“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 on that,” Harris said in her first major sit-down interview since she became the Democratic nominee.
It was testing interview, with CNN’s Dana Bash relaying doubts from nativist Americans about her identity, her performance as VP, and her shifting positions, but Harris kept her cool. She was confident and assertive, dancing around “gotcha” questions and threading the needle on delicate ones. There was no very little charisma, but she was competent, and emerged largely unscathed, the outcome of the interview captured in a headline in Wall Street Journal (not exactly enamored of her) that read “Kamala Harris Soars Above CNN.”
One of the highlights of the interview was the disdain with which she dismissed Dana Bash channelling Trump’s bogus allegation that she only embraced her Indian heritage and “turned black” only recently for political purposes.
“Same old tired playbook. Next question, please,” Harris said with a chuckle.
Bash: That’s it?
Harris: That’s it.
Takeaways from CNN’s joint interview Harris and Walz interview
Bash sought to corner her on Trump’s major line of attack — why has she not done in 3.5 years the things she is now promising to do. Harris cited the time the Biden administration needed to pull the country out of the pandemic and the cratered economy (which she blamed on Trump policies), reeling off the administration’s achievements and insisting it had done a good job, but “there’s more to do.”
“A lot of our policies have led to the reality that America recovered faster than any wealthy nation around the world,” Harris maintained.
She also stood up for President Biden and his policies, praising the stalwart who made way for her nomination for his intelligence, judgment and disposition. “By contrast, the former president has none of that,” she said in another swipe at Trump, who expectedly, thought the interview was “boring,” and Kamala was “rambling and incoherent,” words that are often applied to him.
But unlike the bombast and bluster — not to speak of brazen falsehoods and meaningless digressions — that characterize Trump’s all-too-frequent interviews, Harris was focused, even though she danced around some questions.
She finessed her reversal on the issue of fracking, an oil and gas extraction method that releases greenhouse gases, but is favored by Trump because it creates jobs and makes the US energy surplus. While insisting that her “values have not changed” and she still believes climate change is a real and present danger, Harris said, rather unconvincingly, that she had realized as far back as 2020 that “we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”
The fracking issue is potent in energy-rich Pennsylvania, a battleground state whose 19 electoral votes could be decisive the 2024 election.
Harris also pushed back on the perception promoted by MAGA that she has thrown open the US to illegal immigration, saying her work on investments in countries south of the border had reduced illegal border crossings. She also reminded her host that she was the only in the race that person who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who traffic in guns, drugs, and human beings.
Asked if she still stood by her past statements that illegal border crossings should be decriminalised, she indirectly confirmed a change of heart on the issue, saying “there should be consequence” and she would “enforce our laws as president going forward.”
Harris was flanked at the interview by her running mate Tim Walz, who — contrary to the MAGA theory that she’d hide behind him — kept a low profile and allowed her to take centerstage. Still, the MAGA media worked itself into a lather on the interview, complaining that she got softball questions, dished out “word salad” “not ready for prime time” etc.