Presidential candidate and current Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash, alongside and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), for the Democratic ticket’s first major press interview since the Democratic National Convention.
After facing weeks of pressure from political commentators and reporters over her lack of availability, Harris for the first time responded to questions about her proposals to increase taxes and implement price controls, as well as her 180 degree reversal on several health care and border security policies she had supported as a U.S. Senator and Democratic candidate in 2019.
Walz, for his part, was forced to confront a litany of misrepresentations, embellishments, falsehoods and outright lies he and his political allies have told since 2006 about his personal and political biography.
Bash’s questions ranged from the economy, Vice President Harris’s past statements on fracking and immigration, Gov. Walz’s military record, President Joe Biden’s mental state, and former President Donald Trump’s opinion on Harris’s race.
Harris’s struggle began with the first question when she was asked about her day-one priorities.
“Well, there are a number of things. 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,” said Harris
“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,” she added.
Harris was light on any specifics regarding her policy plans for the middle class, and Bash was forced to repeat her question to elicit a more specific response — one of the few instances where Bash tried to prevent the Democrat from meandering around a question.
Even after the question was repeated, Harris spoke vaguely about her “opportunity economy” plan.
The only specific detail she gave was to promise a $6,000 child tax credit for the first year of a child’s life.
President Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, previously proposed a similar measure, leading to widespread accusations that Harris was lifting yet another policy from her rivals.
Harris’ copycat move was all the more egregious considering she previously opposed a Trump-era bill to expand child tax credits.
Bash then steered the questions toward the economy, attempting to suss out how Harris can position herself as a challenger candidate when she’s part of the presidential administration currently running the country.
“There’s a crisis of affordability. One of your campaign themes is, ‘We’re not going back.’ But I wonder what you say to voters who do want to go back when it comes to the economy specifically because their groceries were less expensive, housing was more affordable when Donald Trump was president,” said Bash.
Harris argued that under the Biden-Harris administration, the country recovered from the COVID pandemic.
She touted the reduction of the inflation growth rate to three percent, but as of April, cumulative inflation was still up 18.9 percent since President Biden took office in 2021.
Harris also brought that discussion back to the child tax credits, mentioned her plans to stop “price-gouging” on groceries by imposing price controls on food, and reiterated her plan to give $25,000 to first-time homebuyers.
Harris then faced a question about why she hasn’t yet implemented any of the changes she promises to bring if elected, since she has already been in office for over three years.
Harris defended herself with a vague statement about the economy needing to “recover.”
“Well, first of all, we had to recover as an economy, and we have done that,” said Harris, an explanation Bash appeared to accept.
Harris then highlighted the three percent inflation growth rate and touted the $35 per month price cap on insulin for senior citizens. (That policy was first implemented by Trump via an executive order before Biden froze the order, later reinstated the plan, and took credit for it.)
Harris also refused to directly answer whether she believes that “Bidenomics” has been a success, an issue that will likely continue to dog her campaign as she attempts to convince voters she can improve the governance of the country despite being Vice President for the past three years.
Bash then moved on to asking Harris about the dramatic shifts in her policy proposals between her 2020 and 2024 campaigns.
She pointed out that in 2019, Harris promised to ban fracking, a position which she has since reversed.
Harris refused to admit that she had ever promised to ban fracking, despite Bash citing a direct quote.
“In 2020 I made very clear where I stand. We are in 2024, and I have not changed that position, nor will I going forward. I kept my word, and I will keep my word,” said Harris “Well, let’s be clear. My values have not changed.”
Fracking, which is a technique used to extract natural gas, has drastically expanded the reachable energy reserves in the U.S. and spurred massive economic growth in areas of the country with fossil fuel reserves, especially Pennsylvania.
Because of the huge number of jobs fracking supports in Pennsylvania, and that state’s crucial role as a battleground state in recent presidential elections, Harris position on fracking could be significant for the outcome of the Nov. 5 election.
CNN itself fact-checked Harris’ claim after the interview aired, showing that Harris did not rescind her support for fracking bans in 2020.
“She did not actually make clear at a 2020 debate that she had changed her previous support for a fracking ban,” said CNN’s Daniel Dale.
On immigration, Bash asked Harris why the Biden-Harris administration waited over three years to take action to limit asylum seekers despite an unprecedented number of illegal entries on their watch.
Harris blamed conservatives for her failures on border security and claimed that fewer immigrants have crossed the southern border since she started working to address the “root causes” of illegal immigration.
“The number of immigrants coming from that region has actually reduced since we’ve began that work,” said Harris.
The year before Harris was appointed “border czar” at the start of Biden’s regime in 2021 and tasked with addressing the “root causes” of illegal immigration, Border Patrol reported 405,036 encounters.
In 2021, that number more than doubled to 1,956,519. In 2022, it was up to 2,766,582. 2023 saw the record broken again with 3,201,114 encounters, and 2024 has already seen 2,597,784 encounters.
“I believe there should be consequence. We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally,” said Harris.
Harris then refused to answer a question about Trump’s statements that Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican descent, only began to portray herself as African American for political gain.
“Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” she said.
She refused to elaborate further when pushed by Bash.
Although Walz came to the interview to support Harris, he did little to help her answer the difficult questions, but he did become the subject of a difficult question of his own.
Bash confronted Walz about his military career and his public lie that he carried weapons in war despite never being deployed in combat.
“You said that you carried weapons in war, but you have never deployed actually in a war zone. A campaign official said that you misspoke. Did you?” said Bash.
Walz defended himself, stating that his military record “speaks for itself” and reassuring viewers that he is proud of his time in the military, although he is equally proud of his tenure as a public school teacher.
“Equally proud of my service in a public school classroom, whether it’s Congress or — or the governor. My record speaks for itself, but I think people are coming to get to know me. I — I speak like they do. I speak candidly,” said Walz.
He suggested that he misspoke because he was distracted by the idea of school shootings, then blamed his bad grammar for the overt lie.
Following that answer, Walz outright ignored a question about his congressional campaign denying his DUI arrest. In 1995, Walz was arrested for driving 96 mph in a 55 mph zone and subsequently charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.
After Walz failed to answer Bash’s questions, the conversation turned back to Harris, who has no regrets about telling the American people that Biden was mentally fit to serve another four years, shortly before he was ousted from the race.
“I have served with President Biden for almost four years now. And I’ll tell you, it’s one of the greatest honors of my career, truly. He cares so deeply about the American people. He is so smart,” said Harris. “He has the intelligence, the commitment, and the judgment and disposition that I think the American people rightly deserve in their president.”
Trump responded to the interview by posting “Boring!” on Truth Social, before expanding on his comments during a Michigan rally.
“She didn’t want to go in alone. How do you think President Xi is going to deal with this? Oh, he’s just, he’s just savoring it,” said Trump, “The people just want to see if she can get through the interview.
After the interview aired, CNN drew criticism for displaying “live” over the pre-recorded footage, misleading viewers.
Independent journalist Kyle Becker reported that CNN originally had 41 minutes of interview footage, which they trimmed down to the 18 minutes of aired footage.
The Maine Wire was unable to independently verify that claim.
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