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CV NEWS FEED // Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday for the candidate’s first media interview since President Joe Biden exited the 2024 race and endorsed her over a month ago.
Prior to the interview, a chorus of critics across the political spectrum had accused Harris of “avoiding” journalists in the 39 days since Biden dropped out. Harris was joined in the Thursday interview by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
At the beginning of the interview, Bash asked Harris: “If you are elected, what would you do on day one?”
“There are a number of things,” the vice president answered. “I will tell you first and foremost one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class.”
“People are ready for a new way forward,” Harris said:
I think sadly in the last decade, we have had in the former president someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans, really dividing our nation, and I think people are ready to turn the page.
Critics immediately pointed out that Harris’ talk of a “new way” and “turning the page” contrasts with the fact that she and Biden have been governing the country for over three-and-a-half years.
Bash subsequently asked Harris what she would “say to voters who do want to go back when it comes to the economy specifically, because their groceries are less expensive, housing was more affordable when Donald Trump was president?”
Harris responded by largely attributing the economic downturn during the COVID outbreak to “mismanagement by Donald Trump.”
“You are right,” Harris said. “Prices, in particular for groceries, are still too high. The American people know it, I know it.”
“Which is why my agenda includes what we need to do to bring down the price of groceries, for example, dealing with an issue like price gouging,” she continued, leaning into her controversial proposed price control plan.
Earlier this month, liberal-leaning columnist Catherine Rampell said of Harris’ policy: “We’ve seen this kind of thing tried in lots of other countries before: Venezuela, Argentina, the Soviet Union, etc. It leads to shortages. It leads to black markets.”
Bash also asked Harris to explain her stance on hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as “fracking”), a practice specifically important to the economy of Pennsylvania, a key battleground state.
“When you were in Congress you supported the Green New Deal, and in 2019, you said ‘There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,’” the CNN hostess told Harris. “Do you still want to ban fracking?”
“No,” Harris answered. “And I made that clear on the debate stage of 2020.”
Bash pressed Harris again on anti-fracking remarks the then-senator made to a climate activist during a 2019 town hall.
“I’ve kept my word and I will keep my word,” Harris emphasized.
Bash then asked her: “What made you change that position at the time?”
“Let’s be clear,” Harris replied. “My values have not changed.”
Later in the interview, Bash pointed out that Harris was a “very staunch defender of President Biden’s capacity to serve another four years.”
“Right after the debate you insisted that President Biden is extraordinarily strong,” Bash added.
“No, not at all,” Harris answered.
Bash was referring to the pivotal June 27 debate between Biden and Trump, which she co-moderated. Biden’s heavily panned performance in the debate was widely viewed as a catalyst that led to the end of his re-election campaign.
“I think history is going to show a number of things about Joe Biden’s presidency,” Harris said later in the interview. “I think that history is going to show that in so many ways it was transformative.”
Bringing the vice presidential candidate along for the interview rather than undergoing scrutiny alone was an unusual choice for a presidential nominee, and many critics have questioned the move.
Bash questioned Walz about criticisms that he is guilty of “stolen valor” for allegedly misrepresenting and embellishing parts of his military record.
“You said that you carried weapons in war, but you have never deployed actually in a war zone,” Bash said. “A campaign official said that you misspoke. Did you?”
“Well first of all, I’m incredibly proud,” Walz answered. “I’ve done 24 years of wearing the uniform of this country.”
“I think people are coming to get to know me, I speak like they do,” the governor said. “I speak candidly. I wear my emotions on my sleeves, and I speak especially passionately about our children being shot in schools.”
Walz made his controversial “in war” remark during a speech in which he advocated for stricter gun control.
“I think people know me,” Walz continued. “They know who I am. They know where my heart is.”
Bash again pressed Walz as to whether he misspoke when he claimed he was “in war.”
Walz quipped that his wife, an English teacher, told him his “grammar is not always correct.”
“But again,” he continued. “If it’s not this it’s an attack on my children for showing love for me or it’s an attack on my dog.”
Following the interview, CNN contributor and Republican strategist Scott Jennings said that Harris “is making it clear that she will embrace and be a continuation of Biden’s economic policy, his record.”
“She offered no remorse, no regrets, no introspection about anything they’ve done,” Jennings noted. “She continued to blame inflation on this fantasy price gouging idea.”
“If I were the Trump people, I would be salivating over the idea that that’s how they are going to run the race,” he stressed.
Tim Murtaugh, a senior advisor to Trump, said during a post-interview FOX News appearance that it “was a disaster.”
“She demonstrated to Americans that you cannot believe what she said,” Murtaugh stated. “You cannot trust her and she proved it tonight.”
“This interview will be with her for a long, long time,” he added.
