US Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday defended shifting away from some of her more liberal positions in her first major television interview of her presidential campaign, but insisted her “values have not changed” even as she is “seeking consensus.”
Sitting with her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris was asked specifically about her reversals on banning fracking and decriminalizing illegal border crossings, positions she took during her last run for president.
She confirmed she does not want to ban fracking, an energy extraction process key to the economy of swing-state Pennsylvania, and said there “should be consequence” for people who cross the border without permission.
Photo: AP
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said.
“I believe it is important to build consensus. It is important to find a common place of understanding where we can actually solve the problem,” she added.
The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash came as voters are still trying to learn more about the Democratic ticket in an unusually compressed time frame. US President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid just five weeks ago.
The interview focused largely on policy, as Harris sought to show that she had adopted more moderate positions on issues that Republicans argue are extreme, while Walz defended past misstatements about his biography.
She said serving with Biden was “one of the greatest honors of my career,” and she recounted the moment he called to tell her he was stepping down and would support her.
“He told me what he had decided to do and ... I asked him: ‘Are you sure?’ and he said: ‘Yes,’ and that’s how I learned about it,” she said.
She said she did not ask Biden to endorse her, because “he was very clear that he was going to endorse me.”
Harris defended the administration’s record on the southern border and immigration, saying that she was tasked with trying to address the “root causes” in other countries that were driving the border crossings.
“We have laws that have to be followed and enforced, that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally, and there should be consequences,” Harris said.
Asked about Israel’s war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Harris said: “I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself.”
However, she also reiterated what she has said for months, that civilian deaths are too high amid the Israeli offensive.
She also brushed off former US president Donald Trump’s questioning of her racial identity after the Republican candidate suggested falsely that she changed how she presents herself for political reasons and “happened to turn black.”
Harris, who is of black and South Asian heritage, said that Trump’s suggestion was the “same old, tired playbook.”
“Next question, please,” she said.
Trump and Harris are set to debate on Sept. 10.
Walz was asked about his misstatements, starting with how he has described his 24 years of service in the National Guard.
In a 2018 video clip that the Harris-Walz campaign once circulated, Walz spoke out against gun violence and said: “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”
Critics said the comment “that I carried in war” suggested that Walz portrayed himself as someone who spent time in a combat zone.
Walz said he misspoke after a school shooting, adding: “My grammar’s not always correct.”
Asked about statements that appeared to indicate that he and his wife conceived their children with in-vitro fertilization, when they in fact used a different fertility treatment, he said he believes most Americans understood what he meant and pivoted to Republican opposition to abortion rights.
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