Vice President Kamala Harris said last night in a highly anticipated interview on the American channel CNNthat “his values had not changed” on subjects such as climate change or immigration… where Donald Trump accuses him of being “a weather vane”.
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“The most important and significant aspect of my political projects and decisions is that my values have not changed,” she told journalist Dana Bash in the state of Georgia where she is campaigning.
Harris immediately declared that America was ready to turn the “page on Donald Trump”, during this first interview since she became a candidate in the American presidential election.
She then accused the former Republican president of having defended a program that has undermined “the character and strength of Americans” and that he has even “divided our nation.”
Green light for hydraulics
The vice president confirmed that she will not ban “hydraulic fracturing”, a method of extracting hydrocarbons denounced by environmental defenders.
“We can grow and develop a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking,” she said.
The CNN reporter reminded her, however, that she had spoken out against the technique in the past. It is worth noting that it is a huge electoral issue in the key state of Pennsylvania.
Asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she reiterated her support for Israel’s right “to defend itself.” Harris later answered “no” when asked whether, as president, she would suspend U.S. arms shipments to Israel, while the war in Gaza has been going on for nearly eleven months.
The Democrat returned to the attack carried out by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, condemning this violence, then to the war waged in response by Israel in the Gaza Strip. “Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” she admitted.
Targeted migrants
The Democratic candidate also promised on Thursday “consequences” for people who entered the United States illegally, if she were elected president.
“I think there should be consequences. We have laws that need to be respected and enforced,” she said.
Later, when asked about the same explosive issue in the United States, she promised that “as president, I would enforce our laws.”
For weeks, Republicans have accused the vice president of being inconsistent in her ideas. They accuse her in particular of seeking to bury progressive positions taken in the past, against the famous hydraulic fracturing or against the construction of a wall on the southern border.
“She’s the worst kind of weather vane,” accused her Republican opponent Donald Trump on Thursday, campaigning in Michigan. “She’s incompetent, she doesn’t know how to do interviews,” he added.
- With Francis Pilon, JdeM
