What she’s going to do with the presidency? The most memorable interview she’ll have with Dana Bash, who’s talking to her
It might be interesting to journalists to know how Harris explains her changing views from 2019, when she ran for the Democratic nomination, to now, when she is the nominee. But it is not at all clear to me that it is interesting to viewers, who may be less concerned with how she deals with the question and more concerned with the actual substance of what she wants to do as president. A soft-focus question about a photograph, however iconic, seems less valuable than a question about Harris’s view of the presidency now that she’s spent almost four years in the passenger’s seat as vice president.
INSKEEP: With Dana Bash, she worked through some of the policy changes. She said she would ban fracking if she became president. She said in the interview that she had changed her mind after the campaign in 2020 when she said she would not ban it. The stakes are high because Republicans criticized Harris for avoiding interviews up to now.
MARTIN: You’ve been covering her, and you’ve also interviewed her a number of times. What is your major point of departure?
There is Khalid. I think you see that she has grown during this interview. There is a different format in this interview than there was in my first one, but she is certainly more practiced in how to interview. It was a joint interview with her running mate, Tim Walz. You know, broadly, Michel, this was not an earth-shattering interview. Republicans and Democrats will take from it what they want, as long as it reinforces their own perception of her. To some, she is seen as pragmatic. To others, she’s long-winded. I believe they could either interpret the 888-666-1846 interview as they saw it, or they could change their mind.
It’s good work if we improve the supply chain so that we don’t rely on foreign governments to provide basic needs for American families. It’s good work that there’s more to do.
Kamala Harris and the First Lady of the House of Representatives: The Race for a New President? A CNN Interview with Khalid
There is a man named Khalid. It wasn’t much. I mean, she was asked to spell out about what she would do on Day 1 as president, and she talked in vague terms about strengthening the middle class. She’s not campaigning on policy ideas, she’s campaigning on what she knows. She talks about how she is going to change the course of our culture because it has become so negative over the last decade.
HARRIS: Where there is some suggestion – warped, I believe it to be – that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, instead of where I believe most Americans are, which is to believe that the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up – that’s what’s at stake, as much as any other detail that we could discuss in this election.
A rush deadline is used to create NPR transcripts. This text may not be the final one, but it can be revised in the future. Availability may be different from accuracy. NPR’s programming is recorded in the audio record.
The CNN interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and the Gov. of Minnesota was a huge success since they were able to talk about the major narratives of the election so far. Harris was quick to give a strong defense of the record of President Biden. Walz, likewise, made short work of the charge that he had misled the public when he spoke about using one fertility treatment when it was actually another, similar treatment.
I am more interested in hearing about the theory of office of the candidates than I am in hearing about their controversies. How does a candidate for president conceptualize the presidency? What would she prioritize in office and how would she handle an endless onslaught of crises and issues that may, or may not, demand her attention? How does she imagine her relationship with Congress and how would she try to achieve her goals in the face of an opposition legislature? How does she imagine her relationship with the public and what value does she place on communication and the bully pulpit? Are there presidents she most admires — and why? What are the presidential accomplishments that stand out? What are the worst mistakes a president can make? Why do you want this job in the first place?