Politics
Trump, Kamala aiming for the middle with varying degrees of success
Everyone wants to be a centrist now.
It’s all the rage.
Now if an ordinary person, say a friend of yours, changed positions on major issues, they would probably offer you an explanation. But politicians play by a different set of rules.
After a primary season in which both Donald Trump and now Kamala Harris have been laser-focused on riling up their base, both are edging–in some cases sprinting–toward the center.
VP HARRIS ACCUSED OF ‘ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING’ ILLEGAL MIGRATION — AND COORDINATING WITH MEXICO
Political theft is not a crime, or the jails would be packed to capacity.
Harris, in Las Vegas, blatantly ripped off Trump’s proposal to bar taxes on tips to service workers.
The focus has been on the vice president, not just because she’s new to the race but because she has studiously avoided the press until her sitdown with CNN’s Dana Bash. She does regularly come back on the plane for off-the-record sessions, with each reporter present getting a question. But obviously that’s of limited value to the rest of us.
The larger problem for Harris is that she has a host of far-left positions she took in her 2020 presidential run that she had abandoned without explanation.
Vice President Kamala Harris raised eyebrows when telling CNN’s Dana Bash that her “value’s haven’t changed” after making complete reversals on far-left positions she held in 2019. (Screenshot/CNN)
These include the abolition of private health insurance (under Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All); her past opposition to fracking, and embrace of decriminalizing illegal border crossings.
Her repeated refrain; “My values have not changed.”
On fracking, Harris told CNN, “I made clear on the debate stage in 2020 that I would not ban fracking as vice president.” That is not true. She said Joe Biden would not ban fracking.
The VP did offer something of an explanation, that the administration had created over 300,000 clean energy jobs and “that tells me…we can do it without banning fracking.”
FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP RIPS ‘DISHONEST MEDIA’ OVER MISREPRESENTATION OF JOKES
Bash cited another blast from the past: “There was a debate. You raised your hand when asked whether or not the border should be decriminalized. Do you still believe that?”
Harris: “I believe there should be consequences. We have laws that have to be followed and enforced, that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally.” No mention of why she shifted her stance.
What Kamala is doing is what most general-election candidates do: moving toward the center. Whatever she thought matched the mood of the country in 2019, including her earlier career as a prosecutor, is clearly untenable today.
But on the Republican side, Trump is doing the same thing. It’s just getting less attention because he makes plenty of other news, from the Arlington Cemetery flap to personal attacks on Harris.
(Kate Medley for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
This has been most visible on abortion, which has become a difficult subject for Republicans. On one level, Trump owns the issue, because it was his three Supreme Court justices who enabled the overturning of Roe after a half-century of precedent.
But now he’s said that Florida’s 6-week ban on the procedure is too short, that he believes there need to be more weeks. There was some backtracking on whether he’d support a competing initiative in the state, but not on the comments about 6 weeks, when many women don’t know they’re pregnant.
When I interviewed the former president at Mar-a-Lago, he indicated he would favor a 15- or 16-week abortion ban – but decided at the state level, under the SCOTUS ruling.
WHY KAMALA HARRIS AND DANA BASH GET A MIXED GRADE IN VP’S FIRST MEDIA SIT DOWN
“He also declared that “my administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.” This has triggered a backlash among some pro-life groups, who now deem Trump essentially pro-choice.
Trump is basically sliding to the center, to make his position more palatable to a wider range of voters, especially women, even though he has boasted about the repeal of Roe.
(In that Mar-a-Lago interview, I asked Trump why he changed his mind on TikTok after trying to ban the Chinese-owned app as president. He said that would help Facebook, which he’s more concerned about, and of course TikTok has an enthusiastic base of younger users.)
Over the weekend, Trump said he would back another Florida measure, to legalize recreational use of marijuana. He said the state should not “ruin lives & waste Taxpayer Dollars” by prosecuting people who possess small amounts for personal use. Again, a move toward a more moderate position that has drawn flak from some conservatives.
Kamala accused him of, well, a flip-flop. She said that as president his Justice Department cracked down on pot smokers.
Part of what’s going on is that both candidates ignore the timing of past stances for political benefit. A Trump ad has Harris saying “Everyday prices are too high. Food, rent, gas, back-to-school clothes,” edited into “Bidenomics is working.”
Harris was talking about high prices caused by the pandemic in a speech last month, and “Bidenomics” was from a speech last year when she was reacting to a monthly jobs report.
Kamala says Trump is pushing Project 2025, although he disavowed the Heritage project early on and repeatedly (though it’s staffed by many of his former White House aides).
Moving to the center is an art form, and that’s what both candidates are attempting right now.
President Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction to Pope Francis on Saturday, granting one of the nation’s highest honors to a figure he called “the People’s Pope.”
“Pope Francis, your humility and your grace are beyond words, and your love for all is unparalleled,” Mr. Biden wrote on X. “You are a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world.”
Mr. Biden honored the pontiff during a weekend in which he was scheduled to meet with the pope in person at the Holy See. The president, however, canceled the three-day trip to Italy to coordinate the federal response to raging wildfires in Los Angeles, according to a White House statement.
Rather than the usual award ceremony, in which the president places the award around the neck of the recipient, Mr. Biden posted on X an image from the Oval Office in which a military aide presented the medal. The White House announced the honor after Mr. Biden spoke to Pope Francis on Saturday and informed him of the award.
It was the first time during Mr. Biden’s term that he had awarded the medal “with distinction,” a more prestigious version of the honor. Mr. Biden received the recognition from President Barack Obama in 2017. Other recipients include Pope John Paul II and Colin L. Powell.
Mr. Biden, a Catholic, has seen Pope Francis as an admired ally on the global stage and turned to him as a sounding board, and the pope has lobbied for Mr. Biden to use his presidential power during his final weeks in office.
Last month, Pope Francis called Mr. Biden and asked him to commute the sentences of those on federal death row. Days later, Mr. Biden used his clemency power to soften their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole, sparing their lives.
A citation included in the White House announcement for the award said that Pope Francis was “unlike any who came before.”
“His mission of serving the poor has never ceased,” the statement read. “A loving pastor, he joyfully answers children’s questions about God. A challenging teacher, he commands us to fight for peace and protect the planet. A welcoming leader, he reaches out to different faiths.”
Mr. Biden awarded the honor days after bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 18 leaders of the political, financial and celebrity establishment.
Former Vice President Mike Pence revealed his brief exchange with President-elect Trump, which was caught on camera at former President Carter’s state funeral.
The pair have not been seen publicly together since leaving the White House in disagreement over the 2020 election results. At the service at the National Cathedral, Pence stood up to shake Trump’s hand, and they appeared to exchange pleasantries.
Former second lady Karen Pence, who was seated next to her husband, did not stand up or acknowledge Trump.
JIMMY CARTER MEMORIAL: SUSPECT ACCUSED IN CAPITOL HILL SECURITY BREACH DURING TRUMP VISIT IDENTIFIED
In an interview with Christianity Today, Pence said he “welcomed” the opportunity to speak with Trump.
“He greeted me when he came down the aisle. I stood up, extended my hand. He shook my hand. I said, ‘Congratulations, Mr. President,’ and he said, ‘Thanks, Mike,’” Pence said.
Former Vice President Al Gore, left, watches as former Vice President Mike Pence, center, shakes hands with President-elect Trump before a state funeral service for former President Carter at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Jan. 9, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Pence also recalled one of his final conversations with Trump in 2021, when he told Trump he would continue to pray for him. Trump responded, “Don’t bother,” the outlet reported.
“I said, ‘You know, there’s probably two things that we’re never going to agree on. … We’re probably never going to agree on what my duty was under the Constitution on Jan. 6.’ And then I said, ‘And I’m never going to stop praying for you,’” Pence told Christianity Today. “And he said, ‘That’s right, Mike, don’t ever change.’”
He said he kept his word.
RFK JR. SAYS HE PLANS TO ALSO MEET WITH DEMS IN BID TO GET CONFIRMED AS TRUMP HHS HEAD
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., speaks before former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, at a campaign event, Nov. 1, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
While the two appeared to remain cordial at the service for Carter, Pence told the outlet he doesn’t think Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is the right fit to manage Health and Human Services and was concerned about former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard serving as national intelligence director.
Fox News Digital reached out to Trump and Advancing American Freedom, a public policy advocacy organization founded by Pence, for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this article.
President-elect Donald Trump has not responded to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s invitation to tour California’s fire damage, Newsom said Saturday afternoon.
Newsom sent a letter on Friday inviting the incoming president to California to meet with fire victims, survey the devastation in Los Angeles County and join him in thanking first responders. The invitation, which the governor’s office said was emailed to Trump’s team, marked a slight change in tone in the political battle between Newsom and Trump, with Newsom imploring Trump not to politicize the tragedy.
Newsom delivered an acid-laced reply when asked Saturday whether he expected Trump to respond to the invitation.
“He’s an incoming American president,” Newsom told a reporter Saturday as he stood on a Los Angeles airport tarmac in front of a hulking CalGuard Black Hawk helicopter. “I would expect any leader of the free world, the most powerful person in the United States of America, to respect the pleas of 40 million Americans that happen to live in the state of California, hundreds of thousands of people that are still evacuated and a recovery effort that includes, right now, cadaver dogs to look for human remains, to be here for the American people at a time of emergency and a time of recovery.”
Trump’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger echoed Newsom’s call with her own invitation to Trump on Saturday, imploring the incoming president to stand with county residents as they rebuild.
A catastrophic cluster of fires has wrought unprecedented destruction on the greater Los Angeles area in recent days, leveling thousands of structures and killing at least 13 people. The rebuilding effort will cost billions and test relationships at all levels of government.
President Biden, who has a close relationship with Newsom, has pledged that the federal government will cover 100% of disaster assistance costs to California for the next 180 days. But Biden leaves office on Jan. 20, and the recovery effort will likely sprawl for years to come.
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks with reporters at LAX on Saturday.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
Newsom whose term in office ends in 2026, is widely seen as eyeing the White House. As governor, Newsom took advantage of the state’s position as the liberal antithesis to Trump to elevate his own national profile during the president-elect’s first term.
The war of words between the two men on social media and in news headlines gave Newsom an opportunity to define himself as a fighter for Democratic values that he argued the Trump regime sought to erode. Newsom and California similarly gave Trump a chance to call out the follies of Democratic rule, endearing the president to his own base.
Less than 36 hours after Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Newsom called a special session of the Legislature to give the California Department of Justice an extra $25 million to wage legal battles against the incoming administration.
The special session immediately reignited the California versus Trump narrative from four years ago, though Newsom has attempted to downplay any political motivation and said his experience proved the need to prepare to protect environmental policies, abortion access and other state priorities.
When asked Saturday whether he regretted calling the special session and publicly reigniting tensions with the incoming president, Newsom emphatically pushed back.
“Our preparing for the inevitable — which is an assault on our values, our diverse communities — we would be absolutely remiss not to prepare for that,” Newsom said, citing the myriad lawsuits the state litigated with Trump during his tenure and prior threats to withhold disaster assistance from the people of California.
But he also suggested that he worked as closely with Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic as any Democratic governor in America, taking the slightly more measured approach that he has put forth. During the president-elect’s first term, Newsom and Trump also maintained a friendly behind-the-scenes relationship, which appears to have since dissipated.
Newsom has forcefully pushed back on right-wing attacks on social media in the wake of the fires on social media in recent days and launched a website Saturday to actively debunk misinformation about the fire. The site refutes claims from Fox News that California cut its firefighting budget and shoots down allegations in social media posts about the state mismanaging forest lands.
Recap: Wake Forest Handles Business, Beats Miami 88-78
Dallas visits Ottawa after shootout victory
Maguire & Caldarone: Bilingual education a must for BPS students
Douglas Clark
Seattle weather: Cooler, but drier, week ahead
Colorado Rockies game no. 116 thread: Zac Gallen vs José Ureña
Why Marjorie Taylor Greene was ‘kicked out’ of the Freedom Caucus according to Rep. Buck
See it: Tesla crashes into Columbus convention center at 70 mph
Fox News Politics: Georgia the whole day through
Death of missing Oregon girl found in stream ruled homicide
Video: Community L.A. Fire Brigade Steps In to Help Evacuate Residents
Pence reveals words exchanged with President-elect Trump at Carter funeral
Soldiers' arrest 'evidence' of North Korean involvement in Ukraine war
USDA report finds Boar's Head listeria outbreak was due to poor sanitation practices
Los Angeles Geared Up for Fire Risk, but Fell Short
-
Politics1 week agoNew Orleans attacker had 'remote detonator' for explosives in French Quarter, Biden says
-
Politics1 week agoCarter's judicial picks reshaped the federal bench across the country
-
Politics1 week agoWho Are the Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
-
Health6 days agoOzempic ‘microdosing’ is the new weight-loss trend: Should you try it?
-
World1 week agoSouth Korea extends Boeing 737-800 inspections as Jeju Air wreckage lifted
-
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25822586/STK169_ZUCKERBERG_MAGA_STKS491_CVIRGINIA_A.jpg "Meta is highlighting a splintering global approach to online speech")
Technology3 days agoMeta is highlighting a splintering global approach to online speech
-
World1 week agoWeather warnings as freezing temperatures hit United Kingdom
-
News1 week agoSeeking to heal the country, Jimmy Carter pardoned men who evaded the Vietnam War draft