International

US Election: I’ll Make Economic Affordability First Priority – Kamala Harris

Published

2 months ago

Aug 30, 2024.

Vice President Kamala Harris promised to make economic affordability the first priority of her presidency if given the mandate to be the number on citizen of the United States.

Harris made this promise during a CNN interview on Thursday that marked the first extended sit-down of her candidacy, defending her shifting positions on several key policies, and pledged continued support to Israel during.

During the interview, she offered a vigorous defense of her record as part of the Biden administration and hinted at expansive ambitions if elected in November, saying her values have not changed’ amid claims of shifting policy.

EDITOR’S PICKS

“There’s some suggestion, warped I believe it to be, that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down,” Harris said, “instead of where I believe most Americans are, which is that the true measure of the strength of a leader is in who you lift up.”

Harris also pushed back on scrutiny over her changing policy positions on issues like energy and immigration, insisting in perhaps the interview’s sharpest moment that she had long ago changed her mind on the politically sensitive topic of a fracking ban.

Despite supporting a ban in 2019, Harris said Thursday that she had reversed herself the next year and would never again support an end to the practice.

“I made that clear on the debate stage in 2020 that I would not ban fracking, as vice president I did not ban fracking, as president I will not ban fracking,” she said. “I’m very clear about where I stand.”

The interview came following a campaign bus tour through southeast Georgia, where Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have spent their first days on the trail since the Democratic convention.

Harris described her first priority if elected as doing “what we can to support and strengthen the middle class,” including lowering Americans’ everyday costs and investing in families and small businesses.

However, she did not offer any specific plans for accomplishing those goals beyond referring to an economic blueprint she rolled out earlier this month, which included reviving and enlarging elements of the Biden administration’s agenda that remain unfinished.

The Vice President also defended the current administration’s economic record, touting legislation capping the cost of insulin for seniors and spurring more investment in American manufacturing.

On foreign policy, Harris also toed the current White House’s line, expressing “unequivocal and unwavering” support for Israel and its defense and rejecting calls from progressives and Arab Americans to put conditions on aid to the U.S. ally.

She did acknowledge that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” but pointed to a cease-fire deal as the key to ending the war.