Vice President Kamala Harris has appeared to change her position on many issues that were important to her and a majority of Democratic voters during her unsuccessful 2020 presidential bid in what critics say is an effort to repackage her in a desperate bid to appeal to more voters now that she’s the heir apparent to the 2024 nomination.
Specifically, as reported by The New York Times, Harris stood on the far left of many issues, including energy, climate, firearms, and immigration. But now her campaign is attempting to downplay those stances and present her as much more moderate even as Republican operatives dig up a plethora of old interviews and video clips showing her true colors.
For instance, Republican Dave McCormick, who is running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, highlighted Harris’s controversial positions with a powerful montage. The video showcased Harris endorsing a range of extreme ideas, from open borders to federal firearm confiscation through a euphemistically termed “mandatory buyback” program.
McCormick’s ad also featured clips of Harris supporting various controversial policies, including the Green New Deal, a ban on fracking and offshore drilling, single-payer health insurance, voting rights for violent felons, and an authoritarian climate policy aimed at reducing red meat consumption.
Bob Casey just endorsed the most liberal nominee in U.S. history. pic.twitter.com/J0V6W7CUlh
— Dave McCormick (@DaveMcCormickPA) July 23, 2024
Republican strategists like Brad Todd in Pennsylvania have already begun seizing on the vice president’s far-left history; she was once considered the most ‘progressive’ member of the U.S. Senate before she accepted Joe Biden’s offer to be his running mate after dropping out of the 2020 Democratic primaries very early.
CBS: “You’re considered the most liberal United States senator.”
KAMALA: “I— somebody said that, and it was actually Mike Pence on the debate stage…”
CBS: “Actually, nonpartisan GovTrack has rated you as the most liberal senator.”
KAMALA: *blank stare* pic.twitter.com/YhGACBzJPq
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) July 31, 2024
“The archive is deep,” Todd said, according to the Times. “We will run out of time before we run out of video clips of Kamala Harris saying wacky California liberal things. I’m just not sure that the rest of this campaign includes much besides that.”
The Times provided some details about the montage that McCormack put together:
She said then that she opposed fracking; would “think about” abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency; called the idea of adding more police officers “wrongheaded thinking”; entertained the idea of allowing felons to vote; said she supported a “mandatory buyback program” for some guns; and called for the elimination of private health insurance.
Fracking is a particularly tough issue for Ms. Harris. Banning it was a plank in her energy platform in the 2020 primary race. But fracking remains a key element of the economy in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most important battleground state this year.
Former President Donald Trump, her GOP opponent should she go on to win her party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention this month, has also begun to seize upon her previous left-wing stances on issues.
“She pledged to ban fracking — no fracking, oh, that’s going to do well in Pennsylvania, isn’t it?” he said at a rally on Saturday in Minnesota. “Remember, Pennsylvania, I said it. She wants no fracking. She’s on tape. The beautiful thing about modern technology is when you say something, you’re screwed if it’s bad.”
The Harris campaign intends to counter most Republican attacks by claiming they are exaggerations or falsehoods about her record, according to a campaign official who was briefed on the plans but not authorized to speak publicly. The campaign aims to emphasize her background as a local prosecutor and state attorney general to strengthen her image as a candidate with strong ties to law enforcement, The Times reported.
In addition to reversing her stance on fracking, campaign officials said Harris now supports the Biden administration’s budget proposals for increased border enforcement funding. She has also abandoned her support for a single-payer health insurance program and aligned with Biden’s call to ban assault weapons, though she no longer supports requiring their sale to the federal government, the outlet added.
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