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      Was Kamala Harris’s big interview a success? Sort of | Moira Donegan

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      How much of an incentive does Kamala Harris really have to lay out a thorough policy agenda? With fewer than 70 days until the general election, the newly official Democratic presidential nominee has exited her party’s Chicago convention riding a a wave of tight but improving poll numbers and tremendous party goodwill.Her move to the top of the ticket has prompted waves of enthusiasm and barely concealed relief, as young voters and weary Democrats greeted the happy prospect of an election campaign that was, at last, not between Biden and Trump. The shift of candidates initiated a new shift in the campaign’s voice, with a more playful, irreverent and optimistic turn coming to characterize the Democrats’ public messaging. When the vibes are this good, few people ask about specifics.There are pitfalls, too, for a politician who is too precise about what they aim to do in office. After all, much of the Democrats’ 2024 campaigning has featured deep dives into Project 2025, the 900-plus-page policy prescription for a second Trump term that was compiled by conservative thinktanks under the auspices of the Heritage Foundation. Democrats, including Harris herself, have used the document as a near-depthless well of possible attacks, making each one of the plan’s copious number of proposals into an attack that they can make Republicans answer for. As Harris heads into the final weeks of the campaign, one can see a certain cynical logic to her imprecise policy positions: why would she bother painting a target on her own back?So maybe it’s not surprising that on Thursday night, in her first major interview since ascending to the presidential nomination, the vice-president did not seem interested in making any news. She was competent, personable and a forceful defender of the Biden administration; she was attentive to issues where her campaign believes her to be vulnerable, such as on immigration and energy policy; and she was deliberate in depicting herself as a hawkish advocate for stricter border controls.She did not talk much about her opponent, Donald Trump, brushing off a question from CNN’s Dana Bash about his recent slanderous claim that Harris had only recently “turned Black”. She did not endorse an arms embargo to Israel, whose genocidal war in Gaza has killed upwards of 40,000 Palestinians with the aid of American weapons. And with the exception of a few economic proposals – like for an expansion of the child tax credit, a $25,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers and a repeat of her promise to punish price gauging – she was light on specifics.The interview seemed to be less about presenting a policy vision for the American people than about presenting them with a character. The character that emerged in the form of Vice-President Harris was one who is confident, intelligent and at ease with her authority; one who was unfazed by Bash’s sometimes pointed questioning, in part because she has mastered the art of the dodge.Among the interview’s surprising omissions was abortion, the issue that has redefined the status, health and civil rights of half of Americans as a result of the presidency of her opponent. The word was only mentioned once over the course of the interview, when the vice-presidential nominee, Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, mentioned the issue as something that voters were more interested in than his own previous verbal gaffes. He’s probably right that voters care more about it, but both he and Harris declined to address the issue further.Harris, historically a forceful advocate for abortion rights who was largely tasked with campaigning on the issue while Biden was still in the race, seemed to demur from the historical nature of her candidacy more broadly. When Bash asked her about a viral photo from the Democratic national convention – which pictured Harris at the podium, being gazed up at by her great-niece, a pigtailed young girl – she avoided the question’s implicit inquiry into how she feels about the prospect of becoming the nation’s first female president. Harris said only that she was running because she believed herself to be the best person for the job, and that she aimed to be a president for Americans of all races and genders.It was a nice sentiment, and probably even true. But her words avoided the gender issue that has come to shape the campaign, and left aside an opportunity to rally voters in the 10 states that will have abortion rights measures on the ballot in November. If anyone in the Harris campaign feels that electing a woman president now, in this post-Dobbs era, could be a righteous rebuke to the backward and bigoted misogyny that has come to define the Trump-Vance ticket, then that is not an argument they are interested in having their candidate make.Harris will be criticized on the left for her refusal to endorse an arms embargo to Israel, whose war has become a generational moral catastrophe that threatens to destabilize the region. When asked about the conflict, Harris spoke of the atrocities of 7 October in lurid terms; of the unfathomable human cost that has been imposed on Palestinians, she said only that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed”. (An unfortunate phrase that implies that there is an acceptable number of innocents that Israel can murder.) Her unwillingness to speak with more empathy and commitment about this issue threatens to alienate young voters, a disorganized but growing left, and the large cohorts of Muslim and Arab voters she needs to win over in places like Minnesota and Michigan.That unwillingness also threatens to give more credence to other leftwing suspicions of Harris, such as the marginal but noticeable suspicion among activists over whether she will maintain Biden’s enthusiasm for antitrust enforcement.Maybe Harris is calculating that these voters have nowhere else to go; maybe she just doesn’t really share their values on these issues. But the central argument for her candidacy is about values: that she is a more moral, more principled, more trustworthy candidate than Donald Trump; that she will bring less bigotry, less selfishness, less recklessness and less tedious narcissism to the White House. It’s a low bar, but she still has to clear it. If Harris’s campaign is about values, but she is unwilling to more forcefully champion women’s rights and the value of Palestinian lives, she risks making some wonder just what those values are.

      Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist More

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      Ilona Maher, US rugby and social media star, endorses Kamala Harris

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      The Democratic nominee for US president, Kamala Harris, picked up an endorsement from a key social media influencer: the Olympic rugby star Ilona Maher.“I think it’s going to be cool because there is an opportunity to have female representation and to change this country in a way that I think will benefit us,” Maher told Sports Illustrated, in an interview accompanying a swimwear shoot which saw the 28-year-old center praised as “a feminist trailblazer”.“That’s a Kamala Harris endorsement,” Maher told the magazine, which said she cited abortion rights and access to contraception as key concerns as the presidential election looms.Harris, the current vice-president, has made protecting such rights a central part of her campaign against Donald Trump. As president, the Republican nominee appointed three hardline rightwingers to the US supreme court, which then removed the federal right to abortion and suggested contraception access could also be brought into question.“I have enough money that if I didn’t need an abortion, I could raise a baby myself,” Maher said. “If I wanted to get abortion, I could do that. So I have that privilege [but] it scares me about the other girls. I have options and I want to remember that my followers don’t all have that. And so it’s like, for me, but also mostly for them.”Maher took up rugby in high school in Vermont then won three national collegiate titles with Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. She built a significant social media following in the first phase of her international career, which began in sevens in 2018 and has also brought her two 15-a-side caps. The recent Paris Games saw her rocket to global fame.Maher is now the most-followed rugby player in the world, eclipsing giants such as Siya Kolisi, the South Africa captain and double World Cup winner, and the former New Zealand fly-half Dan Carter.Speaking to SI, Maher said men “get to play rugby and they get paid millions of dollars while we make minimum wage and this won’t be a career for us. I have teammates going into the workforce now, whereas these guys are down there and rugby’s it” for them.Nonetheless, Maher has achieved fame (and endorsement deals) with a message based on body positivity and irreverent humor but also the sort of dynamic and aggressive play that helped the US win bronze in Paris. This week, Maher told followers she wanted to win a place on the US squad for the 15-a-side World Cup, to be held in England next summer.Such has been Maher’s impact since Paris, her Sports Illustrated shoot followed an appearance on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers in which she called rugby “a sport that just really encourages you to be physical and show what your body’s capable of”.“I know what it’s done for me,” Maher said, “and how it’s changed my body confidence by making me feel so good about myself, and I know it can do it for so many other girls.”Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Maher said she “was a big girl growing up so I didn’t love being in pictures” and “was always … called masculine or whatever. But I never felt that way. But I don’t think you’re going to bully the girl who could probably beat you up in a rage. I love that [rugby] showed me what I can do. It showed me how capable my body is and it’s not just like a tool to be looked at and objectified.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionShe also said: “If my cellulite was lower in that perfect range, I wouldn’t be doing what I could do. I wouldn’t be that powerful for it [so] I just really think sports have been so helpful.”MJ Day, editor in chief of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, called Maher a “revolutionary athlete and feminist trailblazer… a modern-day role model of strength, conviction and authenticity”.Maher expressed unease with being seen as a role model, saying: “I just try to really stress like I am human. But I think I do really care a lot. And I do want people to like me.”Harris, 59, has no known ties to rugby. But her current boss, Joe Biden, has often spoken of his love for the game, having played at college in New York and through following the Irish national team, two recent members of which, Rob and Dave Kearney, are the president’s distant cousins.The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. More

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      Friday briefing: What we learned from Kamala Harris’ appearance on CNN

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      Good morning. It has been 40 days since Joe Biden pulled out of the presidential race and, until last night, Kamala Harris was yet to sit down for a major interview. Alongside her vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz, she finally did so on CNN – and directly addressed some of the more difficult issues facing her campaign for the first time.Their interview with Dana Bash was not exactly riveting TV – but it did shed some light on the state of the race, and the turf where Harris would like the rest of the campaign to be fought. Today’s newsletter runs you through what we learned – and why she probably won’t mind if voters thought it was a bit boring. Here are the headlines.Five big stories

      Health | Keir Starmer is on a collision course with the hospitality industry and political opponents after signalling plans for major curbs on outdoor smoking. The proposals, not denied by the prime minister, would potentially prohibit tobacco use outside pubs and restaurants, including on pavements.

      Israel-Gaza war | The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said they carried out an airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza aimed at “armed assailants” trying to hijack it. But the charity that organised the aid said people killed in the strike were employees of the transport company it was working with.

      Environment | The UK government is considering making further commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, likely to be announced at the UN climate summit this year. It is hoped the plan will help kickstart global ambitions on cutting emissions.

      Immigration and asylum | A Vietnamese man suffered a “life-limiting stroke” after being rescued from a tiny hidden compartment in a lorry with six other people being smuggled into the UK. The group was packed so tightly inside a space “the width of a human chest” that none could move their arms, a Home Office investigator has said.

      Health | People who “catch up” on missed sleep at the weekend may have up to a 20% lower risk of heart disease compared with those who do not, according to a study.
      In depth: Harris plays it safeView image in fullscreenIt’s been three weeks since Kamala Harris said she wanted to schedule a major interview before the end of August; last night, she met that pledge. As successful as her campaign has been at generating momentum since she became the Democrats’ presumptive nominee, her failure to engage in robust questioning so far has become, if not a major issue, at least A Thing.In one sense, then, the fact of the interview mattered more for Harris than its content – so long as she didn’t make any headline-grabbing howlers. While she had a few tricky moments on CNN, she cleared that bar: as David Smith sets out in this analysis, the interview was “radically normal … She turned a much-hyped first interview as nominee into a soon-to-be-forgotten pit stop along the campaign trail”. Here’s what else we learned.Policy – and changing her mindIn seeking to appeal to the progressive voters of the Democratic base during her unsuccessful run at the presidency in 2019, Harris committed to a number of positions that are a problem for her more centrist campaign today. That was a theme of the CNN interview. Three times, Harris said that her values have not changed – but she also suggested that four years of being vice-president, “travelling the country extensively”, and seeking to “build consensus” had shaped where she stands today.In 2019, she said that she would implement a federal ban on fracking – an important issue in the must-win state of Pennsylvania, one of the world’s biggest sources of natural gas. “As vice-president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking,” she told CNN, adding: “What I have seen is that we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”On similar questions about immigration and her U-turn on decriminalising border crossings, she said she would “enforce our laws as president going forward”. Meanwhile, on the Israel-Gaza conflict, she trod the same line as in her speech at the Democratic national convention, saying she was “unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defence” but noting that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, and we have got to get a deal done”.She waffled a bit when asked what she would do on day one, pointing to general policy priorities rather than any specific action. But there were no glaring errors, and her implicit distancing from her more progressive positions from 2019 will have left few viewers convinced by Republican claims that she is a leftwing radical.Her view of Biden’s competenceThe other inevitable feature of this interview was a question about the president’s ability to do his job. “You insisted that President Biden is extraordinarily strong,” Dana Bash said. “Given where we are now, do you have any regrets about what you told the American people?”“No, not at all,” Harris replied. She said that “he has the intelligence, the commitment, and the judgment and disposition that I think the American people rightly deserve in their president”. Nor did she distance herself from his policies – which would be tricky, obviously – or even really set out a contrast with her own plans for the next four years.At the same time, she found a formulation that maintained her loyalty but cast herself as the candidate of the future, and the Biden-Trump wars as a relic of the past: it was time to “turn the page on the last decade of what I believe has been contrary to where the spirit of our country really lies,” she said.Then she deftly focused that point as a criticism of Trump’s impact on American discourse: “I’m talking about an era that started about a decade ago where there is some suggestion, warped I believe it to be, that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down instead of … who you lift up.”Little interest in questions about race and genderOne of the most striking features of the interview was Harris’ steadfast refusal to engage in questions about her status as a history-making candidate – whether in terms of Trump’s bigoted claim that she “was Indian all the way and then all of sudden she became a Black woman”, or in dwelling on her campaign as a powerful symbol of American progress.Asked about Trump’s comments, she said: “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.” “That’s it?” Bash said. “That’s it,” Harris replied. And when Bash concluded the interview by asking what her gender and race mean in the campaign, she said vaguely that it was “humbling”, but noted: “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.”That feels emblematic of her campaign’s wider approach: let others talk about the unprecedented nature of her candidacy, and tell voters that all she’s interested in is improving their lives.A supporting role for Tim WalzFor most of the interview, Tim Walz was basically a mascot: understandably, Bash focused her questioning on the candidate for president, and he wisely did not interrupt Harris or elaborate on her answers.The questions that were directed at Walz were about claims of misleading statements in the past – and about the viral video of his son Gus proudly shouting “that’s my dad!” during his speech at the Democratic national convention.Walz didn’t really give a satisfying answer to the criticism he has faced for saying that he carried weapons in war even though he was never deployed in a war zone, saying merely that “my grammar is not always correct”.In talking about his family and that video of his son, Walz provided probably the most human moments of the interview. “I’m grateful for so many reasons to be on this ticket,” he said. “But that moment … was just such a visceral, emotional moment that I’m just grateful I got to experience it. And I’m so proud of him.”The Trump campaign’s reactionYou will be shocked to learn that Trump and Vance did not cover themselves in glory in their response: even before the interview aired in full, Trump said that Harris “rambled incoherently”. (He clearly hasn’t been watching his own rallies.) And Vance posted a blatantly sexist message on X, comparing Harris to a Miss Team America contestant who infamously garbled her answer to a question about Americans not knowing about geography.After the interview aired, the Trump campaign statement criticised Harris for not “addressing the crime crisis in this nation”. (Crime has in fact mostly fallen under Biden.) They also said she “spent a mere three minutes and 25 seconds talking about the economy and two minutes and 36 seconds talking about immigration”.If that is a pretty weird way to analyse an interview in which CNN chose the topics and which had a half-hour time limit, it does key into a sense that the abbreviated campaign has limited discussion of Harris’ agenda. The next big chance to discuss it will be on 10 September, when the two candidates meet for a debate in Pennsylvania.What else we’ve been readingView image in fullscreen

      Kate Hutchinson has a moving interview with the Breeders and Pixies legend Kim Deal, on releasing her first solo album at 63. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters

      Adele Zeynep Walton writes wholesomely on moving to a “sleepy town” where the median age is 48 … at just 25. “I’m surrounded by families, friendly pensioners and retired hippies,” she writes. “It would be easy to feel out of place, but in fact I feel the opposite”. Charlie Lindlar, newsletters team

      I’m probably the worst baker in London but Felicity Cloake’s perfect blueberry pie looks so delicious that I might just have to give it a try … or convince someone else tomake it for me. Hannah

      Exploring the galaxy as a lovable rogue in Star Wars Outlaws will keep me going for a while, but the Guardian’s Keza MacDonald has picked the 10 best games coming this autumn, from the next Zelda to the “deliriously joyful” Astro Bot. Charlie

      And, in case you missed it, here are the TV eds’ best shows to look out for, too, from the return of hits including Industry and Bad Sisters to a star-stuffed Apple series with Cate Blanchett. Hannah
      skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSportView image in fullscreenParis 2024 | Britain’s first gold medal of the Paralympic Games went to a teenager, and in world record time, as Poppy Maskill (above) cleared the field in the pool to win the S14 100m women’s butterfly, a moment she described as “unreal”.Tennis | Britain’s No 1 tennis players enjoyed contrasting fortunes at the US Open on Thursday as Jack Draper eased into the third round with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over Facundo Díaz Acosta to set up a potential battle with former champion Carlos Alcaraz, while Katie Boulter suffered one of her most disappointing defeats of the season, crashing out 7-5, 7-5 to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.Cricket | Joe Root dedicated his 33rd Test century to the late Graham Thorpe, saluting the heavens upon reaching three figures in tribute to his former coach and friend. Root now sits level with Sir Alastair Cook as England’s top century-maker and is only 198 runs away from becoming his country’s top Test run scorer.The front pagesView image in fullscreenThe Guardian leads with “Starmer risks clash with pub firms over plan for outdoor smoking ban”. The PM faces criticism of another king on the Mail front page with “Outrage as Starmer removes Maggie’s portrait”. The Times reports “Workers to be weighed in office for health MoT”, while the Telegraph says “Workers to get right to demand four-day week”.The Financial Times has news from the US election, with “Vance presses billionaire Thiel to ‘get off the sidelines’ and bankroll Trump”. Finally, the Mirror reports on the cancellation of Taylor Swift’s Austrian concerts earlier this month, under the headline “Terror swoop saved thousands”.Something for the weekendOur critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read and listen to right nowView image in fullscreenFilm
      Sing Sing
      There’s charm, energy and optimism in this big-hearted film, inspired by the Rehabilitation Through the Arts project that teaches theatre skills to US prisoners. Although Colman Domingo stars, it is performed largely by genuine former inmates playing themselves, featuring rehearsal scenes interspersed with variously tense or moving private conversations. An intriguing filmic tribute to the rehabilitation programme. Peter BradshawMusic
      Jon Hopkins: Ritual
      No one could claim that Hopkins has undersold his seventh album. The electronic producer, soundtrack composer and sometime collaborator with Brian Eno and Coldplay has described the music on Ritual as “a tool … for opening portals within your inner world”. It is obvious from the start that it carries more weight than the acres of anonymous mood music out there. But if it doesn’t quite open the portals of your inner world, it’s still worth taking. Alexis PetridisTVKaos (Netflix)
      Kaos – the new venture from Charlie Covell, the creator of The End of the F**king World, and starring Jeff Goldblum – is anything but chaotic. Multi-stranded, immaculately paced and plotted, it’s a reimagining of Greek mythology that is subtle and intricate, witty, rigorous, hugely intelligent, funny and brutal. You don’t know quite what the next twist or turn may be, but you know that it will be funny, profound, moving – or all three. Lucy ManganToday in FocusView image in fullscreenBlack Box: episode 5 – The white maskIn January 2020, Robert Williams was arrested by Detroit police for a crime he had not committed. The officers were acting on a tipoff, but not from a witness or informant. In fact, not from a person at all. This is the penultimate episode of Black Box, as revisited this week – the final episode will be available in the Today in Focus feed tomorrow.Cartoon of the day | Stephen LillieView image in fullscreenThe UpsideA bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all badView image in fullscreenUnexplained delays, sardine-like conditions, sweatbox temperatures … the stress of the commuter life is very, very real. A new test, however, has found that there is a natural solution to our rail-rage: birdsong.Research undertaken by South Western Railway on real-life commuters has found that passengers listening to nature sounds, which also included flowing rivers and storms, were 35% less stressed by their travels than those with no audio stimulation, and 24% less stressed than those listening to music or podcasts.“The results clearly demonstrate that listening to nature-inspired soundscapes exerted a significant calming effect on passengers,” said Charles Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, who analysed the results.No such news on whether its impact is as effective a cure for the words “rail replacement bus service”, however.Editor’s note: yesterday’s Upside stated that Lego was Swedish – it is of course from Denmark. Sorry/undskyld!Bored at work?And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until Monday.

      Quick crossword

      Cryptic crossword

      Wordiply More

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      Kamala Harris’s much-hyped, first big interview was … radically normal

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      Donald Trump spent Thursday in Michigan raving about bacon, windmills, Al Capone, trans boxers, nuclear war and, of course, his crowd size. Weird! Kamala Harris and Tim Walz gave an interview on CNN that was … radically normal.Just as she did a week ago at the Democratic national convention, the vice-president was comfortable and composed, solid and unspectacular, doing enough to clear the bar and doing herself no harm. She turned a much hyped first interview as nominee into a soon-to-be-forgotten pit stop along the campaign trail.Perhaps most important was the personality test. The old saw in presidential campaigns was: which candidate would you rather have a beer with? Harris and Walz came over as the couple you’d be fine sharing cake and coffee with at your kids’ birthday party. The same cannot be said of the former president and his running mate, JD Vance.Democrats’ bet is that Americans crave such relatability after a decade of Trump’s malignant narcissism and Joe Biden’s struggles with old age. The current president turned every interview into a nerve-wracking high-wire act. Harris was a fresh-faced model of steadiness by comparison.But as the 27-minute interview unfolded, she was notably more at ease embracing Biden and his legacy than her own historic candidacy as potentially the first Black female president. Democrats may value her loyalty in refusing to disown her boss. Republicans may scent an opportunity to portray her as Biden-lite.Perhaps Harris’s weakest answer was her first. Wearing grey and sitting in a cafe in Savannah, Georgia, she was asked by CNN’s Dana Bash: “If you are elected, what would you do on day one in the White House?” Harris replied: “Well, there are a number of things. I will tell you, first and foremost, one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class … ”When Bash pressed: “So, what would you do day one?”, Harris talked about the “opportunity economy”. Political consultant Frank Luntz was unimpressed, tweeting: “Her answer was so vague that it was essentially worthless. Not a good start.”Then again, when Trump was asked the same question about day one, he said he would be a dictator. So there’s that.Harris was then asked about her policy reversals on fracking and the Green New Deal. She avoided a gaffe but gave an answer that bordered on a wonky word salad: “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.”She did better explaining a U-turn on decriminalising illegal border crossings, pointing out that she is the only person in the race who has prosecuted transnational criminal organisations who traffic in guns, drugs and human beings, then pivoting to accuse Trump of sinking border security legislation. “He killed the bill – a border security bill that would have put 1,500 more agents on the border.”Policy is often a surrogate for values. Harris’s central message on her policy shifts: “My values have not changed.” Translation: you know and I know that some policies have to be tweaked, or made vague, if I want to win swing state voters.Addressing a national audience, rather than a rally, Harris was also careful not to alienate the type of Republicans who supported Nikki Haley. She said she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet if elected, though she did not have a particular name in mind. “I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion.”When Bash asked her about Trump’s questioning of Harris’s racial identity, she could have unleashed a long and angry tirade about his history of racism. Instead she wisely chose the pithy response: “Same old tired playbook, next question please.”Bash asked: “That’s it?” Harris confirmed: “That’s it.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThis might offer a clue as to her strategy for next month’s presidential debate: cut Trump down to size with a short sharp line, then move on to her own more optimistic, future-facing agenda. Call it the “Honey, I Shrunk the Trump” approach.Much was made of the fact that Walz was involved in the interview. In the end, Harris got the lion’s share, with Walz looking down at the ground during the tougher moments. She seemed to watch him with a benign, proud smile.But when Bash put it to Walz that he once said he carried weapons in war, even though he never deployed in a war zone, Walz parried: “Yeah … in this case, this was after a school shooting … and my wife, the English teacher, told me my grammar is not always correct.” It just felt like a dodge.The interview ended with Bash asking about a photo of one of Harris’s young grandnieces watching as she delivered her address to the last week’s convention – and the historic nature of candidate. Harris seemed to think cautiously, as if wary of an identity politics trap.“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. “But I did see that photograph, and I was deeply touched by it.”Just like her convention speech, it was a far cry from the “I’m with her” chants of Hillary Clinton’s effort to smash the glass ceiling eight years ago. Harris is adopting a show, don’t tell approach. That left viewers not entirely clear how a Harris administration would differ from a Biden one. But they may also have no doubt that Harris and Walz would represent a return to the politics of normal. More

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      ‘Next question, please’ and Gaza war: key takeaways from Harris and Walz’s first interview

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      In a primetime spot on CNN Thursday evening, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sat for their first interview together as the Democratic ticket, taking questions from anchor Dana Bash on a range of important issues, including their plans for day 1 if they win the race, the approach to the war in Gaza, and how Joe Biden passed the baton.With just over two months until voters will head to the polls on 5 November – and even less time before some will mail in their ballots – the Democratic candidates for president and vice-president made good on a promise to speak more candidly about how they will tackle the US’s most pressing problems.But this interview was about more than just policies and priorities.For weeks, Republicans and members of the media have called for the nominees to open themselves up to questions, especially the vice-president, who has for the most part sidestepped unscripted moments in the six weeks since the president ended his bid for re-election and endorsed her. Analysts and opponents were watching Thurday’s interview closely for new insights into how a Harris administration would approach the presidency, how the candidates interact with one another, and how she would respond in more candid moments.Here’s what we learned:1. Harris: ‘My values have not changed’Bash pushed Harris on how voters should view some key shifts on important policy positions over the years, including on immigration and the climate crisis. Harris responded resolutely saying her “values have not changed” but explained that experience has provided some new insights.“As president I will not ban fracking,” Harris said, reversing a position she expressed during her first bid for the presidency. Explaining that she now believes a “thriving clean energy economy” can be built without a ban, Harris highlighted achievements from the Biden administration, including the US’s landmark climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, that have helped set the course. “The climate crisis is real, it is an urgent matter,” she said. “I am very clear about where I stand.”She also spoke about her work on the border and how she plans to address the immigration crisis. “I believe we have laws that have to be followed and enforced,” she said, adding that she is the only person in the race who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations, work she did as California’s attorney general.2. Day one: strengthen the middle classIf Harris is elected president, she will start by working to strengthen the middle class with a strategy she is calling “The Opportunity Economy”. Building from “Bidenomics” – a platform her predecessor used to move away from trickle-down policies that favor the wealthy and instead grow the economy “from the middle out and the bottom up – Harris outlined her plan to help struggling families.“People are ready for a new way forward,” she said, highlighting that she hopes to bring down costs of everyday goods with key investments, cracking down on price gouging, and expanding the child tax credit. She also reiterated her plan to secure $25,000 in assistance for first-time homebuyers.While she agreed with Bash that prices remain higher than they were during the Trump presidency, she argued that she and Biden ensured the country recovered from the Covid-19 crisis.“Bidenomics is a success,” she said. “There’s more to do – but that’s good work.”3. War in Gaza: ‘We have to get a deal done’“Israel has a right to defend itself – we would,” Harris said, emphasizing that she is “unequivocal” in Israel’s defense and that that position would not change. But, she added: “How it does so matters.”Harris told Bash she supports a two-state solution where Palestinians have “security, self determination, and dignity”, and said she is focused on both getting the remaining hostages out and a ceasefire.“Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” she said. “We have got to get a deal done. This war must end.”4. Tim Walz defends his recordThrough much of the interview, Harris’s running mate Tim Walz nodded in support while she detailed their platform. But Bash had questions for him too, specifically about claims he has made in the past and corrections his campaign has had to make about them.Walz served in the army national guard for 24 years and retired in 2005 to run for Congress, nearly a year before his unit deployed to Iraq. He has been criticized by Republicans who first questioned his decision to depart before his unit deployed, and then scrutinized for a statement he made about “weapons of war” that implied he’d been involved in active combat.Walz also incorrectly described the type of fertility treatments he and his wife sought in their effort to conceive, several times referring to their reliance on IVF. He later clarified they actually used another common fertility procedure called IUI, or intrauterine insemination, which does not involve creating or discarding embryos and is not a target for anti-abortion legislators.“My record speaks for itself,” he said. “I certainly own my mistakes when I make them … I won’t apologize for speaking passionately – whether it’s about guns in schools or protecting reproductive rights – the contrast could not be clearer.”5. Getting the call from Biden“We were sitting down to do a puzzle,” Harris said with a big smile. Before Thursday’s interview, little was known about how she came to learn that Biden would be withdrawing from the race. She described a family breakfast with her “baby nieces”, complete with pancakes and second-servings of bacon, that had just wrapped up when the phone began to ring.“It was Joe Biden. He told me what he decided to do,” she said, adding that he quickly offered his support for her candidacy. “My first thought was not about me – it was about him,” she said.“I think history is going to show a number of things about Joe Biden’s presidency,” Harris added. “He puts the American people first.”6. Impacting future generationsBash also asked about the now viral New York Times photo of young Amara Ajagu, one of Harris’s young grandnieces, watching Harris accept her party’s nomination, and what it means for her as a woman of color. Donald Trump had previously questioned her racial identity, making comments at the National Association of Black Journalists convention saying she “happened to turn Black”.Harris called Trump’s comments “the same old tired playbook”, and dismissed them with a curt: “Next question, please.”But she took the opportunity to look past race while also recognizing the importance of this moment, especially for younger generations.“I am running because I believe I am the best person to do this job in this moment – for all Americans, regardless of race and gender,” Harris said. “But I did see that photograph, and I was deeply touched by it.” More

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      Kamala Harris defends policy stances and shares plan for office in first major interview

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      Kamala Harris sat for her first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee with CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Tim Walz, on Thursday, and defended her shifts on certain policy issues over the years and her support for Joe Biden.In the interview, which was taped from Savannah, Georgia, earlier Thursday, the vice-president said her highest priority upon taking office would be to “support and strengthen the middle class” through policies including increasing the child tax credit, curtailing price gouging on everyday goods and increasing access to affordable housing – all policies that she has announced since she started campaigning for the presidency.Harris also shared how the president shared with her his decision not to continue running for re-election, a first public retelling of that moment. She said she was making breakfast with her family, including her nieces, and was just sitting down to do a puzzle when the phone rang, she said.“I asked him, are you sure? And he said yes. And that’s how I learned about it.” As far as whether she asked for his endorsement or he offered it, she said: “He was very clear that he was going to support me.”“My first thought was not about me, to be honest with you, my first thought was about him,” she said, adding that history will remember Biden’s presidency as transformative.Harris defended Biden, saying she had no regrets about supporting his re-election before his decision to leave the race, despite concerns over his age and acuity. She said serving as Biden’s vice-president has been “one of the greatest honors” of her career and that Biden has the “intelligence, commitment, judgement and disposition that the American people deserve in their president”, adding that the former president, Donald Trump, “has none of that”.She also touted the Biden administration’s work to restore the economy after the pandemic, pointing to capped insulin costs, the current inflation rate of under 3% and increases in US manufacturing jobs. “I’ll say that that’s good work,” she said. “There’s more to do, but that’s good work.”Harris explained her changes in positions on issues such as fracking and immigration by saying her “values had not changed”. On fracking, she said she made clear in the 2020 debate that she no longer supports a ban, and that as president she would not ban fracking. She added that she takes the climate crisis seriously but believes: “We can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”On immigration, Bash pointed to a moment when Harris raised her hand to indicate she believed the border should be decriminalized, asking if she still believes that. Harris said she thinks laws should be followed and enforced on immigration and noted that she is the only candidate in the race who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations.She also said she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet if she wins, though she didn’t have a specific Republican or position in mind.“I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion,” she said. “I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican.”She quickly cast off a question about Trump’s comments that she “happened to turn Black” in recent years: “Same old, tired playbook,” she said. “Next question, please.”The interview narrowly met a self-imposed timeline Harris set for a sit-down interview, which she promised would happen by the end of August. It comes less than two weeks before the first scheduled debate between Harris and Trump, planned for 10 September on ABC.Harris and Walz conducted the interview while on a bus tour around the Savannah, Georgia area as part of a whirlwind tour of the US since they took over the Democratic ticket.Harris has gotten criticism from across the political spectrum for not doing an on-the-record interview with the media since she started running for president. After the CNN interview was set, Republicans also criticized the joint interview with Walz and that the interview was pre-recorded and not live.Before the interview, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance posted on Twitter/X: “BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview” alongside a clip from the 2007 Miss Teen America pageant where a contestant garbled an answer about Americans not knowing geography, rambling about “like such as South Africa -and the Iraq, everywhere like such as”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWalz answered a few questions during the joint interview, though Harris largely led the campaign’s responses.Walz has faced scrutiny over misstatements and exaggerations he has made about his time in the national guard and about the specific fertility treatments his wife used. He didn’t explain in depth why he made these comments, instead saying that he speaks candidly and passionately. In one comment, he claimed he carried weapons of war in war, which he did not (he was not deployed to a war zone). He said that comment came after a school shooting and his grammar wasn’t correct. “I think people know me. They know who I am. They know where my heart is,” he said.“If it’s not this, it’s an attack on my children for showing love for me, or it’s an attack on my dog,” he said, referring to recent Republican attacks on him. “The one thing I’ll never do is I’ll never demean another service member in any way. I never have and I never will.”Bash brought up two key moments from the Democratic convention: Walz’s teenage son, Gus, crying and saying “that’s my dad” as his dad took the stage, and an image of one of Harris’s grand-nieces looking on as Harris gave her acceptance speech.Walz said his son’s reaction was “such a visceral emotional moment” that he was grateful to experience.Harris, who has not spoken much about how her win could break glass ceilings, said she was “deeply touched” by the photo and found it “very humbling” while saying: “I am running because I believe I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender.”It’s unclear if Harris will start doing more media interviews as she continues on the campaign trail. As some commentators on CNN noted before the interview aired Thursday, increasing the frequency of interviews makes it less likely that each one becomes the topic of intense scrutiny and fixation like the CNN event became.Trump reacted to the interview on Truth Social, saying simply: “BORING!!!” More

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      Kamala Harris says she would appoint a Republican to cabinet if elected president – live

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      Kamala Harris said that if elected she would appoint a Republican to serve in her cabinet.In her first major interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, the vice-president told CNN journalist Dana Bash that she had spent her career “inviting diversity of opinion”.“I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican,” Harris said.Donald Trump defended his visit to Arlington national cemetery this week and accused the media of creating a scandal over photos his campaign took of his appearance at the site.US army officials confirmed Thursday that a worker at Arlington national cemetery was “abruptly pushed aside” during an altercation with members of the former president’s staff, and that Trump’s team was explicitly told in advance that it was against the law to take photographs and video footage at the cemetery.During his speech in Michigan, Trump said that he was invited to Arlington by the family of some of the 13 US servicemen and women killed in a suicide bomb attack ahead of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.“I spent a lot of time there. And while I was there, those families that asked me to be there … they said, could you take pictures over the grave of my son, my sister, my brother? Would you take pictures with us, sir?” Trump said. “I did. And then I said, farewell. I said, goodbye, and last night I read that I was using the site to politic, that I used it to politic. This all comes out of Washington.”“They ask me to have a picture. And they say, I was campaigning. The one thing I get is plenty of publicity. I don’t need that. I don’t need the publicity.”During his speech in Michigan, Trump has aired his usual grievances, complaining about the media’s coverage of his speeches and polling.He complained about Kamala Harris replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, criticizing her 2020 presidential campaign, and criticized the media’s responses to the vice-president compared to the responses to his speeches, and accused polls of being rigged.“They can make those polls sing. They can make them do whatever they want,” he said, without evidence.He also targeted the United Auto Workers, which has endorsed Harris, and their president Shawn Fain, calling up Brian Pannebecker, the founder of Auto Workers for Trump, to briefly speak on stage during his speech. Trump praised Pannebecker’s arms before taking back the microphone.Donald Trump continued his attacks on Kamala Harris in blustering – and often demonstrably false – remarks at a Michigan steel plant on Thursday.Trump gave the speech in front of an American flag between groups of supporters wearing hard hats and reflective work vests. He walked out to greet the crowd to God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood, a Trump supporter, as his campaign has received cease and desist letters from musicians for unauthorized use of their music in 2024 campaign videos and rallies including Abba, Beyoncé, Celine Dion, and the Foo Fighters.“Your long economic nightmare will very soon be over,” Trump said. “When was the last time you heard about the American dream. They don’t talk about it. They copy everything else I do so I guess that’ll be that they’ll be copying that.”Trump accused Kamala Harris of being a “Marxist” and a “fascist”, and he criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policies.He jumped on the criticism the Harris campaign has received for the lack of interviews she has given to the press – Harris sat down with CNN this week in her first major interview. Trump also repeated falsehoods about US election integrity, polling and abortion laws.The Republican presidential candidate has escalated his attacks on Harris in recent days.Kamala Harris said that if elected she would appoint a Republican to serve in her cabinet.In her first major interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, the vice-president told CNN journalist Dana Bash that she had spent her career “inviting diversity of opinion”.“I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican,” Harris said.In the first clip of the CNN interview with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the vice-president said that her values have not changed.CNN journalist Dana Bash asked Harris what voters should make of the changes to some of her policy positions.“Dana, I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said.“You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed 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,” she said. “We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act.”“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 illegal passage of guns, drugs and human beings across our border. My values have not changed.”CNN journalist Dana Bash shared a photo of her interview with Tim Walz and Kamala Harris, and said we’ll see the first excerpt from their talk in about 10 minutes:Donald Trump is scheduled to speak this afternoon about the economy at a steel plant in Potterville, Michigan.It’s the Republican candidate’s eighth visit to the state this year, and his speech will take place at Alro Steel’s facility in the town just west of the state capital, Lansing.The Secret Service will receive additional military support to protect presidential and vice-presidential candidates, Reuters reports.Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, approved a request for unspecified support to the agency, which will be provided by the military’s US Northern Command at different locations, a Pentagon spokesperson announced. She did not elaborate on what kind of support would be provided.CNN journalist Dana Bash conducted the interview with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz this afternoon.It was Harris and Walz’s first joint interview since becoming the Democratic standard bearers, as well as Harris’s first sit-down interview since Joe Biden ended his bid for a second term.Before the broadcast, the New York Times published a Q&A with CNN reporter Astead Herndon, who last year had a lengthy interview with Harris for a profile. He remembers his talk with the vice-president as “arduous”. Here’s more:
      In a word or two, how would you describe that 2023 interview?
      Arduous! When she sat down, I asked her if she liked her job, and she said she did – but that she didn’t like doing this. I was putting her in a position to self-reflect, and to articulate her own story of growth and change. I thought she would want to tell a story on that front, and was surprised that she did not.
      During the interview, she showed a reluctance to label herself politically, like when you asked her how she saw herself in the world of California politics. How did that shape the interview and shape your understanding of her?
      It showed how she does not view herself with those labels and feels confined by those boxes. I think she’s someone who doesn’t like feeling known, doesn’t like you assuming to have figured her out, and I think that’s true politically and personally.
      I don’t think she loses any sleep over whether you think she’s a moderate or progressive. I think she thinks, ‘I’m a person who makes big and hard decisions, with all the evidence in front of me.’ That’s what’s mattered most as a prosecutor and attorney general, and I think that’s how she views political leadership.
      Donald Trump has not said much publicly about the campaign staffer who pushed aside an employee of Arlington national cemetery during his visit there earlier this week.But JD Vance has responded by calling the episode “fake”, and downplaying the uproar it generated:The Trump campaign earlier this week said it would release video proving that the incident did not happen the way it has been reported, but has not yet done so.The setting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s interview with CNN is Kim’s Cafe, a local Black-owned business in Savannah, Georgia.Perhaps Harris or Walz will explain their choice of the venue in the interview, which airs at 9pm this evening. But it can be surmised that it’s part of their outreach to African American voters, a bloc that could decide the outcome in several swing states, including North Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania.Here’s more from the Guardian’s Melissa Hellman on what Black voters in Georgia are looking for from the Democratic ticket:JD Vance addressed his previous comments about former president Donald Trump during his speech to the firefighters’ union on Thursday, telling them that “once upon a time” he wasn’t a “Trump guy either”, adding that “the president never lets me forget it”.Vance continued:
      But the truth is, I didn’t fully believe in the promises Trump made, I didn’t believe in the promises that any politician made, and you shouldn’t either. But I didn’t change my mind because of Donald Trump’s promises, I changed my mind because he did a good job for the American people.
      During his speech to the International Association of Fire Fighters in Boston on Thursday, JD Vance was met with boos and heckles as he told the crowd that he and the former president Donald Trump “are proud to be the most pro-worker Republican ticket in history”.“I know this is a diverse union,” Vance said later in his speech. “Some of you love President Trump, and some of you clearly don’t, I’ve heard from both sides just giving this little speech.”In 2019, the International Association of Fire Fighters union endorsed Joe Biden for president, and called him one of the “strongest and most influential voices for hard-working Americans”.“After supporting Democrats so long in this union, what has it gotten you?” Vance asked the crowd on Thursday.The Financial Times reported on Thursday that Vance made the plea in an interview with the outlet.Vance reportedly told the Financial Times:
      I’m going to keep on talking to Peter and persuading him that – you know, he’s obviously been exhausted by politics a little bit – but he’s going to be really exhausted by politics if we lose and if Kamala Harris is president.
      He is fundamentally a conservative guy, and I think that he needs to get off the sidelines and support the ticket.
      This comes as last year, Thiel said that he was not planning on funding any 2024 races after he backed Trump in 2016. But, he said at the time, “there’s always a chance I might change my mind”.JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential candidate and Ohio senator, spoke at the International Association of Fire Fighters convention in Boston earlier this afternoon.Right as Vance was about to begin his speech, the vice-presidential hopeful was met with a mix of applause and boos from the crowd.“Sounds like we’ve got some fans and some haters”, Vance said. “That’s OK. Let’s listen to what I have to say here and I’ll make my pitch.”Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate and Governor of Minnesota, spoke at the same convention on Wednesday.The army has issued a rare statement rebuking Donald Trump’s campaign for their conduct at Arlington national cemetery earlier this week. It acknowledged that one of their employees was “pushed aside” during his visit in what it described as an “unfortunate” incident. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are set for their first interview since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket, which CNN will air at 9pm tonight (though we may see excerpts earlier in the day). The pair are currently in south Georgia, as part of their strategy to limit losses in rural areas of a swing state that could be vital to their path to the White House. Late yesterday, a poll showed Harris drawing near even with Trump in the four Sun Belt swing states, including Georgia, while polling released today showed a similar dynamic in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.Here’s what else has happened today so far:

      Trump shared a TikTok video of his visit to Arlington national cemetery, which may have violated federal law, NPR reports.

      The big question of the 10 September presidential debate appears to have been answered: microphones will be off when the candidates aren’t speaking, as Trump preferred, according to a copy of the rules obtained by the Associated Press.

      Democratic Senate candidates are holding their own against the GOP in key races nationwide, Emerson College found, though it did not poll the re-election prospects of Democratic senators in the red states Montana and Ohio.
      Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will meet for the first time when they debate on 10 September.But the two sides have been at odds in recent days over whether or not the candidates’ microphones would be on or off when it isn’t their turn to speak. Harris’s campaign wants them activated, but Trump appears to prefer them to be off – as they were during his June debate against Joe Biden.The Associated Press obtained a copy of the rules that debate host ABC News shared with the campaigns, which indicates that mics will be off, as Trump prefers. Here’s more:
      Next month’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump won’t have an audience, live microphones when candidates aren’t speaking, or written notes, according to rules that ABC News, the host network, shared this week with both campaigns.
      A copy of the rules was provided to the Associated Press on Thursday by a senior Trump campaign official on condition of anonymity ahead of the network’s announcement. The Harris campaign on Thursday insisted it was still discussing the muting of mics with ABC.
      The parameters now in place for the Sept. 10 debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, a disastrous performance for the incumbent Democrat that fueled his exit from the campaign. It is the only debate that’s been firmly scheduled and could be the only time voters see Harris and Trump go head to head before the November general election.
      The back-and-forth over the debate rules reached a fever pitch this week, particularly on the issue of whether the microphones would be muted between turns speaking.
      Harris’ campaign had advocated for live microphones for the whole debate, saying in a statement that the practice would “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.”
      Biden’s campaign had made microphone muting condition of his decision to accept any debates this year, a decision some aides now regret, saying voters were shielded from hearing Trump’s outbursts during the debate.
      “It’s interesting that Trump’s handlers keep insisting on muting him, despite the candidate himself saying the opposite,” Harris spokesman Ian Sams said. “Why won’t they just do what the candidate wants?”
      Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will tape their interview with CNN in Savannah, Georgia, after spending yesterday on a bus tour of the swing state’s southern counties.While most Democratic supporters these days are found in Georgia’s urban and suburban areas, Harris and Walz’s tour is part of a strategy to win at least some votes in GOP-leaning rural areas of the state.Harris will cap off the swing with a solo rally in Savannah at 5.30pm today, though Walz won’t be in attendance. Their joint interview is scheduled to air on CNN at 9pm. More