Morning Report — Harris interview: No big stumbles

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 08/30/24 6:49 AM ET

Vice President Harris’s first sit-down interview as a presidential nominee was a hurdle she had to leap. She cleared the suspense Thursday night on CNN with no big stumbles — and made little news.

Harris, who is more comfortable with her prosecutor persona than as her own defense counsel, was prepared for what turned out to be a deck-clearing series of questions probing the most significant question aimed at the Democratic ticket thus far: Does Harris possess a core or is she a political shape-shifter? If she changed her positions in 2019 and 2020 on fracking and universal health care, for instance, can voters trust that she would honor her newest pledges, if elected?

Her response: “My values have not changed.”

Harris stayed out of the weeds and stuck to phrases she’s used since launching her campaign.

“I am running because I believe that I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender,” she said.

“I think that people are ready for a new way forward, in a way that generations of Americans have been fueled by hope and by optimism,” she continued. “I think, sadly, in the last decade, we have had in the former president, someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans, really dividing our nation. And I think people are ready to turn the page on that.”

CNN’s Dana Bash pointed out that Harris was in office during those 10 years. Harris defended the Biden administration’s record and its politics, “There’s more to do, but that’s good work.”

Harris discussed the need to tackle climate change without speaking beyond generalities about her about-face on fracking during her unsuccessful presidential bid in 2019. Opposition to the practice could cost a candidate votes in swing state Pennsylvania, where mining oil and gas from deep inside rock using an injection process is economically important, albeit opposed by many environmentalists.

On border policy, Harris maintained she would enforce laws that restrict immigration, including for asylum seekers. She vowed, if elected, to sign a bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill that former President Trump scuttled with help from GOP colleagues in Congress this year. The measure is unpopular with many Democrats but President Biden challenged senators to send the bill to his desk for his signature. As he anticipated in an election year, they did not.

Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz taped the interview withBash while campaigning in Savannah, using as their setting a local Black-owned cafe. The Democratic nominees each used the interview to draw contrasts with Trump.

Harris is preparing with her team to debate the former president on Sept. 10 and conceded she had never met her opponent face-to-face. Aides have squeezed in debate prep sessions, sources told NBC News. Harris wants to avoid being pulled into Trump’s personal attacks.

Asked during the CNN interview about the former president’s public assertion that Harris “turned Black” for political purposes, the vice president was brief.

“Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.” “That’s it?” Bash responded. “That’s it,” Harris said.

Trump reacted to the CNN interview with one word on social media: “BORING!!!”

The Hill’s Niall Stanage has five takeaways from Harris’s first big interview as a nominee.

The Hill: Harris said she would appoint a Republican to her administration to help expand a range of views. She does not have someone in mind, she said.

Like Harris, Bill Clinton, while campaigning in 1992, pledged to appoint a Republican to his Cabinet and fashion an administration that “looked like America.” Nominating a Republican in 1993 was a promise he later ignored. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had better records mixing party affiliations in their Cabinets, particularly when it came to Transportation secretaries.

NEXT WEEK: Harris will be in Pittsburgh with Biden on Labor Day, their first joint campaign appearance since she accepted the Democratic presidential nomination.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ Ahead of the long weekend, check this list for the busiest Labor Day travel days — and most congested airports.

▪ Complicating Labor Day travel? A weekend cyberattack at Seattle’s airport.

▪ United Airlines flight attendants voted to authorize a strike Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean they’re about to walk off the job.

LEADING THE DAY

CAMPAIGNS & POLITICS

BALLOT WATCH: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the North Carolina ballot despite suspending his presidential campaign, the state Board of Elections said Thursday.

Georgia put Cornel West, Jill Stein and Claudia De la Cruz on the presidential ballot as of Thursday. If those ballot decisions stand (they can be appealed), Peach State voters will have six choices for president: Republican nominee Trump, independent candidate West, independent candidate De la Cruz, Green Party’s Stein, Democratic nominee Harris and Libertarian Chase Oliver.

In Pennsylvania, two GOP state lawmakers who believe absentee ballots should be counted at polling places rather than at county election offices for purposes of election security appealed this week to the state Supreme Court. A lower court rejected their January lawsuit.

The Associated Press: Track more than 140 ballot measures across 41 states that will give voters a say in November on abortion rights, taxes, assisted suicide and other tough questions.

📣 The presidential contest is high stakes, accompanied by poisonous rhetoric. Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) said Wednesday that Harris could “go to hell” for criticizing Trump’s use of Arlington National Cemetery for campaign optics. Trump on Wednesday reposted crude, sexist attacks aimed at both Harris and his 2016 presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. Harris declared the GOP nominee and his allies are “out of their minds” because of their support for specific abortion restrictions in some states. Some candidates’ curse words, tabloid-tinged reports and barbed attacks go viral, attract media attention and, as a result, reach voters who may not be paying close attention. The Hill’s Brett Samuels explains why crude, rude and nasty are in political circulation.

IVF ACCESS, AFFORDABILITY: Trump told NBC News during a Thursday interview that if elected, he wants the costs of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments covered by insurance companies or the government. A debate inside the Republican Party about restricting IVF, sparked as an offshoot from the anti-abortion movement, has hobbled the party politically with some voters.

Trump returned to the issue Thursday during a 30-minute town hall event in LaCrosse, Wis. Moderator Tulsi Gabbard, who has endorsed Trump for president and is a new adviser to his campaign, asked about IVF in her kickoff question.

“It’s really worked out well for a lot of people, it gave them a child when they would not have had a child,” Trump said. “Government is going to pay for it, or we’re going to mandate your insurance company to pay for it, which is going to be great.”

The Alabama state Supreme Court ruled this year that embryos created via IVF were to be considered people, a move that led to the largest fertility clinics in the state pausing their IVF care. Such treatments are expensive and many people must pay out of pocket, creating financial barriers that leave many patients with few options.

“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump said, before adding, “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

Asked to clarify whether the government would pay for IVF services or whether insurance companies would do so, Trump reiterated that one option would be to have insurance companies pay “under a mandate, yes.”

2024 Roundup

▪ Harris has surged ahead of Trump, 48 percent to 43 percent, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll found. The vice president’s small lead was fueled by big shifts among some key demographic groups traditionally crucial for Democrats, including Hispanic and Black voters and young people.

▪ Trump holds a rally in Johnstown, Pa. today, before stopping in Washington, D.C., to address the Moms for Liberty conference.

▪ Biden will hold events next week in Wisconsin and Michigan. Harris on Tuesday will start a bus tour in Trump’s home town of Palm Beach, Fla., focused on reproductive rights. Her campaign is running ads in that media market.

▪ The rules for a Sept. 10 presidential debate, hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia, call for muted microphones for opponents when each candidate is speaking. The Harris team is still pushing back.

▪ Progressive groups want to undercut Trump with voters after an altercation this week between members of the Trump campaign and an Arlington National Cemetery staffer who sought to reinforce cemetery prohibitions against political photography and videotaping at some sections of the cemetery. The Army defended the cemetery employee. Trump, during an NBC News interview Thursday, defended his visit with families of some service members killed in 2021 during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan ordered by President Biden, adding, “Their loved one … should not have died.” He said relatives asked him to pose for a photo during the gathering.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House and Senate are out until after Labor Day.

The president is in Rehoboth Beach, Del. He will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10 a.m.

The vice president is in Washington and has no public events scheduled.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will headline a fundraiser in San Francisco. In the afternoon, he will travel to Aspen, Colo., for a campaign event.

ZOOM IN

HEALTH & WELLBEING

💉 New COVID vaccines are available to the general public, but despite rising infection rates, public health officials are contending with obstacles as they try to boost the population’s defenses (Politico).

“One of the challenges of today is just that people aren’t going to get vaccinated,” said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “Most people are confused. They don’t really understand what’s happening or what the risk to them is.”

🦟 The Northeast is battling an alarming — and unusual — viral outbreak. A mosquito-borne virus called Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), so rare that most infectious disease experts might never see a case. But this year, at least four states have reported human EEE infections (The New York Times).

Nature: Mpox is spreading rapidly, especially in Congo. Here are the questions researchers are racing to answer.

🥓 Food safety: Nine people have died amid a listeria outbreak linked to recalled Boar’s Head deli meats, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week. At least 50 people nationwide have been hospitalized after being sickened from eating Boar’s Head meats. A Boar’s Head plant in Virginia linked to the outbreak allegedly violated food safety regulations dozens of times in the past year, according to federal records. The company halted production at the Virginia plant in July, and the plant is now closed (The Hill and The Washington Post).

ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

ISRAEL HAS AGREED to short pauses of fighting in Gaza in September to allow some 640,000 children to be vaccinated for polio. Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza, said Thursday that the pause would start Sept. 1 and will be split into three three-day phases.

“We have a preliminary commitment for area-specific humanitarian pauses during the campaign,” he said, adding that the pauses will roll out first in “central Gaza for three days, followed by south Gaza and then followed by north Gaza.”

The resurgence of the virus — eliminated in most of the developed world — highlights the struggles facing the enclave’s 2 million residents since Israel’s war against Hamas began in October. Many are lacking food, medical supplies and clean water, and up to 90 percent of the population is internally displaced (CNN).

The Hill: An aid group says Israel hit a convoy to a hospital in Gaza. Israel says it hit gunmen who seized the car.

IN THE LATEST SIGN that the U.S. and China are working to stabilize ties, national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday, a day after the White House said Biden would speak by phone with Xi “in the coming weeks.” Both governments are eager to keep relations on an even keel ahead of a change in the U.S. presidency in January, and Sullivan indicated the leaders could meet in person at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation or Group of 20 summits later this year (The Hill).

“We believe that competition with China does not have to lead to conflict or confrontation,” Sullivan told reporters shortly before leaving Beijing. “The key is responsible management through diplomacy.”

THREE YEARS AFTER the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, threats from terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS) are again surging. ISIS has claimed responsibility for several attacks this year, from Turkey to Iran and Russia. ISIS actors also carried out a stabbing attack in Germany this month and threatened a Taylor Swift concert in Austria. The Hill’s Brad Dress reports the renewed threat, along with the proliferation of terrorist groups, underscores how the U.S. is struggling to adopt an efficient strategy to combat them in a new era.

Time magazine: He brands himself as “the world’s coolest dictator.” This is how President Nayib Bukele’s “iron fist” has transformed El Salvador.

OPINION

■ Harris soars above CNN, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

■ Don’t yawn at Trump’s dishonorable use of Arlington National Cemetery, by Eugene Robinson, columnist, The Washington Post.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Kudos to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! We asked readers to puzzle over some personal trivia tied to current and former top-of-ticket candidates.

Here’s who went 4/4: Stan Wasser, Mary Anne McEnery, Lynn Gardner, Pam Manges, Phil Kirstein, Joe Atchue, James Rose, Peter Sprofera, Rick Schmidtke, Sara Hall Phillips, Kathleen Kovalik, Luke Charpentier, Jaina Mehta Buck, Darin Crisp, Korey Hartwich, Robert Bradley, Casey Teeters, J. Jerry LaCamera, Harry Strulovici, Geoff LaCroix, Carmine Petracca, Jose A. Ramos and Luther Berg.

Walz appeared on the social media show “Subway Takes” Monday and with humor reminded viewers of the importance of maintaining your gutters.

Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made headlines this week when his daughter revealed, in a resurfaced interview, that her father once removed the head of a dead whale with a chainsaw and transported it atop the family car.

While meeting with Georgia voters on the campaign trail last week, Vance stopped with his staff (accompanied by the news media) at a bakery for doughnuts and some awkward chit chat.

Harris, who has racked up endorsements from key groups in the month since she entered the race, received a boost from fans of Taylor Swift during a Zoom call this week. Swifties on the call raised more than $100,000 for the vice president’s campaign.

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