You know it's campaign season when the flip-flops come out
The flip-flopping and copying of Trump policies to make Harris/Walz look more centrist seems to be the strategy
The flip-flopping being reported and copying of Trump policies to make Harris/Walz look more centrist seems to be the strategy.
Let's kick this article off with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre (KJP) responding to questions last week about Harris policy positions, KJP responding that there's “no daylight" between Biden's policies and VP Harris during their three and a half years together.
Reporters had to ask KJP that question because they've been unable to ask it of Harris.
Harris still hasn’t held a press conference where she can be questioned by media and one is unlikely with the Democratic National Convention happening in the coming days. The dodging of direct questions and interview by media seems to be a similar strategy as the one used by President Joe Biden in 2020.
Sky News host Gabriella Power has noticed the lack of interviews given by Harris and she essentially says the White House is hiding Harris from the media so she cannot be asked about her policy positions and accomplishments, or lack thereof.
Power's colleague, Rita Panahi, isn't buying the Harris policy shifting spin. Check out this segment that begins with what is arguably her biggest illegal immigration flip flop and then another Panahi clip, where Harris objects to the term "illegal alien."
How the public perceives Harris’ attempt to both distance herself from the Biden/Harris administration while also touting its accomplishments will depend on how the media reports it. And the media is failing thus far.
Major media outlets are not using the “flip-flop” terminology as they have with other candidates in the past. Instead, outlets are using phrases and terms like, “evolving,” “shifting,” and “recalibrating.”
Here's an example from CNN:
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Let’s look at some of Harris’ policy flip-flops.
Private Health Insurance
In 2019, she literally wanted to do away with private health insurance in favor of single payer- government run healthcare. Problematically, she’s also called for illegal aliens to get “free” insurance.
Now as a presidential candidate, she's "clarified" that she's against eliminating private insurance and instead wants to turn Obamacare into a bigger juggernaut than it already is and that position is actually still a path to single-payer government healthcare.
Defund the Police
In 2020, she called for defunding police departments. She also literally helped bail out BLM rioters by tweeting a bail fund website out.
In 2019 when she was a presidential candidate, she had also flip flopped on independent policy investigations into police shootings, saying in an interview she now supported them when she had previously opposed them up until the George Floyd riots.
In 2024, she’s reversed that position, billing herself as a “tough on crime” former prosecutor and has called for supporting LEOs.
Medicare For All
“I support Medicare for All, I always have” — Kamala Harris, 2019
View the clip of the above statement via NC Rep. Richard Hudson on X. In the video, she gave “credit to Bernie,” meaning Bernie Sanders.
Kamala Harris' Medicare for All Problem Is the Democratic Party's Medicare for All Problem. The California senator's history of flip-flops reveal the emptiness of her campaign—and looming problems for her party. - Reason.com, 8/20/2019
The Harris campaign told FOX News this month (Aug. 2024) that there will be no Medicare for All push.
Fracking
"There's no question, I am in favor of banning fracking." - Harris at CNN Climate Change Town Hall, 2019
Since becoming the Democratic nominee, she’s done a 180 on that position, reversing her support on a fracking ban.
Immigration
2019/2020 - Harris said we need to "abolish ICE." Loads of fact checkers claim she never said that and she didn't say it exactly like that, but the sentiment was the same:
“There’s no question that we’ve got to critically reexamine ICE and its role, and the way that it is being administered, and the work it is doing. And we need to probably think about starting from scratch.” - Kamala Harris, NBC interview with Kasie Hunt, June 2018
Her campaign has backed away from that direct position and ads are now claiming she backed the "toughest border legislation in history," yet that legislation never actually went through.
Harris campaign still wants to get rid of ICE and may be coming at it from a different angle: getting rid of private prisons. Why is that linked? "90% of ICE detention beds are provided by private contractors," i.e., private prisons.
Also, when she was in the Senate, she compared Border Patrol to the KKK.
Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, marched with Abolish ICE protesters in 2018 when he was running for governor. So, no policing the border or policing during the 2020 riots for Walz, but yes to riot squad policing of his citizenry, shooting them with paintballs for being on their porches during COVID.
Harris now is campaigning on “securing the border,” after three years of inaction on that front following President Biden naming her as being in charge on that front. However, remarks captured from an event in Iowa don’t support a her secure the border theme.
There is a video of Harris making those remarks attached to Rugg’s post on X. View it here.
Gun confiscation
In 2029, she supported a "mandatory" buy-back program to get "assault weapons" off the street.
In 2024, since becoming the nominee, she appears to have dumped that position. PolitiFact noted that change — with a catch. PolitiFact used this flip-flop to rate a statement by President Trump that Harris backs gun confiscation as "mostly false."
Kamala Harris, as a 2019 presidential primary candidate, said, "I support a mandatory gun buyback program" for assault weapons. We found no examples that she supports mandatory gun confiscation now and the majority of guns sold in the U.S. are handguns. - PolitiFact, 8/7/24
Federal Jobs Guarantee
Washington Examiner is reporting that Harris has changed her stance and no longer supports a federal jobs guarantee, an idea she co-sponsored as part of a resolution to get the New Green Deal passed when she was in the Senate.
Corporate Donations
“Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) flipped flopped this month on whether she would receive corporate donations, saying most recently she would not accept checks from corporations' political action committees.
During a town hall in Sacramento, California on April 5, Harris said "it depends" in response to a question about whether she would commit to turning down corporate campaign donations.” -Washington Free Beacon, 4/23/18
This list is hardly exhaustive and there will likely be more flip-flops to add to this list following the Democratic National Convention.
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