Kamala Harris: ‘My values are the same’

Thirty-nine days after Joe Biden stepped aside from his reelection bid, Vice President Kamala Harris gave her first interview as the Democratic presidential candidate, broadcast by CNN. Although she had previously spoken with reporters who have been following her campaign and chatted with a couple of influencers at the Democratic National Convention, she had yet to face an unscripted televised interview.

Posing the questions was Dana Bash, CNN’s chief political correspondent and one of the network’s stars. They sat around a table at a restaurant in Savannah, in the hotly contested state of Georgia, accompanied by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris’ vice-presidential pick.

It was not a revealing interview, nor did it offer much detail about Harris’ proposed policies. But, with no gaffes or hesitations, she appeared to achieve what her campaign was seeking: for Harris to emerge unscathed before her first debate against Republican candidate Donald Trump, scheduled for September 10 in Philadelphia.

The recorded conversation — broadcast with no edits, according to Bash — focused on Harris’ shifts in opinion on issues such as fracking, irregular immigration, and the border crisis, all of which have been a major source of ammunition for the Republican campaign. What, Bash wanted to know, was the difference between the Kamala Harris who made an unsuccessful bid to be presidential candidate in 2019 and the Kamala Harris of 2024, a more centrist figure who could be the first woman to occupy the Oval Office and who has still to convince a legion of undecideds.

“My values are the same,” she said. “I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed.” She added that in her four years as vice president she had traveled “extensively” around the country and “17 times” to Georgia. This had taught her the importance of building “consensus,” she said, adding, “it is important to find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems.”

When asked about her stance on fracking, she said, “As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.” This is a highly sensitive issue in Pennsylvania, one of the swing states she needs to win to become president.

She also said she would enforce the law on the border. “Let’s be clear, in this race, I’m the only person who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who traffic in guns, drugs, and human beings,” she said. “I’m the only person in this race who actually served a border state as attorney general to enforce our laws. And I would enforce our laws as president going forward. I recognize the problem.”

When asked what she plans to do on her first day in the White House, Harris missed the opportunity to specify the content of her program. After defending the economic performance of the Biden administration, she promised to strengthen the middle class, work to lower the price of groceries, and reduce the cost of housing; owning a home, she added, is “part of the American dream.”

“When I look at the aspirations, the goals, the ambitions of the American people, I think that people are ready for a new way forward in a way that generations of Americans have been fueled by — by hope and by optimism,” she explained, marking the contrast between her campaign and that of her rival, Donald Trump, who the Democrats accuse of being obsessed with the past.

In a nod to her centrist position in a country torn in two, Harris said she is open to appointing a Republican to her administration. When asked for a name, Harris answered that she had no one in particular in mind. “We’ve got 68 days to go with this election, so I’m not putting the cart before the horse. But I would. I think it’s really important. I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. 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 is a Republican.”

Regarding Trump’s personal attacks on her, specifically the one at the end of July when Trump accused her of happening to turn Black for political purposes, self-servingly prioritizing the identity of her father (Jamaican), over that of her mother (Indian), she gave the briefest of replies. “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” she said with a laugh, inviting Bash to move swiftly on.

Then there was the thorny issue of the U.S. administration’s financing of Benjamin Netanyahu’s offensive in Gaza, which has already caused more than 40,000 Palestinian deaths. Harris repeated the arguments she has been making in recent weeks. “We have to get a deal done,” she declared. “I remain committed since I’ve been on October 8 to what we must do to work toward a two-state solution where Israel is secure and in equal measure the Palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity.”

As for the Sunday when President Biden called her to say he was stepping back from his candidacy bid, Harris recalled that she was with her family doing a puzzle. “My first thought was not about me to be honest with you. My first thought was about him,” she told Bash.

Republican criticism

The decision to be interviewed with Tim Walz sparked criticism from Republicans, who accused her of cowardice for not going it alone. He said little in the first half of the interview, which lasted 27 minutes, but after a while he had to respond to the controversies in which he has become embroiled since he made the leap to national politics, namely exaggerating his military past and his recollections of the fertility treatments that his wife went through. “My grammar is not always correct,” he apologized. Walz also talked about his son’s emotional reaction to his father’s speech at the Democratic convention.

The Democratic campaign has pointed out that the option of appearing with the second-in-command is not unusual and had been done by Trump with his former vice president, Mike Pence, and more recently with his current running mate, J. D. Vance. When the CNN broadcast ended, Trump wrote on his Truth Social network, all caps, “BORING!!!”

After the interview, Walz and Harris embarked on a mini-election tour of Georgia. At a rally there, Harris pointed out that Georgia had voted a Democrat into office in 2020 for the first time since 1992, and that this support had been crucial to Biden making it to the White House. She also congratulated the state for electing senators from her party in the last two elections. The polls, which have shifted in the Democrats’ favor since Biden stepped aside, indicate for the first time in many months that the Democratic candidate could be in with a chance in Georgia, although the margin is minimal.

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