6 takeaways from Kamala Harris’ CNN interview : NPR

Vice President Harris sat for her first interview Thursday evening since getting into the presidential race 5 weeks in the past. It was joint along with her operating mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, however she did a lot of the speaking.

The interview, carried out by CNN’s Dana Bash on the marketing campaign path in Georgia, was seen as an necessary step in what’s been a extremely profitable – and extremely scripted – marketing campaign so far.

So how did she do? Listed below are six takeaways:

1. Harris handed the take a look at of doing an unscripted interview

From a strictly efficiency standpoint, Harris was clear, calm and didn’t get rattled when pushed about modifications to her positions on sure points.

In some previous interviews, she got here throughout as defensive, however that wasn’t the case right here. She appeared snug and in command, which is necessary for a presidential candidate who persons are nonetheless attending to know.

She additionally continued to indicate a level of relatability. For instance, she talked about making pancakes and cooking bacon for her nieces when President Biden known as to tell her of his resolution to drop out of the race.

2. Democrats are probably respiratory a sigh of reduction about how Harris will do in a debate, however there’s some cleansing as much as do

Debates are sometimes about optics and never substance, which the primary debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump confirmed. On this interview, when Bash pushed Harris on some place modifications, Harris confirmed she’s largely capable of parry assaults adequately.

Harris and her staff will most likely need to clear up her response as to why she modified her place on fracking, although, and stick with one thing clearer. Merely saying, “My values have not changed,” probably received’t suffice. Politicians can change positions, however folks count on to listen to why in a plausible method.

Harris did give a believable cause for switching from being towards fracking to in favor of it.

“What I have seen is that we can grow, and we can increase a clean energy economy without banning fracking,” she stated about what’s a politically potent situation in Pennsylvania, perhaps essentially the most intently watched swing state. She famous that she solid the tie-breaking vote in Congress for increasing fracking leases.

However it took her some time to make that time, and it may not be what most individuals see in clips of the interview within the coming days.

As a substitute, when Harris was first requested in regards to the change on this interview, she initially stated her place hadn’t modified from 2020. That’s as a result of within the 2020 vice-presidential debate, Harris did say twice that “Joe Biden will not end fracking. He has been very clear about that.”

However that’s splitting the hair too finely. In 2019, when she was operating for president herself, she stated throughout a CNN city corridor centered on local weather change: “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking and starting with what we can do on Day 1 around public lands.”

When she joined Biden’s ticket, she deserted that place and is now pledging to stay in favor of it.

3. Harris reveals (once more) she’s not an ideologue — and is aiming for the center

From saying she would appoint a Republican to her Cupboard to committing to stronger fracking and immigration insurance policies than she had in 2019, to her place on Israel, Harris is once more exhibiting she’s aiming her marketing campaign squarely on the center.

A bigger level on her transfer to the middle on fracking and immigration particularly is that these shifts observe with one thing she’s been constant on — and one thing that introduced her criticism in 2019: She believes most in fixing 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,” Harris informed Bash.

She shared that sentiment 5 years in the past.

“[I]s my government solving problems?” Harris informed NPR’s Scott Detrow in 2019 of what she sees as most necessary in public service. “That’s how I think about it. And it’s the way I’ve always judged myself, frankly, and my work, which is – are we relevant, right? … It’s about, on a daily basis, are we addressing people’s real-life problems and solving them? And frankly, if we’re not, we need to move over.”

In 2019, that didn’t fly, as a result of progressives needed a champion, and so they had been already cautious of Harris’ document as California’s lawyer basic and San Francisco district lawyer, which they thought-about too reasonable.

Conservatives on this election have been going after Harris for what they see as inauthenticity, however the factor that Harris has at all times proven is that she’s pragmatic. She’s been a lot clearer on the place she stands on this marketing campaign than she was in 2019 – and that’s aimed instantly on the center.

That features whereas on the marketing campaign path in Georgia Thursday, saying that one among her prime priorities might be serving to small companies and promising to roll out a tax credit score proposal for brand spanking new small companies subsequent week.

The underside line is: Harris is a giant D Democrat. She would possibly need to transfer the nation to the left of the place Donald Trump needs to take it, however she’s signaling that, as president, like former President Barack Obama earlier than her, she would most likely be as liberal as Congress and her coalition will enable her to be.

Frankly, this line of assault that her stances preserve altering would possibly stick extra to Harris if she wasn’t operating towards Trump.

4. We did get some clearer coverage concepts

Requested what she would do on Day 1, Harris stated she would search for methods to “strengthen” the center class and begin making an attempt to implement her “Opportunity Economy” plan she laid out final week to convey costs down and attempt to make houses extra inexpensive.

Particularly, Harris talked on this interview about:

• Extending a $6,000 baby tax credit score to households for first yr of a kid’s life, and her

• A $25,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit score

She has famous different proposals in the midst of this truncated marketing campaign, like eager to attempt to cross the John Lewis voting rights invoice, which Republicans have blocked, and eager to revive the border-security invoice Biden drafted with conservative Republicans that Trump opposed and the GOP-led Home then killed.

Harris has been dinged for not placing ahead deep coverage proposals, however no candidate campaigns efficiently as a strolling coverage memo.

Campaigns do often roll out coverage papers that embrace price analyses and the like, and Harris hasn’t performed that, however neither has Trump in a critical method.

Plus, presidential campaigns are actually about massive concepts and what course a candidate needs to take the nation, particularly on this election, when folks have such robust and ingrained emotions about Trump.

5. Harris didn’t run from “Bidenomics”

Some might need thought that Harris would attempt to put distance between herself and Biden’s financial insurance policies, given how negatively People view the financial system at the moment – regardless of pretty robust progress, low unemployment and a decline in inflation up to now yr.

Trump can be out with an advert this week hitting Harris on this very matter, evaluating what she’s stated at totally different instances about what’s turn into often known as “Bidenomics.”

However as an alternative of shying away from it, Harris defended Biden’s financial insurance policies, arguing “mismanagement” from Trump through the COVID pandemic gave them a less-than-optimal hand. She identified what she feels the administration has performed properly, from capping prescription drug prices for seniors and slicing baby poverty, to a rise in manufacturing jobs and bettering provide chains.

“I’ll say that that’s good work,” Harris stated. “There’s more to do, but that’s good work.”

It was a robust protection, exhibiting off how she would possibly rebut the critique on the upcoming debate. However it additionally reveals what loads of Democrats have been crying out for – somebody to make the case on the financial system properly, as an alternative of how Biden usually responded, which got here off as him taking the assaults personally and performing defensively.

Harris leaning into the argument that the administration has made progress – whether or not it really works or not – can be a reminder that politics isn’t at all times about doing one thing as a result of it’s already standard; it’s making an attempt to really win the argument, one thing Democrats weren’t doing with Biden on the prime of the ticket.

Polls have proven that voters have given Harris the good thing about the doubt on the financial system and haven’t tied her to unfavorable emotions about it the best way they did with Biden. We’ll see how public opinion strikes, if in any respect, following the Democratic conference, this interview, Trump’s advert blitz and the upcoming debate.

6. Harris once more stayed centered on her agenda and didn’t take the (race) bait on Trump

Bash additionally requested Harris about Trump’s inflammatory feedback about her race and ethnicity. In July, Trump stated to a gathering of Black journalists, “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

Right here was Harris’ response Thursday evening:

HARRIS: “Yeah.”

BASH: “Any—”

HARRIS: “Same old, tired playbook.” [Pause] Subsequent query, please.” [Laugh]

BASH: “That’s it?”

HARRIS: “That’s it.”

Later within the interview, she stated: “I am running because I believe that I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender.”

Throughout this marketing campaign, Harris hasn’t dwelled on the historic nature of her candidacy. It’s a tough line for a Black candidate when one is making an attempt to attraction to white voters within the center. It’s tough for a girl operating for president in a rustic that has by no means elected a girl to the White Home.

However Harris has been deft at disregarding Trump’s makes an attempt to pull her into controversies he’s created.

Her calm towards Trump’s tumult is a side-by-side image Democrats are banking on.

“The split screen works so well for her and Democrats right now,” stated Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist and chief communications officer for MoveOn Political Motion. “The chaos vs. stability argument that the Biden campaign was trying to execute against Trump, the Harris team is able to do it with so much more effectiveness.”