The "no comment" candidate: Harris strategy clouds how she'd govern
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Vice President Harris waves to supporters at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images
One thing is clear about Vice President Harris' intent to stick to her old liberal views or govern with new centrist thinking: She doesn't want voters to know.
Why it matters: Harris is the "no comment" candidate — purposely and strategically. She has calculated that it's safer to be vague on policy matters than lampooned as a flip-flopper or left-winger.
Zoom in: Harris and her staff have refused to detail her position on more than a dozen of her previous stances the past three months in response to questions by Axios. The response to those inquiries: No comment.
- This makes her actual governing plans a mystery even to many Democrats — given her past liberal record and current promise to govern from the middle.
If she wins, this will be seen as shrewd, thread-the-needle politics.
- But if she loses, she and her team will be blamed for leaving voters foggy about her true views and self. And President Biden will be blamed for backing a candidate with such a liberal track record.
Driving the news: Since Harris became the Democratic nominee this summer, Harris' team has declined to say whether she still supports:
- Executive actions to unilaterally give a path to citizenship to 2 million "Dreamers" — undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
- Ending the death penalty on the federal level. Harris has opposed capital punishment since 2003.
- A mandate for automakers to only build electric or hydrogen vehicles by 2035.
- Executive actions to protect more than 6 million undocumented immigrants from deportation by expanding "deferred action" guidelines.
- Decriminalizing prostitution ("We can't criminalize consensual behavior as long as no one is being harmed," Harris said in 2019).
- Closing private, for-profit prisons, which she called "morally wrong."
- Getting rid of the Senate filibuster in order to pass multitrillion-dollar Green New Deal legislation.
Harris' campaign declined to comment to CNN about several positions she took in 2019, including:
- Federal prisoners and detained immigrants obtaining taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries.
- An open-ended pledge to "end" immigration detention.
For this story, Axios asked Harris' campaign whether she still supports these other past positions of hers, and the campaign declined to comment:
- Provide reparations to Black Americans because of slavery.
- Support for "sanctuary cities" that provide safety and refuge for undocumented immigrants.
- Restore voting rights for all former prisoners.
- Renegotiate international refugee rules to provide protections for people displaced by climate change and welcome them to the U.S.
- Install a climate envoy in every major embassy around the world.
- Issue national protections for 30% of the land and sea areas in the U.S. by 2030, which would limit drilling.
Reality check: Despite the dodges, Harris has stated some of her policy priorities — namely to boost security on the Southwest border, put more limitations on asylum, and bring down the costs of food and housing.
- She also has made clear that she no longer supports some of her past progressive positions like banning fracking, passing Medicare for All, implementing mandatory gun buybacks, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, or phasing out plastic straws.
- Harris has argued her positions shifted as a result of her time as vice president, but that her "values have not changed."
It's also normal for a presidential candidate to run to the left or right during a primary race, then try to moderate during the general election campaign. (Harris briefly ran for president in the Democratic primary in 2019.)
- Harris also is dealing with the unprecedented sprint of becoming the nominee three months before Election Day, and had little time to put together her policy agenda.
- She has indicated she plans to replace much of Biden's senior team with her own team if she's elected, which suggests policy changes.
Between the lines: Harris' limited public policy agenda has lots of overlap with Biden proposals that didn't make their way through Congress.
- Current and former Biden aides have noted that Harris' plan to expand the housing supply by millions of units is similar to Biden's housing plan in the original Build Back Better bills.
- Ultimately, much of the housing plans were cut out of the bill as Democrats tried to get it past Senate moderates, especially Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
Harris also has zeroed in on addressing the high costs for people in the "sandwich generation" — those with obligations to children and aging parents.
- In May, Biden's White House started a similar "sandwich generation" push as he was running for re-election.
Donald Trump's campaign has tried to tie Harris to the unpopular president.
- Multiple Trump ads feature Harris being asked whether she'd do anything differently from Biden, and responding that there's "not a thing that comes to mind."
