The attempt to remake Kamala Harris into something that she manifestly is not is becoming extremely creepy. Here’s Politico:
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign pledged the likely Democratic presidential nominee would not ban fracking, rejecting what it called “false” accusations by Donald Trump that she would prohibit the technology if elected president.
The observation to which Kamala Harris’s campaign is responding here is neither “false” nor an “accusation.” It was, until Friday evening, Harris’s only stated position on the matter. As Politico notes:
Details: The response by the Harris campaign came after the former president brought up statements Harris made during her 2019 primary run pledging to ban fracking at a Minnesota campaign rally on Saturday.
Note that word: “after.” Harris’s statement came after Trump’s criticism — which, as Politico concedes, was factually correct. Harris did, indeed, say in 2019 that she wanted to ban fracking, and she said so in no uncertain terms. “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” she told CNN, before confirming that she was talking not only about “public lands” but about per se “legislation,” and then reminding the audience that “I have a history of working on this issue.” Elsewhere, Harris also said that she supported the Green New Deal, which contained a ban on fracking. Here she is, on video:
Obviously, this is now inconvenient for Harris. But that does not give her the power to deem statements that were made before she changed her mind as “dishonest.” Time is linear — even in politics. Changes made today do not wipe out mistakes that were made yesterday.
Responding to Trump’s accurate description of her position, Harris’s campaign said:
“Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class,” the Harris campaign said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris Administration passed the largest ever climate change legislation and under their leadership, America now has the highest ever domestic energy production.”
I’ll say it again: This is creepy. If Harris has changed her position, she should say so. She should not deem correct characterizations of her previous stance as ex post facto illegitimate. And if she’s going to do so, the press should certainly not aid her in the endeavor. The responsible way for Politico to have covered this was to note that, having been criticized by the Trump campaign, Kamala Harris has reversed herself. “Kamala Harris changes her position on fracking” would have been a fair headline. Instead, we got yet another example of the media doing what the media always does: saying anything it has to do to ensure that Democrats are never embarrassed.