Vice President and selected Democrat nominee Kamala Harris had her grand debut on CNN along with Tim Walz, the MN Governor and her “White Man Taco” VP running mate.
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Some X commenters called this a softball interview, but they are wrong—it was a spa visit. When Dana Bash wants to give up playing journalist, she should parlay that massage work into a new career.
Plenty of dodging and gaslighting commenced in the 16-minute-long exclusive. (The network cut the chatfest into many segments and spliced in plenty of accompanying video, so the entire show itself ran approximately 48 minutes, but the actual interview took up only about 16 of those.)
It was heavily edited and padded with Bash’s introduction, segues, and conclusions. One wonders how many of Harris’ word salads and Walz’s effusions of emotion ended up on the cutting room floor.
One of the more egregious pieces of blatant gaslighting was Harris’ sudden change of heart on fracking.
The vice president’s position on fracking is key to her electability in the oil-rich battleground state of Pennsylvania, which has 19 Electoral College votes up for grabs in November and could decide the winner of the race.
WATCH:
Asked whether she still wanted to ban fracking, the VP got haughty:
KAMALA HARR IS : No. And 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 would not ban fracking.
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Here is Senator Kamala Harris in 2020 proudly declaring that “there is no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” and how she “has a history” of working on this issue in California.
WATCH:
But somewhere between this 2020 CNN Townhall and 2024, Harris’ position became more “nuanced.” In the only journalistic follow-up of the night, CNN correspondent Dana Bash asked, “Why did you change your position?”
Here is where Kamala served up another of her famous word salads.
WATCH:
DANA BASH: You said you supported banning fracking. Did it change?
KAMALA HARRIS: In 2020, I made clear where I stand. We are in 2024. I kept my word.
DANA BASH: Why did you change your position?
KAMALA HARRIS: Let’s be clear. My values have not changed.
Harris continued on about how the residual impact of fracking has been proven not to affect the overall environment, and this is what drove her decision… or something like that. Then Harris doubled down again about her values not changing.
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What we’ve already done –creating over 300,000 new clean energy jobs – that tells me from my experience as Vice President, we can do it without banning fracking.
And therein lies the tell: “My values have not changed.” Harris repeated that line TWICE during the interview. What it shows is that she will spout whatever is necessary to pacify the Pennsylvanian and American voters, and after she is securely installed as president, she’ll adhere to those values she’s been committed to for decades, and that’s to double down on the climate change agenda.
As one opinion writer stated:
There is ample concern that a future President Harris would push for policies counter to America’s energy standing in the world. But we don’t know for sure, because she just hasn’t told us. That needs to change, and soon.
Harris has been unapologetic about her values up to this point and has championed them for decades. So, this pretense at recalibration is simply another magic trick in the smoke and mirrors Kamala Harris rebranding show.