Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent interview with CNN’s Dana Bash was a missed opportunity for the presidential nominee to differentiate herself from President Joe Biden’s policies. Despite being given multiple chances to explain how her views diverged from Biden’s, Harris failed to provide any meaningful distinctions.
Bash posed several questions that begged Harris to clarify her stances on various issues, both foreign and domestic. However, Harris consistently refused to provide clear answers, instead parroting the same policies that have been in place for the past four years.
One notable exchange occurred when Bash asked Harris to address the economy under former President Donald Trump. Harris falsely claimed that she took office “during the height of a pandemic” and that the economy had “crashed.” In reality, the economy was growing rapidly when Biden took office, with millions of jobs being created every month.
Harris also attempted to downplay her leftist positions on immigration and energy, which she still holds despite her evasive answers. When questioned about her stance on fracking, Harris claimed she made clear in a 2020 debate that she would not ban fracking. However, this was a statement of Biden’s policy, not hers.
Harris’s dishonesty was further exposed when she tried to explain her shift on fracking. She attributed her change of heart to the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed two years after her debate with Pence. It is clear that Harris has not changed her views on fracking since 2019.
A similar lack of transparency was evident in Harris’s answer on immigration. In 2019, Harris was among the Democratic candidates who advocated for decriminalizing illegal border crossings. However, when asked about this by Bash, Harris provided an evasive answer, stating that there “should be consequences” for those who cross the border illegally.
Harris’s campaign has repeatedly stated that unauthorized border crossings are illegal, which is just a statement of current law. It reveals nothing about what Harris thinks the law should be.
The interview highlighted Harris’s tendency to speak unclearly and avoid providing direct answers. When she does, it usually means she is either thinking unclearly or deliberately covering something up. Harris’s performance was marked by trademark vague statements, such as “the climate crisis is real, and it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.”
