Kamala Harris defends policy shifts in first interview of US presidential campaign
Kamala Harris insists her ‘values have not changed’ in first major interview since her dramatic entry into the US election
US Vice-President Kamala Harris defended some personal shifts in policy toward the centre on Thursday and said she might name a Republican to her cabinet if elected, in her first interview with a mainstream news organisation since Democrats nominated her for president.
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is, my values have not changed,” she told CNN anchor Dana Bash in an early excerpt from the interview to be broadcast on Friday.
She has toughened her position on migration along the southern US border with Mexico. She also no longer wants a ban on fracking, an energy production method that employs many people in Pennsylvania, one of a handful of swing states that could decide the election.
“My value around what we need to do to secure our border – that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the attorney general of California prosecuting transnational criminal organisations, violations of American laws, regarding the illegal passage of guns, drugs and human beings across our border. My values have not changed,” she said.
