By Harris for President
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
In her CNN interview Thursday, Vice President Harris laid out her vision and responded to Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ attacks on her policy positions.
Vice President Harris explained how her work in the Biden-Harris administration has shaped her views on how best to achieve policy outcomes – on issues from energy and environment to the border.
Vice President Harris set the record straight on a number of issues where Republicans have been attacking her:
On why she doesn’t support the Green New Deal:
- “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. We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act. We have set goals for the United States of America and, by extension, the globe around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as an example. That value has not changed.”
- “I believe it is important to build consensus, and it is important to — to find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems.”
On why she doesn’t support banning fracking:
- “I made that clear on the debate stage in 2020 that I would not ban fracking. As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.”
- “Let’s be clear. My values have not changed. I believe it is very important that we take seriously what we must do to guard against what is a clear crisis in terms of the climate. And to do that, we can do what we have accomplished thus far. The Inflation Reduction Act — what we have done to invest, by my calculation, over… a trillion dollars over the next 10 years, investing in a clean energy economy. What we’ve already done: creating over 300,000 new clean energy jobs.”
- “That tells me, from my experience as vice president, we can do it without banning fracking. In fact… I cast the tie-breaking vote that actually increased leases for fracking as vice president. So I’m very clear about where I stand.”
On why she doesn’t support decriminalizing illegal border crossings and in fact wants to strengthen border security:
- “We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally, and there should be consequence.”
- “And let’s be clear. In this race, I’m the only person who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who traffic in guns, drugs, and human beings. I’m the only person in this race who actually served a border state as attorney general to enforce our laws. And I would enforce our laws as president going forward. I recognize the problem.”
- “My value around what we need to do to secure our border, that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the attorney general of California prosecuting transnational criminal organizations — violations of American laws regarding the passage — illegal passage of guns, drugs, and human beings across our border. My values have not changed.”
- “The root causes work that I did as vice president, that I was asked to do by the president, has actually resulted in a number of benefits, including historic investments by American businesses in that region. The number of immigrants coming from that region has actually reduced since we began that work.”
- “But I will say this — that Joe Biden and I and our administration worked with members of the United States Congress on an immigration issue that is very significant to the American people and to our security, which is the border. And through bipartisan work, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress, a bill was crafted, which we supported, which I support. And Donald Trump got word of this bill that would have contributed to securing our border, and because he believes that it would not have helped him politically, he told his folks in Congress, “Don’t put it forward.” He killed the bill — a border security bill that would have put 1,500 more agents on the border. And let me tell you something. The Border Patrol endorsed the bill, and I’m sure… in large part, because they knew they were working around the clock and 1,500 more agents would help them. That bill would have allowed us to increase seizures of fentanyl. Ask any community in America that has been devastated by fentanyl what passing that bill would have done to address their concern and a pain that they’ve experienced.”
