The backlash continued to mount following Vice President Kamala Harris’ televised interview Friday, with critics calling out her unwillingness to give clear and specific answers.

In her first solo sit-down TV interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris seemed to filibuster to avoid direct answers. One example came when the interviewer, Brian Taff of the Philadelphia ABC affiliate, asked for her “specific” plans to bring down prices for Americans.

“Well, I’ll start with this. I grew up a middle-class kid,” Harris responded. “My mother raised my sister and me. She worked very hard. She was able to finally save up enough money to buy our first house when I was a teenager. 

“I grew up in a community of hard-working people, you know, construction workers and nurses and teachers. And I try to explain to some people who may not have had the same experience. You know, a lot of people will relate to this.” 

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Critics have slammed Harris on social media, saying she gave confusing answers to a number of questions. 

“Kamala Harris did her first local sit down interview after prepping for 53 days and it was a nightmare[.] She couldn’t even name 1-2 things she would do to bring down inflation,” Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump’s press secretary, wrote in post on X following the interview. 

California state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones told Fox News Digital if Harris becomes president, the entire nation would suffer.

“Kamala Harris has spent decades in public office, with a track record defined by rising costs and inflation. During her tenure in California, prices soared, and the affordability crisis has only worsened since she became Vice President,” Jones said. “Talk is cheap, and while she promises to lower costs, her actions have repeatedly resulted in the opposite. 

“Californians struggled under her leadership, and now the entire nation is bearing the brunt. America simply can’t afford a Harris presidency.”

Conservative podcaster Benny Johnson added that Harris’s answers made no sense.

“Kamala Harris: “My focus is very much about what we need to do over the next 10-20 years to catch up to the 21st century around, again, capacity, but also challenges.” What does this even mean?” Johnson wrote in a post. on X. 

Harris’ answer resembled the response she gave during the ABC News presidential debate against former President Trump Tuesday, when she was asked by moderator David Muir whether Americans are economically “better off than they were four years ago.”

“So, I was raised as a middle-class kid,” Harris told Muir. “And I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America. I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people, and that is why I imagine and have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy.” 

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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia Tuesday.  (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Although Harris drew praise from pundits for her debate performance, her sometimes unresponsive answers there foreshadowed Friday’s sit-down, particularly on economic matters. In the debate, Harris went on to tout the same proposals without answering whether Americans are better off now than they were four years ago. 

“Kamala Harris was very clearly and directly asked: Are the American people better off now than they were 4 years ago? She could not say yes because the answer is no — the American people are worse off today because of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s policies,” former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard posted on X following Tuesday night’s debate. 

TRUMP-VANCE TICKET HAS DONE COMBINED 49 INTERVIEWS SINCE LAST MONTH COMPARED TO ONLY 10 FOR HARRIS-WALZ

New York Times columnist Brett Stephens slammed Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with CNN on Thursday as “vague” and “vacuous.” (AP/Stephen B. Morton)

Harris and running mate Tim Walz have only done 10 unscripted interviews for the Democratic presidential ticket thus far, while Republican presidential nominee Trump and vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have sat down for at least 49 interviews. 

Harris still has not held a formal press conference since replacing President Biden as the Democratic nominee. Trump took questions at a news conference on Friday in California, his third extended presser in recent weeks.

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USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page said she believes Americans deserve to hear both candidates answer tough questions. 

“I think part of the job description of being president is answering questions, not because reporters have a right to ask them, but because Americans have a right to hear them,” Page told Fox News Digital. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment. 

Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report. 

Critics have offered a fact-check on Vice President Kamala Harris’ claim that the U.S. has “not one member of the United States military who is on active duty” in a combat zone “for the first time this century,” indicating that the statement is misleading.

Harris made the claim in Tuesday’s debate with former President Trump. While her phrasing left room for interpretation, it is clear that there are U.S. troops in harm’s way around the globe.

“As of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is on active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world, the first time this century,” Harris said during the Presidential Debate on ABC. 

The Pentagon told Fox News Digital service that members are stationed in various dangerous locations but noted that those deployments are made by the Executive Branch and not due to wars declared by Congress.

“An aspect of military service includes serving in locations where hostile actions may occur,” a Defense Official said. “Those locations are designated by executive order and/or the Secretary of Defense.”

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“However, it’s important to note that just because a service member is in one of these locations does not mean they are engaged in war,” the official added. “The U.S. is not currently engaged in a war and does not have troops fighting in active war zones anywhere in the world.”

Mark Montgomery, senior director for the Center on Cyber and Tech Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, told Fox News Digital that the U.S. has “quietly shut down designations of war zones over the past few years.”

“I would ask: Is anyone getting combat-related hazardous duty pay?” Montgomery added. “The answer is yes,” and noted Syria as an example.

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The Pentagon did not comment on whether troops in countries such as Syria, Jordan or Iraq or on other bases around the Middle East have received hazardous duty pay over the past 10 months as Iran has backed proxies including the Houthis and Hezbollah. 

A transfer case is unloaded during the dignified transfer ceremony of the remains of three U.S. service members killed in the drone attack on the U.S. military outpost in Jordan, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on February 2, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

Hazardous Duty Pay is distributed at a monthly rate of $225 and is payable to a member who is subjected to hostile fire, explosion of hostile mines or other hostile action while performing duty in a hostile fire area, exposed to a hostile fire event or killed, injured or wounded by hostile fire or explosion, according to Military.com.

Military members serving in Lebanon have been eligible for hazardous duty pay since 1983, while those in Syria have been eligible since 2003 and 2014 for land and air combat, respectively. Iraq has remained an eligible region since 1990. 

Robert Greenway, former senior director for the National Security Council (NSC) during the Trump administration, noted that the U.S. has “continuously” deployed troops to combat zones since the 1991 Gulf War.

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“The assertion is especially egregious, as she is the current VP and should know that we recently conducted a raid in Syria killing a senior ISIS commander, several U.S. troops had to be medically evacuated after another raid against ISIS in Syria,” Greenway told Fox News Digital. “Several servicemembers were wounded in Iraq when Al Asad Airbase was attacked by Iranian sponsored terrorists less than a month ago, and our ships are under near-daily attack in the Red Sea.”

This picture taken on January 4, 2024, shows a view of the headquarters of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) paramilitaries in Baghdad, which was targeted on the same day by a U.S. strike.  (Ahmad al–Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

“A current VP unaware of our military operations in combat overseas is a dereliction of duty,” Greenway added. 

The U.S. has roughly 2,500 troops in Iraq alone, although Iraqi officials this week revealed that they have worked out a tentative plan for the U.S. to withdraw most of its troops by 2025 and leave a residual force, The Washington Post reported. 

“The first phase will begin this year and continue until 2025, while the second phase will conclude in 2026,” Iraqi Defense Minister Thabit al-Abbasi said during an appearance on television. 

The Nebraska Supreme Court has set up a major abortion policy showdown for election day, approving two competing ballot measures to go before voters.

One ballot measure, put forward by abortion advocates, would enshrine a fundamental right to abortion “until fetal viability.” The other measure, put forward by abortion opponents, would codify the state’s current 12-week abortion ban into the state’s constitution.

Current Nebraska law allows for exceptions in the case of rape, incest or the life of the mother.

Anti-abortion groups had filed a pair of lawsuits challenging the competing ballot measure, arguing it violated state policy requiring that such measures pertain to only one subject.

The lawsuits argued the ballot measure deals with abortion rights until viability, abortion rights after viability to protect a woman’s health, and whether the state should be allowed to regulate abortion, amounting to three separate issues.

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The state Supreme Court struck down those challenges in a Friday ruling, allowing the measure to appear on ballots.

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Organizers for each ballot measure turned in more than 200,000 signatures supporting them, well over the 123,000 requirements.

The court battle comes as Democrats across the country seek to use abortion as a key issue to outplay Republicans. The effort was on full display during last week’s presidential debate, with Vice President Kamala Harris blasting the end of Roe v. Wade under former President Trump.

Harris argued that Trump would sign a national abortion ban if he is elected in November. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Harris argued Trump would sign a national abortion ban into law if he is elected in November. Trump rejected that claim and instead pointed to ballot measures like the ones now playing out in Nebraska.

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“As far as the abortion ban, no, I’m not in favor of an abortion ban, but it doesn’t matter, because this issue has now been taken over by the states,” Trump said.

“I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother,” he said. “I believe strongly in it. Ronald Reagan did also. Eighty-five percent of Republicans knew exceptions are very important,” he said.

Trump argues that abortion laws should be handled by the states, not the federal government. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Many states have adopted ballot measures on abortion since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022. Some, like California, enshrined abortion rights more firmly into law. Others, like Louisiana, paved the way for more restrictions on abortion.