The News
Vice President Kamala Harris insisted “my values have not changed” in her first sit-down interview since winning the Democratic nomination, when asked about her changed policy stances on key issues including immigration and fracking.
Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash, the Democratic presidential nominee sought to explain shifts in her positions — including dropping her opposition to fracking and taking a more hardline stance on immigration after previously supporting decriminalizing 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 in the joint interview with running mate Tim Walz.
Harris added that her time as vice president had informed her perspective as well and suggested she would take a pragmatic approach moving forward.
“I believe it is important to build consensus, and it is important to find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems,” she said.
She went into more detail on fracking in an extended back-and-forth with Bash, explicitly promising not to block the practice as president and saying she had become convinced by the Biden administration policies that showed the possibility of transitioning to renewable energy “without banning fracking.”
In a move reminiscent of former President Barack Obama’s “Team of Rivals” pledge, Harris also said she would name a Republican to serve in her Cabinet if elected.
“I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion,” she told Bash. “I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences.”
Walz also addressed some questions raised by his political opponents, including a misstatement years earlier that he had carried weapons “in war,” despite not serving in a combat zone. He conceded “my grammar is not always correct.”