Unscripted Kamala Harris leans into optimism as her detractors pounce

Savannah, Georgia: It was the latest test of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign: her first unscripted interview with a major media outlet since becoming the Democratic nominee for the White House.

But no sooner had Harris announced that she had agreed to the grilling – alongside her vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz – than the Republican attacks came in hot.

Kamala Harris in her CNN interview.Credit: CNN

“It is offensive to ALL women that Kamala has refused to sit for a solo interview when she is running to be commander-in-chief,” said New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik hours before the prime-time CNN broadcast.

“The American people deserve better than this weak, incompetent duo,” mused MAGA flamethrower Marjorie Taylor Greene as she accused Harris of “hiding” behind Walz, her “communist comrade”.

As for Republican candidate Donald Trump? He declared that CNN host Dana Bash “has a chance of greatness today” – provided the interview was “fair but tough”.

Tim Walz and Kamala Harris during the sit down with Dana Bash.Credit: x.com

If so, he said, Harris would be exposed “as being totally inept and ill-suited for the job of president, much as I exposed Joe Biden during our now famous debate. How cool would that be for Dana and CNN???”

In the end, the interview was short and friendly, allowing Harris to do a solid enough job traversing issues such as immigration, the economy, and the war in Gaza – but whether it will be enough to shift the needle in such a tight race is doubtful.

She avoided the major missteps that plagued her ill-fated first presidential bid in 2019 or her early vice presidency, when she occasionally looked unserious or as though she lacked policy depth.

She made the case to “turn the page” on Trump and the division and chaos he sowed, offering a new way forward “fuelled by hope and by optimism”.

Harris talks during a stop at Dottie’s Market in Savannah.Credit: AP

And she tried to explain her various policy U-turns, which Republicans have been highlighting for weeks in the hope of casting her as a “phoney radical liberal” who lacks conviction.

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said.

But will voters believe her? On immigration, for instance, Harris once described building a border wall as “un-American”. Now, she says she’ll build one as part of a broader strategy to deal with the record numbers of illegal immigrants crossing into the US via South and Central America.

Asked why the Biden administration had waited 3½ years to implement sweeping asylum restrictions, she blamed Trump for killing a bipartisan border bill that would have gone some way to fixing the issue simply because he wanted to campaign on the crisis.

Donald Trump listens to Paul Perez, president of the National Border Patrol Council, as he tours the southern border in Arizona. Credit: AP

On fracking, Harris once supported banning it (it involves drilling to extract oil and natural gas from shale rock) in the interest of the environment.

Now, with oil-rich Pennsylvania critical to her electoral success, she has backed away from that position, arguing that she believes it is possible to “guard against what is a clear crisis in terms of the climate” while also allowing fracking.

“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,” Harris said.

As a former prosecutor, the 59-year-old is big on preparation and tends to shine when she leads the questions or attacks – rather than being on the receiving end of them.

But the pressure to do something other than the choreographed speeches she prefers was becoming unsustainable, with critics and supporters alike urging her to explain her policies.

“Votes are earned, not given,” said influential American radio host Charlamagne tha God, whose The Breakfast Club radio show has become a must-listen for Democrats.

This is true: with just over two months until election day, Americans deserve to know more about who Harris is, what she stands for, and how she holds up under proper scrutiny.

After all, it was Biden who went through the Democratic primary process and won the votes of 14 million people, not his deputy. And it’s Biden’s legacy that presents a challenge for Harris, who is pitching herself as a candidate for change, but at the same time is not straying too far from many of the Biden-Harris administration policies.

A child is pictured among the rubble of a house in Rafah, Gaza.Credit: Getty Images

This was clear when she said that she wouldn’t do anything different on the Gaza issue from the Biden White House.

“So, no change of policy?” Bash asked.

“No. We have to get a deal done,” she said, referring to an elusive ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.

Walz, for his part, brought his trademark “Minnesota nice” persona to the prime-time screen – even as the former teacher, football coach and National Guardsman was asked whether he had embellished his background to appeal to voters.

Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff with Tim Walz and wife Gwen Walz.Credit: AP

For instance, his wife this month clarified that she did not undergo IVF, as Walz has repeatedly claimed, but that she used other fertility treatments.

Republicans have also sharply criticised the Minnesota governor for a 2018 comment he made about having carried weapons in war when his only wartime deployment was to Italy in 2003, backfilling troops that were deploying to Afghanistan.

And, when he first ran for Congress in 2006, his campaign repeatedly made false statements about the details of a 1995 arrest for drunk and reckless driving.

“I think people know who I am,” he said when asked if voters could take him at his word.

“They know that record. They’ve seen that I’ve taught thousands of students. I’ve been out there, and I won’t apologise for speaking passionately, whether it’s guns in schools or protecting reproductive rights. The contrast could not be clearer between what we’re running against.”

The highly anticipated interview was incredibly short, recorded during a two-day bus tour that Harris and Walz conducted in rural Georgia as part of a bold pitch to woo more voters in traditionally conservative areas.

The real test, however, will come on September 10, when Harris and Trump will face off in the first presidential debate in Philadelphia.

After the interview, Trump turned to social media to share his thoughts.

“BORING!!!” he wrote on his Truth Social online platform.

In a high-stakes contest where the main goal is to “do no harm”, that critique could have been exactly what the Harris-Walz campaign wanted.

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