Democratic presidential candidate US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at Enmarket Arena during a two-day campaign bus tour in Savannah, Georgia, on August 29, 2024. (AFP)
SAVANNAH, Georgia – US Vice President Kamala Harris played down Republican claims she had shifted her stance on key issues Thursday as she gave the pivotal first interview of her presidential campaign.
She said in excerpts of a joint CNN interview with running mate Tim Walz that her “values had not changed” on key issues such as immigration and fracking where the Democrat remains vulnerable.
The 59-year-old also added that in a bid to unify a polarized nation she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet if elected as president in November.
Her comments came as Republican rival Donald Trump branded her the “greatest flip-flopper” as he addressed a rally in the battleground state of Michigan.
Republicans have criticized Harris for waiting until nearly six weeks after President Joe Biden dropped out of the White House race to give her first interview.
They also accused Harris of using Walz as a “human shield” instead of giving the interview by herself, with Trump telling the rally “she’s incompetent, she can’t do an interview.”
But in the interview with CNN’s Dana Bash during a campaign trip to Savannah, Georgia — the full version of which will be broadcast at 9:00 pm (0100 GMT Friday) — Harris sought to play down the Republican attacks.
Harris has faced criticism from Republicans after reversing an earlier opposition to fracking, a violently disruptive underground oil and gas extraction technique.
Sitting behind a table in what appeared to be a dimly lit office with Walz beside her, Harris told CNN that despite that she believed the “climate crisis was real” and she was looking at other ways of dealing with it.
On immigration, Harris defended moving towards tougher policies to stop illegal crossings over the Mexican border, as Trump hammers her on the issue.
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said in an excerpt.
‘Where has she been?’
The first female, Black and South Asian vice president in US history also brushed aside Trump’s recent comments questioning her racial identity.
“Same old, tired playbook,” she said.
Harris has been riding a surge of enthusiasm since upending the 2024 White House race, wiping out Trump’s lead in the polls and raising more than half a billion dollars in campaign funds.
But she has stayed vague on her policies over the past six weeks, focusing more on a message of “joy” and economic opportunity for Americans with few specifics.
“Now she’s saying, ‘Oh we want to build a strong border,'” Trump told his rally in Potterville, Michigan.
“Where has she been for three and a half years, as we took in 20 million people, many of them horrible criminals?”
Republicans have also slammed her for not doing any interviews or press conferences. Before the CNN interview she had only had a handful of exchanges with reporters on the campaign trail.
Harris’s spokesman Ian Sams responded to the Republican criticisms by saying the “joint ticket interview is an election year summer tradition going back 20 years.”
Trump has done a series of interviews in recent weeks, but they have mainly been with sympathetic hosts including X boss Elon Musk. He has also given two press conferences, which included long monologues.
Harris’s bounce in the polls appears to be continuing.
A new Fox poll found increasing support for Harris in battleground states, while a USA Today survey out Thursday said she now leads Trump 48 percent to 43 percent nationwide.
Harris’s interview will be closely watched in a year where big set-piece political events have shown their ability to produce surprises, like Biden’s debate disaster on June 27 that led to him quitting the race.
Further adding to the pressure is the fact that Harris earned a reputation while vice president for word salads and gaffes in unscripted settings.