Kamala Harris pitches for centre in first big TV interview as presidential candidate

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Kamala Harris made another pitch to moderate voters on Thursday, distancing her positions from the left of the Democratic party on immigration, energy and foreign policy in her first big interview since launching her White House run.

The US vice-president spoke to CNN at a café in Savannah, Georgia, alongside her running mate Tim Walz, as she tries to maintain the momentum that has given her a slight polling lead over Donald Trump in the presidential race.

Faced with persistent concerns among voters over inflation, Harris vowed to take new steps to lower housing, drug and food costs on her first day in office if she beats Trump, but defended the Biden administration’s handling of the economy.

“Prices, in particular for groceries, are still too high. The American people know it,” she said. “There’s more to do.”

Trump and many Republicans have tried on the campaign trail to portray Harris as a radical leftist based on stances she took mainly during her failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019.

But the vice-president used the interview to double down on her shift to the middle since then. On immigration, she said the US had “laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross the border illegally” while vowing that there would be “consequences” for those who broke them.

On energy, she promised not to ban “fracking” to extract shale oil and gas, a practice that faces fierce opposition from climate activists, despite vowing five years ago to ban it. “As vice-president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.”

Pressed to explain her shift on those issues, Harris repeatedly said her “values have not changed”.

Harris had faced criticism for avoiding unscripted interviews and failing to hold a full-blown press conference since she replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate, preferring campaign stump speeches and brief exchanges with reporters.

According to the Financial Times polling average, Harris holds a 3.6 percentage point lead over Trump nationally, while many other surveys also give her an edge in several swing states.

At his own event in Wisconsin on Thursday, Trump criticised Harris’s performance. “She didn’t look like a leader to me,” he said before the full interview aired on CNN. “I don’t see her negotiating with President Xi of China. I don’t see her with Kim Jong Un,” he added, speaking of North Korea’s dictator.

During the interview, Harris was asked about Trump’s personal attacks on her, including when he questioned her racial identity last month. “Same old tired playbook,” Harris responded. “Next question, please.”

On foreign policy, Harris rejected a change in US policy on Israel’s war in Gaza and repeated that the Biden administration was pushing for a ceasefire deal to end the conflict and free hostages held by Hamas.

Harris also promised to include a Republican in her cabinet if she won the US presidency.

“I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences,” she said. “And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican.”