Key takeaways from first Harris and Walz interview (2024)

US Vice-President Kamala Harris has defended changing her mind on key issues in her first interview since entering the presidential race.

The Democratic nominee was pressed on why her policies on immigration and climate have become more moderate since she ran for president in 2019.

"I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed," she told CNN's Dana Bash.

She also vowed to "turn the page" on the divisive rhetoric of the Trump era, in the joint interview with her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Her Republican opponent Donald Trump described the interview as "BORING!!!" on Truth Social when it concluded, and described Ms Harris as a fraud.

The vice-president was forced to defend the White House's economic track record, as inflation and high cost-of-living prices continue to hurt Americans.

When asked why she hadn't already implemented her ideas to tackle economic hardship she said they had done a lot of good work already but there was more to do.

Polls suggest that voters would prefer Trump's handling of the economy.

Here are the key takeaways from the interview.

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Pressed on her move from liberal to more moderate policy positions, she said her values were consistent, pointing to her commitment to tackling climate change as an example.

Asked about her reversal on banning fracking, a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock, she said she was confident US climate targets could be met without a ban.

The main Republican line of attack has been to cast Ms Harris as an extremist, pointing to her 2019 statements as evidence.

Back then, she also advocated for the closure of immigration detention centres and the decriminalisation of illegal crossings.

She takes a stronger line on the border now, referring to her time "prosecuting transnational, criminal organisations" as California attorney general.

Earlier this year, she supported a bipartisan border security bill that would have included hundreds of millions of dollars for more wall construction.

Trump pressured Republicans in Congress to kill the deal, which Ms Harris said in the CNN interview was a cynical political move.

Ms Harris also was asked about the war in Gaza, and re-iterated the White House's position that both Israel and Hamas must "get a deal done" and that the Palestinians deserve to have their own country neighbouring Israel.

"This war must end, and we must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out," she said.

While emphasising the importance of a deal, she offered no specifics on how it would be achieved.

She would not commit to an arms embargo on Israel, as some on her party's left flank have demanded.

To explain her moderated immigration view, the Democratic nominee told CNN that her travels across the country as vice-president had made her believe in building consensus.

Expanding on that, she said she would include a Republican in her presidential cabinet.

She said it would fulfill her promise to be a president “for all Americans”.

"I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views."

CNN's Dana Bash asked Ms Harris, born to immigrant parents from Jamaica and India, about recent comments by Trump in which he suggested she assumed a black identity in later life for political purposes.

The comments caused an outrage but the vice-president had not weighed in.

This time she gave a very short answer.

"Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please."

When asked later in the interview about the historic nature of her candidacy, she said she believed she was the best person to be president for for all Americans, regardless of race and gender.

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Mr Walz was asked about misleading statements he has made about his military service and his personal struggle to have children.

Ms Bash asked him to clarify a comment he made in which he said he "carried" an assault rifle in "war". The campaign has clarified that Mr Walz was never in a war zone.

The governor said he wore "his emotions on his sleeve" and was "speaking passionately" about the subject of gun crime in schools when he made the inaccurate statement.

That "passion" also extended to his incorrect assertion that his wife had received in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments - which have become a political lightning rod in the US debate over abortion access - to conceive their children.

She received intrauterine insemination, not IVF.

"I spoke about our infertility issues ‘cause it’s hell, and families know this," he said on CNN.

Ms Harris described the moment that President Biden called her to share that he had decided to end his re-election bid in July.

She said her family was visiting her when she received the phone call. They had just eaten pancakes and bacon and were working on a puzzle.

"My first thought was not about me, to be honest with you, my first thought was about him," Ms Harris said when asked whether she asked for his endorsem*nt.

The vice-president also maintained that the president could have served again.

"He is so smart, and I have spent hours upon hours with him being in the Oval Office and in the situation room. He has the intelligence, the commitment and judgment and disposition that I think the American people rightly deserve in their president."

She said Trump, by contrast, had none of those qualities.

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North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.