Harris Defends Shifting Positions, Pivots on Messaging

In nearly six weeks since President Joe Biden exited the race and endorsed the vice president as his successor, Kamala Harris’s campaign has seen a rapid ascent amid a whirlwind of rallies, speeches, and a boisterous Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago last week.
Yet many of those remarks have been relatively light on policy as her website still lacks a clear and definitive platform for voters to reference, with a little more than 60 days left before election day.
Harris’s first sit-down interview on Aug. 29 did not offer any new policy specifics.
But speaking with CNN’s Dana Bash from Savannah, Georgia, Harris defended her shifting policy positions since her 2019 presidential run, including on issues like fracking and border security.
Despite no longer supporting a ban on fracking, nor a decriminalization of border crossings—Harris said, “I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed.”
She said the investments in renewable energy from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act “tells me, from my experience as vice president, we can do it without banning fracking.”
Reminded of the time she raised her hand to support decriminalizing border crossings during a 2019 Democratic primary debate, Harris responded: “I believe there should be consequence. We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally.”
During a town hall in Wisconsin that aired before the interview, former President Donald Trump expressed skepticism over Harris’ response.
“That’s not her belief. Her belief is open borders,” Trump said.
Bash also asked Harris if she would defend Biden’s economic policy, or “Bidenomics,” to which Harris described the administration’s work to cap insulin prices, extend Trump’s child tax credit, and bring back 800,000 manufacturing jobs.
“I’ll say that that’s good work. There’s more to do, but that’s good work,” Harris said, without using the term Bidenomics.
She acknowledged that “Prices are still too high,” but outlined her economic proposals to tackle “price gouging” and address housing affordability.
Harris also reiterated her military support for Israel and her efforts to reach a cease-fire deal between it and Hamas when asked if she would appeal to progressives who want the United States to withhold weapons shipments to Israel.
“I remain committed … to what we must do to work toward a two-state solution where Israel is secure—and in equal measure—the Palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity,” she said.
The CNN interview comes amid a sharp shift in the Democratic Party’s political rhetoric and messaging since Biden’s exit when his campaign largely cast Trump as a danger to American democracy.
While Harris has not abandoned that message, she has turned to a more upbeat tone on the campaign trail as she tries to slash Trump’s polling leads in key swing states.
Part of that shift in messaging comes from her use of two concepts long associated with politicians on the right: freedom and patriotism.
Not only has Harris used the Beyoncé song “Freedom” as her anthem, but she has also urged voters that fundamental freedoms are at stake in this election.
“On behalf of our children and our grandchildren and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment,” Harris said in her DNC speech.
Trump, criticizing his opponent, told rallygoers in Potterville, Michigan, on Aug. 29 that the election is not a choice between Democrats and Republicans, but between “communism” and “freedom.”
Other Republicans, including Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), aren’t buying Harris’ freedom and patriotism slogans, telling The Epoch Times that Democrats are finally joining the rest of the American public. “But I wish it was real,” he said.
“Freedom” and “patriotism” have been hallmarks of Republican campaign messaging, appearing in speeches from before the Reagan era through President George W. Bush.
Reagan, in 1967, called freedom a “fragile thing” that is “never more than one generation away from extinction,” while Bush used the word 13 times in his speech before Congress and the American people nine days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University, said Harris was smart to leverage patriotism and freedom.
“It is aimed in part at the centrists. It is a message that also appeals to progressives. It also takes the language away from Republicans. All smart moves,” he told The Epoch Times.
But Lankford is not the only Republican who isn’t convinced, as former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy charged Harris’s rhetorical “vibe” as “based on style over substance” during an Aug. 22 press conference at the Trump Hotel Chicago.
“Many voters are going to demand some level of substance that they haven’t gotten yet,” he said.
Lankford added that amid the companies he sees struggling with regulatory oversight, “[Democrats] may talk about freedom, but what they’re actually doing is centralized government control.”