The first excerpts have dropped of a much-anticipated CNN sit-down interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, in which Harris is asked about her evolving views.
The vice president's campaign to appeal to the consensus of America has put her at odds with some positions she took in the 2020 Democratic primary, when she espoused positions like Medicare for all and fracking prohibitions, which she is no longer running on. Former President Donald Trump continues to hit her over some of these policies.
In her first major sit-down interview with CNN's Dana Bash alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris put these shifts into perspective — making clear that while specific policies she advocates may evolve over time, her values and her way of reasoning are grounded and uncompromising.
"Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the changes that you've made, that you've explained some of here, in your policy?" asked Bash. "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 and confident that what you're saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?"
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"Dana, I think that the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed," said Harris.
She gave two examples of this, starting with her past support for the Green New Deal — a sweeping framework that called for massive federal spending to reduce greenhouse emissions.
"I have always believed, and I 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, globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as an example. That value has not changed."
For her second example, she said, "My value around what we need to do to secure our border, that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the attorney general of California, prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, violations of American laws regarding the passage, illegal passage, of guns, drugs, and human beings across our border. My values have not changed."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
