decision to shift her position on essential subjects.
The Democratic nominee was pressed on whether her immigration and climate policies have changed since she ran for president in 2019.
“I think the most crucial and fundamental component of my policy view and actions is my beliefs have not altered,” she stated to CNN’s Dana Bash.”
Ms. Harris was pressured to answer questions but offered a 27-minute pre-recorded interview with her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, used a single word in his review after completing it.
The former president wrote, “BORING!!!” on Truth Social.
The vice president was obliged to defend the White House’s economic record, as inflation and high cost-of-living expenses continue to harm Americans.
Polls consistently show that voters support Mr Trump’s economic policies.
However, the most contentious debates focused on the evolution of her policy positions.
Harris was questioned about fracking and climate change positions.
When asked about her evolving policy opinions, Ms Harris cited her efforts to combat climate change and her support for the Green New Deal, a Democratic proposal to lessen reliance on fossil fuels, as solid values.
She stated that I have always thought, and have worked on it, that the climate issue is severe and urgent.
The vice president cited the Biden administration’s efforts on the Inflation Reduction Act, which directed hundreds of billions of dollars towards renewable energy and electric vehicle tax credit and rebate programs.
We have established targets for the United States of America and, by extension, the world, when we should fulfill specific requirements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Ms. Harris did not explain her decision to reverse the ban on fracking, a technology for extracting gas and oil from shale rock utilized by a robust sector in Pennsylvania, a battleground state.
During a CNN town hall in 2019, Ms. Harris stated, “There is no question I am in favor of banning fracking.” But she has backed down from that position since becoming vice president, including casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate on additional fracking licenses.
In her CNN interview on Thursday, Clinton stated, “As president, I will not ban fracking.”
According to Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesperson, the Biden administration’s “clean energy investments have proven the ability to make progress on climate without those past stances” on social media.
Harris follows Biden’s positions on immigration and Gaza.
Ms Harris advocated more radical views on immigration when serving as a senator and running for president in 2020. She campaigned for the closing of immigration detention facilities and the decriminalization of unlawful crossings.
However, when asked about “securing our border,” Ms Harris stated that “my values have not changed” and cited her time “prosecuting transnational, criminal organizations” as California attorney general.
Earlier this year, the vice president backed a strict bipartisan border security agreement that included hundreds of millions of dollars for border wall construction.
Trump pressured Republicans in Congress to destroy the deal, but if elected, Harris has promised to “sign it into law.” During the CNN interview, she stated that she intended to pass it again.
To explain her moderate immigration stance, the Democratic nominee told CNN that her travels around the country as vice president had taught her that “it is important to build consensus and find a common place of understanding of where we can solve problems.”
Along those lines, Ms Harris promised to include someone “who was a Republican” in her presidential cabinet. She said it would fulfill her vow to be president “for all Americans.”
“Throughout my career, I have encouraged diversity of opinion. Having diverse perspectives represented at the table is critical when making some of the most crucial decisions.
Ms Harris was also asked about the Gaza battle, and she reiterated the White House’s position that both Israel and Hamas must “get a deal done” and that Palestinians deserve to have their own country next to Israel.
“This war must end, and we must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out,” she told the audience.
She refused to commit to an arms embargo against Israel, as some on her party’s left side have requested.
Walz claims that ‘passion’ led to misstatements.
Mr. Walz, who served in the US National Guard for decades, was asked to explain a statement he made in which he said he “carried” an assault rifle in “war.
The campaign clarified that Mr. Walz had never been in a warzone.
In the interview, the governor stated that he was “speaking passionately” and wearing “his emotions on his sleeve” about the issue of gun crime in schools when he made the incorrect comment.
That “passion” also extended to his false claim that his wife had received in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments to conceive their children, which have become a political lightning rod in the US abortion access debate.
She had intrauterine insemination, not IVF. However, experts have indicated that the two fertility methods are frequently used interchangeably.
Mr Walz stated that his record speaks for itself. He does not believe Americans were “cutting hairs” between the two.
The Minnesota governor was also asked about his son, Gus, who went viral after boldly proclaiming “That’s my dad” at the Democratic National Convention.
It was such a visceral, emotional moment that I’m delighted I got to witness it —and I’m so proud of him.
Harris describes Biden’s decision to bow out of the campaign.
Ms Harris described the moment President Biden called to inform her that he had chosen to stop his re-election campaign in July.
She stated that her family visited her when she received the phone call. They had just had pancakes and bacon and were working on a puzzle.
When asked if she sought his endorsement, Ms Harris replied, “To be honest with you, my first thought was not about me; my first thought was about him.”
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The vice president also said that the president could have served again.
He is brilliant, and I have spent hours with him in the Oval Office and the Situation Room. He possesses the intelligence, commitment, judgment, and disposition the American people rightfully expect in their president.
She claimed Trump lacked all of these characteristics.
They are waiting for Harris’s first interview as the nominee.
Ms Harris has been under fire from Republicans and some pundits for hesitating to hold a press conference or an on-the-record, in-depth interview until today. Her detractors claimed she was avoiding having her record contested.
Her CNN appearance is her first substantial interview since Mr. Biden’s withdrawal from the contest.
Ms. Bash, the CNN journalist who interviewed Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz, moderated Mr. Biden and Trump’s debate on June 27.
Mr Biden’s terrible performance in that debate was widely considered the catalyst for the president’s withdrawal from the contest.
