Kamala Harris has defended her policy shifts while vowing to “turn the page” on Donald Trump in her first set-piece interview since replacing President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket.
Accused of running shy of the media since Mr Biden’s shock departure from the White House race, the vice president sat down with CNN alongside her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, for just under half an hour.
Ms Harris was grilled about her rowing back on stances she adopted when wooing Left-wing Democrats for the nomination in 2020, when she took a liberal stance on illegal immigration and wanted to ban fracking in the key state of Pennsylvania.
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” she replied.
She added: “I believe it is important to build consensus. It is important to find a common place of understanding where we can actually solve the problem.”
Ms Harris struggled to offer any detail about what she would do on day one in the Oval Office if she is elected in November. Instead, the new Democratic standard-bearer stuck to the script of attacking her divisive Republican adversary in former president Trump.
If she wins, the mixed race Ms Harris will be America’s first woman president, and she described Trump as “diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans - really dividing our nation”.
“And I think people are ready to turn the page on that,” she said, adding she was prepared to reach across the political aisle and name a Republican to her cabinet.
Trump, who reposted a sexual slur against Ms Harris on his Truth Social platform as he insulted her interview performance, has been making baseless claims that she is not really black.
Her father was Jamaican and her mother Indian.
She dismissed his attack line as the “same old, tired playbook” and said: “Next question, please.”
Since Mr Biden dropped out, the Democrats’ chances in November have been transformed. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Ms Harris leading Trump by 45% to 41% nationally, as she profits from a bounce since the Democrats held their nominating convention.
Mr Walz, who staged his own introduction to the nation in Chicago, also faced questioning about Republican attack lines including that he exaggerated his service for the National Guard in 2018 remarks making the case for gun control.
“My grammar’s not always correct,” he said, while also fending off attacks on his statements about the kind of fertility treatment he and his wife used to conceive their two children, pivoting instead to attacking Trump over abortion rights.
The Republican insisted that the interview was “boring” and said he looked forward to his first debate with Ms Harris scheduled for September 10.
Trump posted: “I look so forward to Debating Comrade Kamala Harris and exposing her for the fraud she is.”
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