Vice President Kamala Harris stepped out of the shadows for her first sit-down interview since launching her campaign Thursday, in which she failed to explain why her aides have reversed several of her policy stances and reflected on her time serving with President Joe Biden.
More than a month after becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee, Harris’ campaign finally agreed for her sit for an interview with CNN accompanied by her running mate Gov. Tim Walz. In an interview just under half an hour, Harris and Walz answered questions about the governor’s military service lies and Harris’s flip-flops since her last run for president.
CNN’s Dana Bash opened the interview by asking Harris what she would accomplish on day one should she win the presidential election. After Harris told Bash she would “strengthen the middle class” and kicked it to Walz to provide his insight, the CNN host doubled down.
“So you have been vice president for three and a half years, the steps that you’re talking about now, why haven’t you done them already?” Bash asked.
“Well, first of all, we had to recover as an economy, and we have done that. I’m very proud of the work that we have done that has brought inflation down to less than 3%, the work that we have done to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors. Donald Trump said he was going to do a number of things, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Never happened. We did it,” Harris said.
Bash moved on to ask Harris about a series of flip-flops her campaign aides had made on behalf of the vice president.
“When you were in Congress, you supported the green New Deal, and in 2019 you said, quote, ‘There is no question, I’m in favor of banning fracking.’ Fracking, as you know, is a pretty big issue, particularly in your must win state of Pennsylvania. Do you still want to ban fracking?” Bash asked.
Harris first told the CNN host that she no longer wanted to ban fracking and that she had made that clear in 2020. Bash pointed out that Harris had previously said in a 2019 town hall that she did in fact want to ban fracking. The CNN host proceeded to ask the vice president why she wanted to change her 2019 position during 2020. (RELATED: Kamala Harris Fails To Distance Herself From Left-Wing 2020 Campaign, Despite Aides’ Best Efforts)
Bash also hit Harris for her role overseeing the border crisis during her time as vice president. Harris was asked if she still believes border crossings should be decriminalized, a position she took during her 2019 campaign. She did not directly answer the question, simply stating that she believes in “consequence” and that “we have laws that have to be followed and enforced”
Amid the flip-flops within the interview, Bash asked the vice president how she expected the American people to interpret her policy platform — which still is not defined on her campaign website.
“Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the changes that you’ve made that you explained some of here in your policy? Is it because you have more experience now and you’ve learned more about the information? Is it because you were running for president in a Democratic primary, and should they feel comfortable that what you’re saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is that my values have not changed,” Harris began. “You mentioned the green New Deal. I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time. We did that with the inflation Reduction Act. We have set goals for the United States of America, and by extension, the globe around when we should meet certain standards for reducing house gas emissions, as an example, that value has not changed.”
CNN also dove into Biden’s disastrous debate performance which put in motion the effort to oust the president and replace him with Harris. After Biden stumbled through a June 27 debate performance against Trump, Democrats sounded the alarm on the 81-year-old’s fitness for office and ability to be president for a second term. Amid the post-debate hysteria, Harris took to CNN to defend the president’s health and mental acuity. (RELATED: Kamala Harris Used To Think Border Wall Was ‘Un-American.’ Now She Supports It.)
“Do you have any regrets about what you told the American people [about Biden’s health]?” Bash asked.
“Not at all,” Harris responded, explaining Biden’s loyalty towards the American people.
The interview did not entirely focus on Harris. After sitting quietly for the first half of the interview, Walz took questions about his series of lies, including about his military record.
Walz’s military record previously came under fire after the Harris campaign shared a 2018 video of the potential vice president pushing for gun control, saying that “those weapons of war, that I carried in war” should stay only in combat. The governor, however, never saw combat.
Bash pushed Walz to explain if he misspoke twice.
“I said we were talking about, in this case, this was after a school shooting. The ideas of carrying these weapons of war and my wife, the English teacher, tells me my grammar is not always correct, but again, if it’s not this, it’s an attack on my children for showing love for me, or it’s an attack on my dog, I’m not going to do that. And the one thing I’ll never do is I’ll never demean another member’s service in any way. I never have. I never will,” the governor said.
Walz was also caught lying about he and his wife using in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments to help start a family, as well as a past DUI.
“You had to clarify that you had said that you and your wife used IVF, but it turned out you used a different kind of fertility in order to have children. And then, when you ran for Congress in 2006 to campaign, you repeatedly made false statements about a 1995 arrest for drunken reckless driving. What do you say to voters who aren’t sure whether they can take you at your word?” Bash asked.
Walz began his answer telling Bash he had former students and veterans who served with him who can vouch for his character. The governor then pivoted to talk about he and Harris’s opponents.
“I certainly own my mistakes when I make them. The one thing I’ll tell you is I wished in this country we wouldn’t have to do this. I spoke about our infertility issues, because it’s hell, and families know this. And I spoke about the treatments that were available to us, that had beautiful children there. That’s quite a contrast in folks that are trying to take those rights away from us,” Walz began.
“And so I think people know who I am. They know that record. They’ve seen that I’ve taught thousands of students. I’ve been out there, and I won’t apologize for speaking passionately, whether it’s guns in schools or protecting reproductive rights, the contrast could not be clear between what we’re running against,” he continued.
Speaking for less than thirty minutes, Harris and Walz left more to be answered for on what their campaign stands for, but for some, it was at least somewhat satisfying.
“Maybe she didn’t score a touchdown tonight, but she moved the ball down the field,” Ashley Allison, former national coalitions director for Biden-Harris 2020 campaign, said afterwards on CNN.