U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris will give her first main broadcast interview on Thursday since changing into the face of the Democratic Social gathering after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
She will likely be interviewed on CNN alongside her operating mate Tim Walz.
Axios quoted presidential scholar Martha Joynt Kumar as saying that to this point, Harris has taken a cautious strategy to the media, very similar to Biden, who has held press conferences and There are fewer interviews than any of the previous seven U.S. presidents.
Harris’ personal sparse contact with the media has come underneath scrutiny, particularly from Republicans. “She would not know the best way to maintain a press convention; she’s not good sufficient to carry a press convention,” Republican challenger Donald Trump mentioned at his personal press convention on August 15.
To make certain, Harris has addressed a number of key points at marketing campaign rallies and coverage speeches that polls present are essential to American voters. However with out the cross-questioning that interviews enable, the Democratic presidential nominee’s positions on key points stay ambiguous.
So when does the interview happen?
When will Harris be interviewed by CNN?
Harris will converse with CNN anchor and chief political correspondent Dana Bash and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Waugh, the governor of Minnesota, at 9pm (01:00 GMT) on Thursday Interviewed with Tim Walz.
‘I cannot stay silent about Gaza’: How will she converse out?
After assembly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on July 26, Harris pledged to not stay silent on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
“We can’t flip a blind eye within the face of those tragedies. We can’t enable ourselves to turn into numb to the struggling. I cannot stay silent,” she advised reporters. On the identical time, nonetheless, she pledged an unwavering dedication to Israel.
“I’ve an unwavering dedication to the existence of the State of Israel, its safety and its folks.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned she expressed “grave issues” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in regards to the “scale of human struggling in Gaza.” pic.twitter.com/1U0KErqiDL
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 26, 2024
Nonetheless, within the month since her announcement, Harris’ relative silence on Gaza has been criticized by critics who query whether or not her coverage on the Israeli struggle is any completely different from Biden’s. .
To many, the reply to this point seems to be no.
There was hypothesis that she may a minimum of think about using restrictions on arms gross sales to Israel as a way to influence Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities to cease killing Palestinians, however her nationwide safety adviser has made clear Harris has no such plans.
“She doesn’t help an arms embargo on Israel,” guide Phil Gordon mentioned on August 8.
.@Vice President What has been made clear: She is going to at all times make sure that Israel is ready to defend itself in opposition to Iran and Iranian-backed terrorist teams. She doesn’t help an arms embargo in opposition to Israel. She is going to proceed to work to guard civilians in Gaza and uphold worldwide humanitarian regulation.
— Phil Gordon (@PhilGordon46) August 8, 2024
On the Democratic Nationwide Conference held in Chicago from August 19 to 22 this yr, Harris as soon as once more concurrently pledged help for Israel and expressed sympathy for the Palestinians in Gaza.
Nonetheless, Democrats refused to permit a Palestinian American to talk on the conference, whereas the dad and mom of an Israeli-American captive held in Gaza have been allowed on stage.
Professional-Palestinian protesters have rallied outdoors the Democratic Nationwide Committee for the third day in a row, however police prevented them from marching too near the venue. Many warned they’d not help Harris within the November vote except she ended her unconditional help for Israel.
How will she ban “worth gouging”?
On August 16, Harris proposed banning “worth gouging” by meals distributors and grocery shops.
Value gouging is when costs are considerably raised to “unfair ranges” in response to short-term excessive demand or shortage – typically following a catastrophe reminiscent of flooding. Whereas some states have restricted sure practices thought-about important, there isn’t a federal regulation prohibiting them.
The proposal is more likely to be widespread. Excessive inflation in grocery payments is a significant concern for a lot of voters. Through the Biden administration, grocery costs rose 21% as inflation soared.
However Harris has but to element how she would implement the ban on worth gouging, prompting a backlash from political critics and trade.
In a press launch issued final week, the Trump marketing campaign known as her plan an instance of “communist worth controls.”
Industrialists and economists additionally mentioned the plan would do extra hurt than good.
Harris’ plan is obscure, however a core half includes getting the U.S. Congress to move the first-ever federal ban on worth gouging by the meals and grocery trade, just like laws launched final yr by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
But political analysts notice that such laws has little probability of passing Congress, elevating questions in regards to the sincerity of Harris’ proposal.
Will she construct a border wall?
Harris has been inconsistent on immigration.
On the Democratic Nationwide Committee assembly, she pledged to signal the now-defunct bipartisan border safety invoice, which Trump wished to kill over issues it will profit Democrats.
The invoice would allocate $20 million for safety measures on the southern border with Mexico. The invoice additionally allocates a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to construct the border wall, Trump’s signature challenge that has been criticized by many Democrats.
In reality, throughout the Trump administration, Harris known as the thought of constructing a wall “un-American.”
In 2020, she posted on Fb: “Trump’s border wall is an entire waste of taxpayer cash and won’t make us safer.”
When she introduced her candidacy for the 2020 presidential election in 2019, she known as the wall Trump’s “medieval self-importance challenge.”
Along with pledging help for a invoice to fund the wall, there have been different indicators that Harris has hardened her stance on immigration, together with her marketing campaign adverts supporting the thought of extra Border Patrol brokers.
The shift comes as Republicans, describing Harris as Biden’s “border czar,” search to carry Harris accountable for a surge in undocumented immigrants in the USA.
NEW AD: On the Border, the selection is straightforward.
Kamala Harris is working to repair our damaged immigration system. Donald Trump is attempting to cease her. pic.twitter.com/t200w8iAYv
— Kamala Headquarters (@KamalaHQ) July 30, 2024
What’s her stance on Nationwide Well being Care?
When Harris was a California senator, she signed on as one of many co-sponsors of Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All laws, which known as for a single-payer medical health insurance system that would offer complete well being care to everybody in the USA. .
Nonetheless, Harris’ financial plan this time doesn’t point out a phrase about common medical health insurance. Due to this fact, it is unclear whether or not she nonetheless helps the thought or has given up solely.
Will Harris ban fracking?
Through the 2019 major marketing campaign, Harris additionally pledged to ban fracking, a controversial approach that drills the earth to extract oil and pure gasoline from shale.
This observe could cause earthquakes and has a excessive environmental price as a result of the method consumes massive quantities of water along with releasing the greenhouse gasoline methane.
Nonetheless, Harris appeared to do a 180-degree activate fracking throughout this yr’s presidential marketing campaign. In late July, her marketing campaign officers confirmed that she wouldn’t search a ban on fracking if elected.
Trump cited her 2019 anti-fracking stance to criticize her.
The Biden administration is permitting fracking. Harris herself has not publicly said whether or not she would ban fracking if she ascended to the highest job.