Harris defends economic policy in high-stakes first interview

US Vice-President Kamala Harris defended her economic and immigration record and attacked former President Donald Trump in her first interview since becoming the Democratic nominee for president.

Ms Harris argued that the Biden administration was able to “recover the economy” after the pandemic and have reduced illegal border crossings in recent months.

She called the White House economic policy a “success”, pointing to a decline in prescription drug costs and the unemployment rate: “That’s good work. There’s more to do.”

The interview was pre-recorded in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday with CNN’s Dana Bash. Ms Harris appeared with running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Ms Harris also pushed back against the assertion that her policy positions had undergone “changes”, and she reaffirmed her belief that she would be a president “for all Americans”.

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” she said when asked why her positions shifted in recent years.

Her opponent, Donald Trump, has dismissed Ms Harris’s interview because it was pre-taped and included Mr Walz.

Ms Harris referred to her effort to address climate change and support of the Green New Deal, a Democratic proposal to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, as something that remains a steadfast value.

“I have always believed, and I’ve worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter,” she said.

The vice-president pointed to the Biden administration’s work on the Inflation Reduction Act, which funnelled hundreds of billions of dollars to renewable energy and electric vehicle tax credit and rebate programs.

“We have set goals for the United States of America, and by extension the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Ms Harris did not explain her reversal on banning fracking – a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock used by an industry that is particularly strong in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Ms Harris had said that “there is no question I’m in favour of banning fracking” during a CNN town hall in 2019. But she has backpedaled on that view since becoming vice-president – even casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate on new fracking leases.

In the CNN interview on Thursday, she said: “As president, I will not ban fracking.”

Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesperson, said on social media that the Biden administration’s “clean energy investments have proven the ability to make progress on climate without those past stances”.

On the subject of “securing our border” Ms Harris again said “my values have not changed” and referenced her time “prosecuting transnational, criminal organisations” as California attorney general.

But Ms Harris once held more progressive immigration views as a senator and in her campaign for president in 2020. She had previously advocated for the closure of immigration detention centres and the decriminalisation of illegal crossings.

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

Trump pressured Republicans in Congress to kill the deal, but Ms Harris has promised to “sign it into law” if elected.

To explain her moderated immigration view, the Democratic nominee told CNN that her travels across the country as vice-president had made her “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”.

Along those lines, Ms Harris committed to include someone “who was 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.”

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.

Mr Walz, who served for decades in the US National Guard, was asked to clarify a comment he in made in which he said he “carried” an assault rifle in “war”.

The campaign had already clarified that Mr Walz was never in a war zone. In the interview, 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.

He said his record speaks for itself, adding that “the contrast could not be clearer” between the two campaigns.

Ms Harris has faced criticism from Republicans and some pundits for refusing to hold a press conference or an on-the-record, in-depth interview until now. Her critics argued that she was avoiding having her record challenged.

Her appearance on CNN marks her first substantive interview since President Joe Biden exited the presidential race on 21 July. Ms Harris had promised nearly three weeks ago to schedule an interview before the end of August.

Former President Trump dismissed the CNN interview in a conversation with the Daily Mail on Thursday.

“Why isn’t it live?” he said. “It’s not a live interview. It’s an interview that’s going to be taped and then edited and then put out. So that’s not even an interview. Then she’s doing it with her vice president (nominee) sitting there.”

Ms Bash, the CNN journalist who conducted the interview of Ms Harris and Mr Walz, was one of the moderators of the 27 June debate between Mr Biden and Trump.

Mr Biden’s performance in that debate was widely seen as what sparked the effort for the president to withdraw from the race.

Ms Harris’s last sit-down TV interview was with CNN’s Anderson Cooper shortly after the June debate.

The Harris-Walz campaign is following the interview with a bus tour of Georgia, a key southern state where Mr Biden narrowly edged out Trump in 2020 – the first time a Democrat won the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.

Polling suggests that the presidential race is tightening again in Georgia – a state that Democrats thought had slipped away during Mr Biden’s reelection campaign.

On Thursday, Ms Harris is visiting the city of Savannah where she is holding a campaign rally at the state’s oldest historically black college.

The event coincides with a major outreach effort that is targeting young voters. The campaign plans to hold events at university campuses in major battleground states such as Georgia to encourage young Americans to cast their ballots in November.

Trump and Ms Harris are scheduled to face off in a debate aired on ABC News on 10 September, though the presidential candidates are still working to resolve a dispute over whether microphones will be unmuted throughout.