Vice President Kamala Harris is standing by her previous comments defending President Joe Biden’s mental acuity — even now as she’s running to replace him.

The vice president and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate was asked by CNN whether she has any regrets about defending Biden’s mental acuity amid a firestorm of skepticism following the first presidential debate.

“No, not at all,” Harris told CNN reporter Dana Bash.

TOP 5 MOMENTS FROM KAMALA HARRIS’ FIRST INTERVIEW AS DEM NOMINEE: ‘I WILL NOT BAN FRACKING’

Harris rose to the top of the ticket after Biden dropped out of the race last month following his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump in June. 

The debate, which included Biden repeatedly tripping over his words and losing his train of thought, opened the floodgates to traditional Democratic allies of the president joining conservatives in sounding the alarm over Biden’s mental acuity and age. 

The vice president publicly supported Biden throughout the media circus and secured his endorsement just minutes after his own campaign came to close.

CONSERVATIVES REACT TO KAMALA HARRIS’ LATEST ‘WORD SALAD’ ON CLIMATE CHANGE ‘DEADLINES’

Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris listens to her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, speak during a visit with members of the marching band at Liberty County High School in Hinesville, Georgia. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Harris dodged the question of whether Biden initially endorsed her to run in his place when he called to announce his withdrawal from the election amid mounting concern over his mental faculties. 

“What about the endorsement? Did you ask for it?” Bash asked Harris. 

“He was very clear that he was gonna support me,” Harris responded. 

“So, when he called to tell you, he said, ‘I’m pulling out of the race, and I’m gonna support you?,’” Bash pressed Harris. 

“Well, my first thought was not about me, to be honest with you. My first thought was about him, to be honest. I think history is gonna show a number of things about Joe Biden’s presidency. I think history is gonna show that in so many ways, it was transformative, be it on what we have accomplished around finally investing in America’s infrastructure, investing in new economics, in new industries, what we have done to bring our allies back together, and have confidence in who we are as America, and grow that alliance, what we have done to stand true to our principles including the — the — one of the most important international rules and norms, which is the importance of sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said. 

President Biden sits on the beach in Cape Henlopen State Park, in Lewes, Delaware. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

The highly anticipated sit-down marked the first interview Harris has held in 39 days, since she became the presumptive nominee. She was joined by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for the pre-taped CNN interview that aired Thursday evening. 

Harris has largely avoided the media since ascending the Democratic ticket, only rarely answering media questions while on the campaign trail and holding no press conferences. 

Biden has spent the majority of the last two weeks on vacation at beach properties in California and Delaware.

Fox News’ Emma Colton and Matteo Cina contributed to this report.

The Trump-Vance campaign released a statement Thursday night following Vice President Kamala Harris’ first media interview since becoming the Democratic nominee for president, calling her a “San Francisco radical” and highlighting aspects of her record that were not discussed in the interview. 

“[Harris] said her values ‘have not changed’ three separate times. She’s still a San Francisco radical,” the campaign said. 

Among other things, the Trump-Vance campaign said that CNN’s Dana Bash did not bring up Harris’ history of supporting “ending cash bail for violent criminals, fundraising for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which freed rioters,” her “vote for tie-breaking vote for American Rescue Plan, which economists say fueled inflation,” and her “support for closing immigration detention centers and freeing thousands of criminals into American neighborhoods.”

“[Harris] spoke for just over 16 minutes and didn’t even address the crime crisis in this nation. She spent a mere 3 minutes and 25 seconds talking about the economy and 2 minutes and 36 seconds talking about immigration,” the statement said. 

KAMALA HARRIS OFFERS VAGUE ‘DAY 1’ OVAL OFFICE PLAN IN CNN INTERVIEW: ‘A NUMBER OF THINGS’

During her interview, Harris said she believes Americans are ready to “turn the page” on former President Donald Trump.

She also defended her work as the appointed border czar for the Biden administration and that her work “resulted in a number of benefits.”

“The root causes work that I did as vice president that I was asked to do by the president has actually resulted in a number of benefits, including historic investments by American businesses in that region, the number of immigrants coming from that region has actually reduced since we began that work,” she said. 

ON DODGING THE MEDIA, KAMALA HARRIS ‘OWES RESPONSES’ TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, SAYS CAMPAIGN ADVISER

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at United Auto Workers Local 900 on August 8, 2024 in Wayne, Michigan.  (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“When I look at the aspirations, the goals, the ambitions of the American people, I think that people are ready for a new way forward, in a way that generations of Americans have been fueled by, by hope and by optimism. I think, sadly, in the last decade, we have had in the former president, someone who has really been pushing an agenda, and in an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans — really dividing our nation. And I think people are ready to turn the page on that,” Harris said. 

‘WHATEVER’: DEMOCRATS REACT TO KAMALA HARRIS’ LACK OF INTERVIEWS

Harris’ most detailed plans revealed in the Thursday night interview included a $6,000 child tax credit – similar to what the Trump-Vance campaign earlier had announced as a policy plan.  (Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)

This was in response to what she would accomplish on day one of a Harris presidency, which Bash later had to press for more detail. 

Harris’ most detailed plans revealed in the Thursday night interview included a $6,000 child tax credit – similar to what the Trump-Vance campaign earlier had announced as a policy plan –  and a $25,000 tax credit for first-time homeowners. 

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on Thursday gave their first sit-down interview since President Biden withdrew from his reelection campaign July 21.

The interview with Dana Bash of CNN was recorded Thursday afternoon in Georgia and broadcast the same evening. Here are some takeaways:

Harris continues pivot to the center

The interview provided more evidence of Harris’ turn toward the center — both in tone and in policy — in the month-plus since she was elevated to the top of the ticket.

The biggest new promise during Thursday’s interview: appointing a Republican to her Cabinet if she is elected. Presidents often do this, but it seldom amounts to a true team of rivals.

Then-President Obama, for example, chose former Rep. Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican, as his Transportation secretary, a relatively low-profile and less partisan post. But the selection did send a message that Obama was willing to work with Republicans and might even boost their hometown transportation needs, one of the most valuable political chips a president has.

More significantly, Obama also retained former President George W. Bush’s Defense secretary, Robert Gates, for more than two years, a meaningful gesture for a country that was growing weary of its involvement in two wars.

Neither President Biden nor former President Trump appointed opposition members to their Cabinets. Trump, in recent days, has announced plans to seek policy advice from former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist who suspended his presidential campaign to endorse Trump. But both Gabbard and Kennedy have been outspoken critics of the Democratic Party.

Gabbard left the party in 2022 to become an independent. Kennedy withdrew from the Democratic primary last year to forge an independent bid, accusing both parties of corrupt leadership. He tried to meet with both nominees before issuing his endorsement last week but was rebuffed by Harris.

Harris, on her shifts in positions: ‘My values haven’t changed’

The moves to the center from Harris have drawn accusations of flip-flopping.

Harris previously called for a fracking ban, universal healthcare and decriminalization of border crossings. She is disavowing those positions and promoting a conservative, bipartisan border bill — endorsed by President Biden and killed under pressure from Donald Trump — as a central campaign promise. Last week’s Democratic convention painted her as a tough prosecutor in California, another shift from her emphasis on police reform when she ran in 2019 for the party’s presidential nomination.

“The most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said Thursday.

As an example, she pointed to the Green New Deal, a series of expansive measures favored by progressives to combat climate change. She no longer supports it, but said that “the climate crisis is real. That it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.”

Harris sometimes came across in the CNN interview as evasive. She did not directly explain why she changed her views on a fracking ban, but said that she made the shift in 2020, during the general election, and has not wavered since.

Trump took issue with that. “She’s admitting she’s still as dangerously liberal as ever,” his campaign said after an interview excerpt was released.

Trump has his own baggage with flip-flopping. He has held multiple positions on abortion over the years, before promising to appoint Supreme Court justices who overturned the legal right to the procedure. And he reversed his support for banning TikTok this year after receiving large campaign donations from the company’s investors.

How will voters react? The two candidates’ supporters haven’t complained. All that’s left is a small slice of uncommitted voters, who tend to pay less attention to politics until the election draws nearer.

Some awkward moments

Harris sounded shaky answering the first question, a softball about what she would do on Day One if elected, reverting to slogans.

She said she would “strengthen the middle class” and offer “a new way forward,” while praising Americans for being fueled “by hope and by optimism.” She got more specific after that, referring to her economic plan that would probably require congressional approval for policies such as expanding the child tax credit and offering more money for first-time home buyers; such efforts would take much longer than a day to accomplish.

Why hasn’t she done this stuff already?

Harris answered one of Trump’s biggest critiques, why she hasn’t fulfilled her campaign promises over the last 3½ years, while sitting in the vice president’s office.

“First of all, we had to recover as an economy,” she said after discussing Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic when he was president.

She pointed out that inflation has been brought down below 3% but acknowledged that prices are still too high for many Americans. Inflation is a top concern of voters, according to polls. So Harris has been careful to acknowledge the hardship and has promised to do more, even as she defends the administration’s economic record.

She also went on offense, pointing out that the Biden administration has capped prices on insulin and other prescription drugs for senior citizens.

Trump made the same promise, she said. “Never happened,” she said. “We did it.”

More interviews to come?

Harris’ sit-down interview came more than five weeks after Biden dropped out of the race, leaving her the nominee.

Now that the pressure is off, she may do more. That would serve voters, many who say they don’t know Harris well enough.

It could also help Harris politically. She was able to reveal more of her personal side, describing the emotion of seeing her grandniece watch her at the convention, for example.

This was hardly riveting television. But the more she speaks in less scripted settings, the more practice she gets and the less effect a single gaffe or misstatement might have.