Harris says ‘values haven’t changed’ in first interview of her US campaign – National
vice-president Kamala Harris said Thursday that “my values have not changed” when questioned along with her running mate, the governor of Minnesota. Tim Walz in their first major television interview of their presidential campaign.
The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash gives Harris a chance to quell criticism that she has avoided uncontrolled environments, while giving her a new platform to define her campaign and test her political mettle ahead of an upcoming debate with former President Donald Trump scheduled for Sept. 10. But it also carries risks as her team tries to capitalize on the ticket-shuffling momentum following Joe Biden’s departure and last week’s Democratic National Convention.
The full CNN interview is scheduled to air at 9 p.m. ET. It was recorded at 1:45 p.m. at Kim’s Cafe, a local black-owned restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, and a clip was released Thursday afternoon. In that clip, Harris was asked about changes in her policies over the years.
“I think the most important and significant aspect of my political perspective and my decisions is that my values have not changed,” Harris responded, citing as evidence her support for climate change legislation and border security.
Joint interviews during an election year are commonplace in politics: Biden and Harris, Trump and Mike Pence, Barack Obama and Biden, all did them at similar points in the campaign. The difference is that the other candidates all did solo interviews, too. Harris has yet to give an in-depth interview since becoming her party’s standard-bearer five weeks ago, though she did give several interviews while she was still Biden’s running mate.
Harris and Walz continue to resonate with voters, unlike Trump and Biden, who were nearly universally known and viewed by people.
They were in the middle of a two-day bus tour of southeast Georgia that will culminate in an evening rally in Savannah. Harris’ campaign officials believe that to win the presidential election against Trump in November, she must make inroads into Republican strongholds across the state.
Harris, during her tenure as vice president, has given on-camera and print interviews to The Associated Press and many other outlets at a much more frequent rate than the president — with the exception of Biden’s late-campaign media blitz after his disastrous debate performance that marked the end of his campaign.
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Harris’ lack of access to the media over the past month has become a key argument among Republicans. Trump’s campaign has counted the number of days she hasn’t given an interview as a candidate and suggested she needs a “babysitter” and that’s why Walz will be there.
“CNN’s Dana Bash has a chance to become a star today. If she gave a fair but tough interview to Comrade Kamala Harris, she would expose her as totally incompetent and unfit for President, just as I exposed crooked Joe Biden in our now famous debate,” Trump posted online Thursday. “Wouldn’t that be great for Dana and CNN?”
Trump has largely turned to conservative media in his interviews, though he has held more open news conferences in recent weeks as he seeks to reclaim the spotlight that Harris’ elevation has earned him.
After the CNN interview, Walz headed to other political events out of state, and Harris continued into Georgia, stopping at Dottie’s Market in Savannah on Thursday, chatting with the owner’s mother as crowds watched from the street where she told voters she would implement “basically a tax credit for startups, for small businesses that are starting up.”
“One of my top priorities is to invest and grow our small businesses,” she said.
She also met with volunteers at a restaurant in a former bus station before heading to a rally and returning to Washington.
“We are running a grassroots campaign,” she told the crowd. “You are doing the work on the ground and I can’t thank you enough.”
On Wednesday, Harris and Walz spent time with a high school marching band to the delight of students and stopped at a Savannah barbecue restaurant.
Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said the bus tours provide an “opportunity to go to places we don’t typically go (and) make sure we’re competitive in all communities.”
The campaign wants these events to motivate voters in Republican-leaning areas who don’t traditionally see the candidates, and hopes these engagements generate viral moments that cut through crowded media coverage to reach voters across the country.
These stops are meant to be moments where voters can learn “not only what they stand for, but who they are as people,” Tyler said.
Harris will lead another blitz with Biden in Detroit and Pittsburgh as the election approaches. The first mail-in ballots will be sent to voters in just two weeks.
Democrats are increasingly enthusiastic about voting in November, according to a Gallup poll. About 8 in 10 Democrats now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting, up from 55% in March.
That gives them an enthusiasm they didn’t have earlier this year. Republican enthusiasm has increased much less over the same period, and about two-thirds now say they’re more enthusiastic than usual about voting.
—Extended reporting from Washington. Associated Press journalists Sagar Meghani and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
