Vice President Kamala Harris was recently criticized for a recent CNN interview in which she delivered “word salad,” nonsubstantive responses to questions on critical issues. Many voters have voiced concern about Harris’ viability as a presidential candidate, as she has continually demonstrated an inability to sufficiently communicate her plan of action. Instead, her campaign strategy has seemingly relied on attacking former President Donald Trump.
Vice President Harris recently sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Bash asked Harris how voters should respond to her apparent flip-flopping in policy stances, where she has seemingly backtracked from previous radical, progressive policies. Making the question even easier for Harris, Bash even gave multiple-choice answers for the vice president to go off of.
Bash asked Harris, “Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the changes that you’ve made? … Is it because you have more experience now, and you’ve learned more about the information? Is it because you were running for president in a Democratic primary? And should they feel comfortable and confident that what you’re saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?”
Harris responded, maintaining that her values have not shifted despite the inconsistencies between her current rhetoric and past comments. She then pivoted, bringing up her green energy agenda and making a vague comment about adhering to deadlines in accomplishing the goals of the Green New Deal.
“Dana, I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said. “You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed, and I’ve worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time. We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act.”
The Vice President further stated, “We have set goals for the United States of America and, by extension, the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as an example.” She then added, “That value has not changed. My value around what we need to do to secure our border. That value is not changed.”
Subsequently, Harris was called out for her responses lacking substance. Conservative commentator Steve Guest described Harris’ remarks as, “Gobbledygook,” adding “The definition of a deadline is ‘the latest time or date by which something should be completed’.” Harris has been continually called out for delivering long-winded, meandering answers that often refuse to answer the question presented.
Harris’s unwillingness to provide a concise answer has even been called out by CNN’s Jake Tapper. Discussing the instance during the presidential debate with Donald Trump, Tapper noted that Harris “punted the question,” when asked to explain if Americans were better off under Trump than they are now.
“Vice President Harris began the debate by punting the first question on the economy,” Tapper said. “Do you believe America took four years ago? ” David Muir asked Harris. “So I was raised as a middle class kid, and I am actually the only person on the stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America,” Harris initially responded. “It went on from there, despite the economy being the number one issue facing the country, the sitting Vice President generally reverted to talking points about a few of her policy proposals,” Tapper added.
Watch Harris respond to Bash below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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