Our most recent book is Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Less than 48 hours after Biden's withdrawal, Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee.
In our forthcoming book on the 2024 election, we note that "incumbency" is an ambiguous concept when the challenger was the incumbent just four years earlier and has remained in the public eye ever since.
Vice President Harris said twice during yesterday's interview in Georgia with CNN's Dana Bash that Americans are ready to "turn the page" on the Trump era.Why it matters: It's part of Harris' strategy of portraying herself as the candidate of change, even though she's in the White House — and trying to make former President Trump seem like the exhausting incumbent.
Harris' campaign communications director, Brian Fallon, tweeted while the CNN special was still airing that even after Trump "lost in 2020, he never left the stage — he tried to overturn the election and began running again immediately. America is exhausted with him."
Harris, joined by running mate Tim Walz for her first formal interview since President Biden bowed out, rejected identity politics when asked about Trump's comments about her racial identity."Same old, tired playbook," Harris said. "Next question, please."
Bash followed up: "That's it?"Harris replied: "That's it."
Trump, on his Truth Social platform, called the interview: "BORING!!!"
She need not talk about identity politics. As soon as the camera is on, viewers can see that she is a Black woman.
Pressed by Bash on her reversals on fracking and decriminalizing illegal border crossings, Harris sought to explain why her positions had changed.
“How should voters look at some of the changes that you’ve made?” Bash asked Harris. “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 said despite the shifts in position, her values had not changed.
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” she said. “You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed – and I have 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.”
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And she pointed to her record as California attorney general, when she prosecuted gangs accused of cross border trafficking, as an indication of her values on immigration.
Note that she did not directly answer Bash's question. Instead of explaining why she changed her position, she pivoted to her underlying values and her record.
Likewise, Walz pivoted when Bash asked about his inaccurate statements about his military record. Kierra Frazier at Politico:
CNN’s Dana Bash asked Walz about remarks in 2018, when he was running for Congress, and he said he “carried a weapon of war in war” as he discussed his support for restricting assault weapons.
Walz, who served 24 years in the National Guard but was not in combat, says he misspoke — chalking it up to garbling some words.
“My grammar is not always correct,” he said.
The Republican criticism was part of a broader effort to tarnish Walz soon after he emerged as Harris’ running mate. But the effect of the accusation has been muted, in part because former President Donald Trump made well-known efforts to dodge military service, and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, served four years in the Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq but did not have combat experience.
Walz said in the CNN interview that his military record “speaks for itself” as he dismissed the criticism.
“I’m incredibly proud I’ve done 24 years of wearing the uniform of this country, equally proud of my service in a public school classroom, whether it’s Congress or the governor,” he said. “My record speaks for itself. I speak candidly. I wear my emotions on my sleeves, and I speak especially passionately about our children being shot in schools and around guns.”
