News
‘Not a Thing That Comes to Mind’: Harris Says She Wouldn’t Do Anything Differently from Biden over Past Four Years
Kamala Harris can’t think of a single thing she would have done differently from President Joe Biden during her time serving as his vice president over the past four years.
Harris appeared on The View Monday morning and host Sunny Hostin lightly asked her if there was something she would have handled differently from Biden, an important question for Harris down the stretch of the presidential campaign.
“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said. “I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.”
Later on, Harris revisited the topic and sought to distinguish herself from Biden by reiterating her promise to appoint a Republican to her cabinet.
A number of prominent anti-Trump Republicans have endorsed Harris’s campaign, including former vice president Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Representative Liz Cheney (Wyo.), who previously criticized Harris’s progressive stances but now focuses her ire on Trump. Former senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, a vocal critic of Trump during his time in the upper chamber, served as the Biden administration’s ambassador to Turkey until he left his post last month.
Aware of Biden’s low approval ratings and widespread voter dissatisfaction with the direction of the country, Harris is trying to pull off the difficult task of running as a change agent while defending the Biden administration’s record.
Biden, 81, has not been a prominent surrogate for Harris’s campaign since she replaced him atop the Democratic Party ticket after he dropped out of the presidential race in July due to a public revolt from Democrats over his mental fitness.
Harris is campaigning on a message of “joy” and trying to contrast it with the “weird” vibes of her Republican rival, former president Donald Trump, and his running mate, GOP Senator J. D. Vance (Ohio).
At the same time, Harris and her campaign have walked back many of the far-left positions she took when she ran for president four years ago to make her more palatable to swing voters and moderates who may be turned off by Trump. She is now portraying herself as an immigration hawk and claims to oppose a fracking ban, a popular position among Democratic Party activists that’s sure to alienate must-win Pennsylvania voters.
Biden made Harris the “border czar” in charge of handling illegal immigration, one of the top issues this election cycle due to the record numbers of illegal migrants who have crossed the southern border over the past four years.
On 60 Minutes, Harris dodged questions on the Biden administration’s lax immigration policies and attempted to deflect blame onto Republicans for opposing a bipartisan border deal earlier this year. Conservatives were strongly opposed to certain provisions within the border proposal and argued that President Biden could have enacted the changes himself through executive order. Months later, Biden did exactly that and signed an order tightening asylum requirements.
Harris’s recent appearances on 60 minutes and The View are part of a friendly media blitz she is undertaking with only weeks to go until election day. She also sat for a softball interview on the raunchy feminist podcast Call Her Daddy, where she and host Alexandra Cooper discussed abortion and Harris’s career as a prosecutor.