In a primetime spot on CNN Thursday evening, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sat for their first interview together as the Democratic ticket, taking questions from the anchor Dana Bash on a range of important issues, including their plans for day one if they win the race, the approach to the war in Gaza, and how Joe Biden passed the baton.
With just over two months until voters will head to the polls on 5 November – and even less time before some will mail in their ballots – the Democratic candidates for president and vice-president made good on a promise to speak more candidly about how they will tackle the US’s most pressing problems.
But this interview was about more than just policies and priorities.
For weeks, Republicans and members of the media have called for the nominees to open themselves up to questions, especially the vice-president, who has for the most part sidestepped unscripted moments in the six weeks since the president ended his bid for re-election and endorsed her. Analysts and opponents were watching Thursday’s interview closely for new insights into how a Harris administration would approach the presidency, how the candidates interact with one another, and how she would respond in more candid moments.
Here’s what we learned:
Harris: ‘My values have not changed’
Bash pushed Harris on how voters should view some key shifts on important policy positions over the years, including on immigration and the climate crisis. Harris responded resolutely saying her “values have not changed” but explained that experience has provided some new insights.
“As president I will not ban fracking,” Harris said, reversing a position she expressed during her first bid for the presidency. Explaining that she now believes a “thriving clean energy economy” can be built without a ban, Harris highlighted achievements from the Biden administration, including the US’s landmark climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, that have helped set the course. “The climate crisis is real, it is an urgent matter,” she said. “I am very clear about where I stand.”
She also spoke about her work on the border and how she plans to address the immigration crisis. “I believe we have laws that have to be followed and enforced,” she said, adding that she is the only person in the race who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations, work she did as California’s attorney general.
Day one: strengthen the middle class
If Harris is elected president, she will start by working to strengthen the middle class with a strategy she is calling “the opportunity economy”. Building from “Bidenomics” – a platform her predecessor used to move away from trickle-down policies that favor the wealthy and instead grow the economy “from the middle out and the bottom up – Harris outlined her plan to help struggling families.
“People are ready for a new way forward,” she said, highlighting that she hopes to bring down costs of everyday goods with key investments, cracking down on price gouging, and expanding the child tax credit. She also reiterated her plan to secure $25,000 in assistance for first-time homebuyers.
While she agreed with Bash that prices remain higher than they were during the Trump presidency, she argued that she and Biden ensured the country recovered from the Covid-19 crisis.
“Bidenomics is a success,” she said. “There’s more to do – but that’s good work.”
War in Gaza: ‘We have to get a deal done’
“Israel has a right to defend itself – we would,” Harris said, emphasizing that she is “unequivocal” in Israel’s defense and that that position would not change. But, she added: “How it does so matters.”
Harris told Bash she supported a two-state solution in which Palestinians have “security, self determination, and dignity”, and said she is focused on both getting the remaining hostages out and a ceasefire.
“Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” she said. “We have got to get a deal done. This war must end.”
Tim Walz defends his record
Through much of the interview, Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, nodded in support while she detailed their platform. But Bash had questions for him too, specifically about claims he has made in the past and corrections his campaign has had to make about them.
Walz served in the army national guard for 24 years and retired in 2005 to run for Congress, nearly a year before his unit deployed to Iraq. He has been criticized by Republicans who first questioned his decision to depart before his unit deployed, and then scrutinized for a statement he made about “weapons of war” that implied he had been involved in active combat.
Walz also incorrectly described the type of fertility treatments he and his wife sought in their effort to conceive, several times referring to their reliance on IVF. He later clarified they actually used another common fertility procedure called IUI, or intrauterine insemination, which does not involve creating or discarding embryos and is not a target for anti-abortion legislators.
“My record speaks for itself,” he said. “I certainly own my mistakes when I make them … I won’t apologize for speaking passionately – whether it’s about guns in schools or protecting reproductive rights – the contrast could not be clearer.”
Getting the call from Biden
“We were sitting down to do a puzzle,” Harris said with a big smile. Before Thursday’s interview, little was known about how she came to learn that Biden would be withdrawing from the race. She described a family breakfast with her “baby nieces”, complete with pancakes and second servings of bacon, that had just wrapped up when the phone began to ring.
“It was Joe Biden. He told me what he decided to do,” she said, adding that he quickly offered his support for her candidacy. “My first thought was not about me – it was about him,” she said.
“I think history is going to show a number of things about Joe Biden’s presidency,” Harris added. “He puts the American people first.”
Impacting future generations
Bash also asked about the now viral New York Times photo of young Amara Ajagu, one of Harris’s young great-nieces, watching Harris accept her party’s nomination, and what it meant for her as a woman of color. Donald Trump had previously questioned her racial identity, making comments at the National Association of Black Journalists convention saying she “happened to turn Black”.
Harris called Trump’s comments “the same old tired playbook”, and dismissed them with a curt: “Next question, please.”
But she took the opportunity to look past race while also recognizing the importance of this moment, especially for younger generations.
“I am running because I believe I am the best person to do this job in this moment – for all Americans, regardless of race and gender,” Harris said. “But I did see that photograph, and I was deeply touched by it.”
