Don't go off script....
https://www.axios.com/2024/09/06/kamala-harris-interviews-election-scrutiny
The backstory: Biden advisers often were frustrated with Harris' performance as vice president. Their concerns fall into three buckets:
https://www.axios.com/2024/09/06/kamala-harris-interviews-election-scrutiny
The backstory: Biden advisers often were frustrated with Harris' performance as vice president. Their concerns fall into three buckets:
- They found her public performances uneven and often not reassuring. This improved over time. But even recently, several on Biden's team worried she'd struggle under the glare of national pressure.
- They found her risk-averse to the point of paralysis. The issue she embraced most — abortion rights — is one with the least risk, as polls show Democrats with a huge advantage on the issue.
- They worried about the high turnover rate among her staff. Of the 47 Harris staffers publicly disclosed to the Senate in 2021, only five still worked for her as of this spring. (This tally is incomplete because roughly half the staff isn't listed on the Senate disclosures.)
- Banning plastic straws for environmental concerns. (She's no longer for it, as Axios reported Thursday.)
- A mandate for automakers to only make electric and hydrogen vehicles by 2035. (The Harris campaign won't say whether she's still for it.)
- Banning fracking because of concerns over global warming and potential water contamination. (No longer favors a ban.)
- A mandatory buyback program for assault weapons as part of her gun safety agenda. (She's dropped this idea.)
- Decriminalizing crossing the border from a criminal offense to a civil one. (No longer supports.)
- Reparations for slavery, which many progressives argued for during the 2020 primary. (Position unclear.)
- Building a wall on the Southwest border, a defining Trump promise that many Democrats have fought. (Accepted it as part of the bipartisan border package that Republicans killed.)
- A federal jobs guarantee that was part of her Green New Deal proposal. (No longer for it.)
- Medicare for All, which Harris embraced in her first year as senator. (She's backed off this.)
