In first interview of presidential campaign, Harris defends shifting from some liberal positions

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday defended shifting away from her some of her more liberal positions in her first major television interview of her presidential campaign, but insisted her “values have not changed,” even as she is “seeking consensus.”

Harris sat with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. She was asked about changes in her policies over the years. Specifically, about her reversals on fracking and decriminalizing illegal border crossings.

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said.

She went on to say: “I believe it is important to build consensus. It is important to find a common place of understanding where we can actually solve the problem.”

The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash comes as voters are still trying to learn more about the Democratic ticket. It’s an unusually compressed time frame — Joe Biden stepped down just five weeks ago. It was focused largely on policy. Harris sought to show that she had adopted more moderate positions on issues that Republicans argue are extreme. Walz defended past misstatements.

Joint interviews during an election year are a fixture in politics. Biden and Harris, Trump and Mike Pence, Barack Obama and Biden — all did them at a similar point in the race. The difference is those other candidates had all done solo interviews, too. Harris hadn’t done an in-depth interview since she became her party’s standard bearer five weeks ago. However, she did sit for several while she was still Biden’s running mate.

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Harris said serving with Biden was “one of the greatest honors of my career,” as she recounted the moment he called to tell her he was stepping down and would support her.
“He told me what he had decided to do and … I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ and he said, ‘Yes,’ and that’s how I learned about it.”

She said she didn’t ask Biden to endorse her because “he was very clear that he was going to endorse me.”

Harris defended the administration’s record on the southern border and immigration, noting that she was tasked with trying to address the “root causes” in other countries that were driving the border crossings.

“We have laws that have to be followed and enforced, that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally, and there should be consequences,” Harris said.

Asked about Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, Harris said, “I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself.” But the vice president also reiterated what she’s said for months, that civilian deaths are too high amid the fighting.

She also brushed off Republican Donald Trump’s questioning of her racial identity after he said she “happened to turn Black.” Harris, who is of Black and South Asian heritage, said it was the “same old, tired playbook.”

“Next question, please.”

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During the interview, Walz watched quietly and nodded when Harris made her main points. Bash asked about misstatements, starting with how he described his 24 years of service in the National Guard.

In a 2018 video clip that the Harris-Walz campaign once circulated, Walz spoke out against gun violence. “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at,” he said. 

Critics said the comment “that I carried in war” suggested that Walz portrayed himself as someone who spent time in a combat zone. But a campaign spokesperson said he misspoke.

Asked about statements that appeared to indicate that he and his wife conceived their children with in-vitro fertilization. They used a less controversial fertility treatment. He said he believes most Americans get that it’s the Trump campaign that’s splitting hairs.

“We’re here to speak truth and one of the things that we know is that this is going to be a tight race to the end,” she said.

Harris went through a list of Democratic concerns: that Trump will further restrict women’s rights after he appointed three judges to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn Roe, that he’d repeal the Affordable Care Act, and that given new immunity powers granted presidents by the U.S. Supreme Court, “imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails.”

The rally was the end of a two-day bus tour in southeastern Georgia. Harris has another campaign blitz on Labor Day with Biden in Detroit and Pittsburgh with the election rapidly approaching. Voters will receive the first mail ballots in two weeks. 
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Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Sagar Meghani and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.