Vice President Kamala Harris said helping address economic woes and bolstering the middle class would be her day one priority, in her critical first interview since capturing the Democratic presidential nomination.
“I think that people are ready for a new way forward, in a way that generations of Americans have been fueled by hope and by optimism,” Harris told CNN, adding that she believed voters were ready “to turn the page” on former President Donald Trump, her Republican rival.
Whether Harris, the sitting vice president, can embody that change was a central question of the interview, which took on an outsized importance with just over two months until Election Day. And in many ways, the session embodied the bob-and-weave strategy Harris has employed since July, when President Joe Biden, damaged by his debate performance against Trump, dropped out of the race.
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Harris said her day one priority would be addressing middle class economic woes, without citing many specific policies she would implement. Even so, she defended Biden’s economic record, citing job gains and the “fastest” pandemic recovery among “wealthy” nations.
“There’s more to do. But that’s good work,” she said.
Harris straddled tough questions about past positions that have excited progressives—and newer, more moderate iterations—by insisting her values had not changed, even as she refined her platform. And she and running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, batted away controversies over the postpandemic economic recovery and past misstatements, saying they were confident voters were far more concerned about Trump’s platform.
The interview ultimately seemed unlikely to dramatically remake perceptions among loyalists on either side. For supporters, Harris avoided a major gaffe likely to reset a race moving in her favor, while skeptics hoping for more details and precision from the Democratic nominee seemed sure to leave frustrated.
But the key test will be how moderate voters interpret Harris’ unscripted handling of questions that pressed hard on details of her policy platform, including support for an immigration deal that includes the construction of additional border wall or allowing fracking—two policies she campaigned against when previously running for president.
Policy shifts
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” the vice president said.
But Harris acknowledged she had adopted feedback from “traveling the country extensively” as vice president—leading to some of the significant policy changes from her 2020 presidential campaign.
“I believe it is important to build consensus, and it is important to find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems,” she said.
On fracking, Harris said she had altered her position during the previous campaign—and voted to protect fracking as vice president.
“What I have seen is that we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking,” Harris said.
And the vice president said her decision to support a bipartisan immigration bill compared favorably to Trump, who scuttled the deal out of concern it could benefit Democrats ahead of the election by lobbying fellow Republicans. Harris said if elected, she would “make sure” the bill came to her desk.
Pressed on whether she still supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings, Harris said there “should be consequences” for undocumented migrants and that she would enforce the law. But the vice president stopped short of explicitly endorsing criminal penalties.
Trump, at an event Thursday in Wisconsin, criticized Harris’ demeanor in the interview.
“She was sitting behind that desk, this massive desk, and she didn’t look like a leader to me, I’ll be honest,” Trump said. “I don’t see her negotiating with President Xi of China, I don’t see her with Kim Jong Un.”
Republican in Cabinet
On Gaza, the vice president’s message was consistent with that of the Biden administration. Harris stated her “unequivocal and unwavering” support for Israel’s security, but said the manner in which the country defends itself matters.
“Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed” as part of Israel’s response to the October 7 attack, she said, calling for the completion of a cease-fire agreement that includes the release of hostages held by Hamas.
“Let’s get the hostages out, let’s get the cease-fire done,” Harris said, declining to push for a policy change on the provision of weapons to Israel.
Harris also said she was hoping to be a president for “all Americans”—and would look to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet as a signal she was pursuing bipartisan consensus. Harris said she did not have a particular person in mind.
“I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion,” Harris said. “I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”
Trump’s campaign also criticized Harris for sitting for the interview alongside Walz, though candidates—including the former president—have traditionally conducted joint interviews around their national conventions. Walz was pressed on past misstatements about his military service, a decades-old drunk driving arrest, and the method of his wife’s fertility treatment.
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Walz conceded misstatements but chalked them up to grammatical errors or wearing his “emotion on my sleeves.”
“I won’t apologize for speaking passionately, whether its guns in schools or reproductive rights,” he said.
Some Republicans chided Harris for saying that on the climate crisis the U.S. should hold “ourselves to deadlines around time,” suggesting the remark hearkened back to other verbal miscues during her career.
But Trump himself spent Thursday evening mired in a controversy over his apparent endorsement—and subsequent backtrack—around a Florida ballot measure that would extend abortion rights.
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‘Day one’
For Harris, the interview offered an important signpost as she continues to introduce herself to the country—a branding effort that has sought to depict the former California prosecutor and senator as a happy warrior for the middle class.
“Day one, it’s going to be about one implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy,” Harris told CNN. “I’ve already laid out a number of proposals in that regard, which include what we’re going to do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we’re going to do to invest in America’s small businesses, what we’re going to do to invest in families.”
So far, her campaign has consolidated support across the Democratic Party and rocketed ahead in the polls, with the vice president holding a small but steady lead nationally and in key swing states in most recent surveys.
Key to maintaining or growing that advantage will be navigating difficult questions about how Harris would represent a change from Biden, particularly with voters still concerned about the impact of post-pandemic inflation on their pocketbooks.
Harris took some of Trump’s barbs head on, including his assertion at a conference for Black journalists that she had only embraced her Black heritage for political purposes.
“Same old, tired playbook,” Harris said. “Next question, please.”
