In her first interview as the Democratic nominee, US Vice-President Kamala Harris defended her policy revisions, President Joe Biden, and her time in the White House.
Ms. Harris said that following the pandemic, the Biden administration was able to “recover the economy” and cut down on unauthorised border crossings in recent months.
She praised the White House’s programs as a “success,” mentioning in particular the drop in unemployment and the price of prescription drugs: “That’s good work.” There’s work to be done.
In the prerecorded CNN interview, Ms. Harris made an appearance alongside her campaign mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. It was her first time running for president.
The vice-president was forced to defend the White House’s economic track record, as inflation and high cost-of-living prices continue to sting American pocketbooks. Polls have regularly suggested that voters would prefer Republican candidate Donald Trump’s handling of the economy.
But the most tense exchanges between Ms Harris and CNN interviewer Dana Bash centred on the assertion that the Democratic nominee’s policy positions had undergone “changes” during her time as vice-president and as a presidential candidate.
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” she said when asked why her positions shifted in recent years.
Trump had already dismissed the vice-president’s first interview, which lasted 27 minutes, before its release because it was pre-taped and included Mr Walz.
He used a single-word in his review after it concluded.
“BORING!!!” the former president wrote on Truth Social.
Harris questioned about fracking and climate change position
Ms Harris referred to her effort to address climate change and support of the Green New Deal, a Democratic proposal to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, as something that remains a steadfast value when pressured about her shifting policy positions.
“I have always believed, and I’ve worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter,” she said.
The vice-president pointed to the Biden administration’s work on the Inflation Reduction Act, which funnelled hundreds of billions of dollars to renewable energy and electric vehicle tax credit and rebate programs.
“We have set goals for the United States of America, and by extension the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Ms Harris did not explain her reversal on banning fracking – a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock used by an industry that is particularly strong in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Ms Harris had said that “there is no question I’m in favour of banning fracking” during a CNN town hall in 2019. But she has backpedalled on that view since becoming vice-president – even casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate on new fracking leases.
In the CNN interview on Thursday, she said: “As president, I will not ban fracking.”
Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesperson, said on social media that the Biden administration’s “clean energy investments have proven the ability to make progress on climate without those past stances”.
Harris adopts Biden policies on immigration and Gaza
That “passion” also extended to his incorrect assertion that his wife had received in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments – which have become a political lightning rod in the US debate over abortion access – to conceive their children.
She received intrauterine insemination, not IVF, though doctors have said that the two fertilisation treatments are often referred to interchangeably.
Mr Walz said his record speaks for itself. He said he did not believe that Americans were “cutting hairs” between the two.
The Minnesota governor was also asked about his son, Gus, who went viral when he proudly proclaimed “That’s my dad” at the Democratic National Convention.
“It was just such a visceral, emotional moment that I’m grateful I got to experience it – and I’m so proud of him.”
Harris details Biden’s decision to drop out of race
Ms Harris described the moment that President Biden called her to share that he had decided to end his re-election bid in July.
She said her family was visiting her when she received the phone call. They had just eaten pancakes and bacon and were working on a puzzle.
“My first thought was not about me, to be honest with you, my first thought was about him,” Ms Harris said when asked whether she asked for his endorsement.
The vice-president also maintained that the president could have served again.
“He is so smart, and I have spent hours upon hours with him being in the Oval Office and in the situation room. He has the intelligence, the commitment and judgment and disposition that I think the American people rightly deserve in their president.”
She said Trump, by contrast, had none of those qualities.
BBC