Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), are sitting for their first interview with the news media on Thursday, a high-stakes affair as Harris's campaign has so far sought to shield her from unscripted moments on the campaign trail.
- The sit-down with CNN's Dana Bash was recorded this afternoon in Georgia and will air tonight at 9 p.m.
- Republicans are accusing Harris of bringing Walz to the interview as a "safety blanket," although campaigns have traditionally rolled out their tickets with joint interviews in the past.
- President Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, at which time Harris effectively became the likely Democratic presidential nominee. Harris has not sat for an interview or conducted a press conference in the 39 days since, although she's occasionally bantered with the press corps that travels with her.
CNN released early clips from the interview.
In one clip, Bash asked Harris why Americans should believe her current centrist positions when she had taken several left-wing positions during her run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
"I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed."
Harris did not mention her previous declaration that she'd ban fracking, but she pointed to her past support for the Green New Deal and said many of those climate initiatives were incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
She also said she would seek to limit illegal immigration, pointing to her time as a prosecutor.
"I spent two terms as the attorney general of California prosecuting trans-national criminal organizations, violations of American laws regarding the passage, illegal passage, of drugs, guns and human beings across our border. My values have not changed."
In the final clip, Harris said she'd reach across the aisle and give a Republican a job in her Cabinet.
"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. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican."
THERE IS RISK to Harris's strategy of minimal encounters with the press, as it turns every interview into a major event where each word will be pored over by the public and the news media.
Former President Trump's campaign has been flooding the zone, putting Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), in all kinds of interview situations with both legacy media and independent outlets.
The GOP ticket has sought to fill the void of Harris's media blackout by highlighting the left-wing positions she took while running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Harris's team has leaked to the press that she has reversed on some of those issues, although Harris has not directly addressed them herself. She'll get her first chance to do that in front of the country on Thursday night.
CNN's Bash, who was one of the moderators in the July debate between Trump and Biden, will also be under the microscope for how she handles the interview.
Bash will almost certainly press Harris on some of her policy changes, but will she adopt an adversarial tone or will the interview be geared more as an introduction to the Democratic ticket?
In a social media post on Thursday, Trump urged Bash to go hard.
"If she gave a fair but tough interview of Comrade Kamala Harris, she will expose her as being totally inept and ill suited for the job of President, much as I exposed Crooked Joe Biden during our now famous Debate. How cool would that be for Dana and CNN???"
The Hill has five tough interview questions Harris might face:
- What regrets do you have on how you handled border issues?
- Why should Americans trust you on the economy after the administration admitted to being surprised by the extent of inflation during Biden's term?
- What did President Biden get wrong on Gaza?
- You supported a ban on fracking in your 2020 campaign. Now you said you wouldn't seek to ban fracking if elected. What changed?
And The Hill's Niall Stanage has five things to watch for here:
- Are there any gaffes?
- Does the decision to include Walz work or not?
- How tough are the questions?
- Does Harris get defensive, as she has in the past?
- Does Harris signal any differences with Biden?
Here's how you can watch the interview tonight.
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