Recap: Harris CNN interview wraps with little fanfare

CNN’s interview with Harris and Walz has wrapped at 10 p.m. EDT.

Harris made little to no waves during the hourlong primetime sit-down.

Trump, who criticized the early clips posted this assessment on Truth Social shortly after Bash’s interview wrapped: “BORING!!!”

CNN’s panel however lauded Bash’s effort. David Axelrod, a former Obama official who is a network political analyst said this of Harris’ part of the interview: “I don’t think she moved the ball very far forward but she didn’t move it back.”

The interview concluded with Bash asking Harris and Walz about a pair of viral moments from last week’s Democratic convention.

Bash asked Walz about the tearful, emotional display of support from his son, Gus, as the governor gave his acceptance speech.

She also asked Harris about the viral photo of her grand-niece watching her acceptance speech.

– Brett Samuels

The vice president gave her most extensive accounting to date of when President Biden told her he would not seek reelection.

Harris said she was having pancakes with her family and they had just sat down to do a puzzle when Biden called.

“I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ He said ‘yes.’ And that’s how I learned about it,” Harris said, adding that Biden made it “very clear” he planned to support her as his replacement.

“My first thought was about him, to be honest,” Harris said. “I think history is going to show a number of things about Joe Biden’s presidency. I think history is going to show that in so many ways it was transformative.”

— Brett Samuels

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), appearing with Vice President Harris in her first major sit-down interview since launching her campaign, defended himself against criticism he’s faced over statements about the infertility treatment he and his wife used.

Though Harris’s running mate has previously suggested they used in vitro fertilization (IVF), would-be second lady Gwen Walz shared that they used intrauterine insemination (IUI).

Republicans have slammed Walz for the misstatements.

“What do you say to voters who aren’t sure whether they can take you at your word?” CNN’s Dana Bash asked Walz .

“Well, I’ve been very public. I think they can see my students come out, former folks I’ve served with, and they do- they vouch for me, I certainly own my mistakes when I make them,” Walz said.

“The one thing I’ll tell you is: I wish in this country we wouldn’t have to do this. I spoke about our infertility issues, because it’s hell, and families know this. And I spoke about the treatments that were available to us that had those beautiful children there,” he said.

“I won’t apologize for peaking passionately, whether it’s guns in schools or protecting a reproductive rights,” Walz said. 

— Julia Mueller

Walz blamed his grammar when questioned about statements he’s made about carrying weapons of war, which he later had to clarify.

“I said we were talking about — in this case, of school shootings, the idea of carrying these weapons of war. And my wife, she says my grammar’s not always correct,” Walz said when Bash asked if those statements were a mistake.

The governor added, “I’ll never demean another member’s service in any way.”

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) has criticized Walz’s military record, saying that he has pretended to be someone he’s not because he was never deployed.

– Brett Samuels

The vice president indicated she would not take a different policy approach to the war between Israel and Gaza, stressing the needed to be a deal to end the fighting and free hostages.

“We have to get a deal done. This war must end. We must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out. I’ve met with the families of the American hostages,” Harris said.

“So no change of policy in terms of arms?” Bash asked.

No, we have to get a deal done,” Harris said.

– Brett Samuels

Harris said that she would enforce laws at the U.S.-southern border as president when pressed on her changing stance on migration.

Bash noted that Harris raised her hand during the 2020 Democratic primary when asked if border should be decriminalized.

Harris responded to Bash, “I believe there should be consequences, we have laws that should be followed and enforced.”

“I would enforce our laws” at the border, she added.

When asked about why the Biden administration waited over three years to implement an executive order on securing the border, Harris pivoted to blaming Republicans for blocking the border deal that was negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators.

“Donald Trump got word of this bill,” she said, referring to Trump. “And because he believes it would not have helped him politically, he told his folks in Congress don’t put it forward. He killed the bill.”

– Alex Gangitano

Harris in the interview laid out her goals of easing the economy, lowering prices and boosting the middle class, while citing the Covid-19 pandemic as a hurdle to meeting those goals during the Biden administration.

“You have been vice president for three and a half years. The steps that you’re talking about now, why haven’t you done them already?” CNN’s Dana Bash asked the vice president.

“Well, first of all we had to recover as an economy. And we have done that. I’m very proud of the work that we have done,” Harris said.

She touted her work with President Biden as they took office “during the height of the pandemic,” amid an economy that she said was worsened by “mismanagement” under former President Trump. But she noted that prices “are still too high.”

– Julia Mueller

Harris said she would not ban fracking if elected, her first time addressing her shift from her Democratic presidential bid when she vowed to outlaw the practice.

“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,” Harris said.

Harris said her values have not changed, but she has seen “that we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”

Fracking is a particularly important industry in Pennsylvania, which is a must-win state for Harris in November.

– Brett Samuels

The first question Bash asked Harris was what her top priority would be on day one, should she win the election.

Harris responded with strengthening the middle class, while then outlining an economic agenda to bring down the cost of everyday goods.

“Do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class,” Harris said about what she’d do on day one. “When I look at the aspirations, the goals, the ambitions of the American people, I think people are looking for a new way forward.”

She outlined parts of her economic plan, which she said would promote “an opportunity economy,” including lowering costs of child care and health care and providing first-time home buyers with tax incentives.

– Alex Gangitano

At the start of the primetime program on CNN, Dana Bash told viewers the Harris-Walz interview would air “in its entirety.”

Trump and his allies have criticized that the interview was taped instead of airing live, suggesting it was a way to cover for any Harris slip-ups.

– Brett Samuels

Trump, during his townhall with Gabbard, mocked the setup of the Harris-Walz interview, which saw them both seated on either side of a table in a cafe in Georgia across from CNN’s Dana Bash.

“Why are we doing it live and she’s doing it taped?” Trump asked, in reference to the Harris interview being taped earlier in the day. “But she was sitting behind this desk, this massive desk, and she didn’t look like a leader to me.”

– Brett Samuels

On the same night as Harris’s highly-anticipated interview, Trump gathered with supporters in Wisconsin for a pre-planned town hall event moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), who left the Democratic Party in 2022 and endorsed Trump this week.

Trump said he thought as he was flying into La Crosse that he was going to deliver remarks before aides informed he was actually holding a town hall style event with Gabbard.

The former president’s event got underway roughly an hour before Harris’s interview was set to air in full in a bit of campaign counter-programming. He quickly launched into personal attacks about Harris and his usual claims about the country being overrun by illegal immigrants.

– Brett Samuels

The former president weighed in on social media about the first clip from Harris’s interview in which she said her values have not changed even if her policy positions have.

“I just saw Comrade Kamala Harris’ answer to a very weakly-phrased question, a question that was put in more as a matter of defense than curiosity, but her answer rambled incoherently, and declared her ‘values haven’t changed,’” Trump posted on Truth Social as he headed to an event in Wisconsin.

Trump said he agreed her values haven’t changed and predicted under a Harris presidency, “America will become a WASTELAND!”

– Brett Samuels

Harris appeared unbothered by Trump’s previous comments on her race.

When Bash questioned Harris on Trump’s remarks last month that she had “turned Black,” the Democratic nominee simply responded, “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.”

Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican descent, is a graduate of Howard University, a historically Black school in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Black Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Trump mocked Harris’s biracial heritage last month at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Chicago.

“She was always of Indian heritage. And she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. And now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said. “So I don’t know, is she Indian, or is she Black?”

The comments immediately drew backlash, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calling the comments “repulsive” and “insulting.”

– Cheyanne M. Daniels

Former President Trump weighed in on the ability of Dana Bash to have a “chance at greatness” with the Harris interview.

“Dana Bash of CNN has a chance at greatness today,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website. “If she gave a fair but tough interview of Comrade Kamala Harris, she will expose her as being totally inept and ill suited for the job of President, much as I exposed Crooked Joe Biden during our now famous Debate. How cool would that be for Dana and CNN???”

Read more here.

– Dominick Mastrangelo

Harris argued that her “values have not changed” in a second clip of the interview with CNN where she was asked about shifts in her policy positions when it comes to climate and border issues.

When it came to the issue of changing views on policy, Bash asked Harris how voters should look at where the vice president stands and whether what she’s portraying now is what Americans should expect if she serves in the White House.

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said.

Read more here.

– Alex Gangitano

In a preview clip of the primetime interview shared by CNN ahead of its airing in full this evening, Harris says she would be willing to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet should she be elected president.

“I’ve got 68 days to go with this election, so I’m not putting the cart before the horse,” Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash. “But I would, I think. I think it’s really important.”

Read more here.

– Brett Samuels