Vice President Kamala Harris defended her policy changes during her first public interview as the Democratic presidential candidate Thursday (August 29) night.
Harris, 59, appeared alongside her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, with CNN‘s Dana Bash amid pressure to answer more questions from impartial journalists and reveal how she planned to differ from President Joe Biden if elected.
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective is that my values have not changed,” Harris said, adding that serving as vice president has led to updated views on certain issues.
“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 added.
Harris previously ran for president in 2019 on a progressive platform, which included “Medicare for All”, a Green New Deal and a call to ban hydraulic fracturing, a process referred to and heavily pushed by former President Donald Trump as “fracking.” The vice president adopted Biden’s agenda and platform when she became his running mate in 2020, however, it was unclear whether her views on several issues have changed as she’s accepted the Democratic presidential nomination herself in a vastly different political landscape.
Harris told Bash that she no longer supports a ban on fracking, a method that is part of a major industry in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, instead claiming the U.S. can accomplish climate change goals in other ways.
“We can do it without banning fracking,” Harris said. “In fact, Dana, Dana, I cast the tiebreaking vote that actually increased leases for fracking as vice president. So I’m very clear about where I stand.”
Harris also acknowledged that her 2019 platform to decriminalize illegal border crossings has shifted, indirectly claiming “there should be consequences” and touting her past work of prosecuting transnational gangs as “a border state attorney general” while serving the state of California.
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