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.
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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.”
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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.
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“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.
For the people still on the fence about whom to vote for in the 2024 presidential race, Tuesday night’s debate was an important data point. Astead W. Herndon, a national politics reporter for The New York Times and the host of the politics podcast “The Run-Up,” asked some undecided voters for their thoughts about Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump.
Politics
Harris mocked online for breaking out another 'new accent' at Congressional Black Caucus event
Vice President Harris was mocked online for debuting another “new accent” during a Congressional Black Caucus event Saturday night.
“Hello to all of my Divine Nine brothers and sisters,” Harris said at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C. “And to all my HBCU brothers and sisters.”
The account End Wokeness shared the clip on X, writing: “BREAKING: Kamala Harris unveils a new accent at the Black Caucus Dinner.”
“New? Or is it her old fake black accent?” X user Paul A. Szypula, who has more than 232,700 followers, responded. “Either way, it’s incredibly insulting to black people. Shame on Kamala.”
“NEW: Kamala Harris brings out her new accent at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 2024 Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington D.C.,” Collin Rugg wrote to his 1.4 million followers, sharing the clip to X. “‘Hello to all my divine… brothas and sistas… am my soro…’ Kamala has brought out this new accent throughout the campaign at different times.”
“Kamala Harris accent du jor,” columnist James Hirsen wrote to his 270,500 followers on X.
KAMALA HARRIS RALLIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY REPEATING SAME SPEECH IN DIFFERENT ACCENTS
Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Other X users pointed to how Harris was raised in Canada but has broken out varying accents from around the United States depending on where she was campaigning.
Harris’ “Divine Nine” comment referenced how she was a member of a historically Black sorority while attending Howard University.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment Sunday.
The vice president was panned earlier this month when side by side clips showed her seemingly using different accents while campaigning in Detroit and Pittsburgh, hours apart.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy confronted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the issue, asking, “Since when does the vice president have what sounds like a southern accent?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jean-Pierre said from the White House podium earlier this month.
“Well she was talking about unions in Detroit using one tone of voice,” Doocy said. “She used the same line in Pittsburgh, and it sounded like she at least had some kind of a southern drawl.”
President Joe Biden, left, with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, right, on stage at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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“I mean do you hear the question … I mean do you think Americans seriously think that this is an important question?” Jean-Pierre retorted. “They care – you know what they care about? They care about the economy. They care about lowering costs. They care about healthcare. That’s what Americans care about…”
Kamala Harris speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Harris is attempting to court Black voters in the coming days. Speaking to the Congressional Black Caucus dinner right before her, President Biden talked about Harris as the first Black and South Asian woman vice president, and said, “God willing, she will become the first woman president of the United States of America.”
On Tuesday, Harris will sit with members of the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia. On Thursday, she’ll attend a live streamed rally headlined by Oprah Winfrey and involving groups such as “Win with Black Women,” “White Women: Answer the Call,” and “South Asians for Harris,” according to the Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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.”
HARRIS DODGES QUESTION ON LOWERING PRICES BY DESCRIBING ‘MIDDLE-CLASS’ ROOTS: NEIGHBORS ‘PROUD OF THEIR LAWN’
Vice President Kamala Harris went viral with her response to a question about how she’d bring down prices in an interview with Philadelphia’s 6 ABC anchor Brian Taff. (Screenshot/6 ABC Philadelphia)
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.
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