When Vice President Kamala Harris ran for president in 2020, she said plastic straws should be banned.

• Today, her campaign says that's no longer her position.

Why it matters: Banning plastic straws to protect the environment and marine life is the latest progressive issue on which Harris and her campaign have either declined to comment or changed her position.

Zoom in: Many parts of the country have banned plastic straws as concerns have grown about plastic pollution in oceans and waterways.

• Seattle became the first major U.S. city to ban plastic straws in 2018.
• Other countries have signaled or committed to banning single-use plastic products.

Flashback: During a CNN town hall in 2019, Harris was asked whether the government should ban plastic straws.

• "I think we should," she said. "We do need to ban the plastic" straws, she added, saying that paper straws needed to be improved.

Axios asked Harris' current campaign if she still supports that idea.

• "She doesn't support banning plastic straws," a campaign official told Axios.
• "She cast the tie-breaking vote on the most consequential legislation to combat climate change and create clean energy jobs in history, and as President, she is going to be focused on expanding on that progress."
• "She joked even then about how crappy paper straws are and the need to come up with better eco-friendly alternatives," the official said.

Former President Trump's campaign has used her past support of plastic-straw bans in its attacks casting Harris as a San Francisco liberal.

• Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told NBC in July: "I mean, heck, she wants to get rid of plastic straws, for goodness sake."

Between the lines: Harris has a recent pattern of offering few details about her policy agenda and priorities while moving to the center in advance of the Nov. 5 election.

• Through anonymous aides, the campaign has said Harris no longer supports Medicare for All or mandatory gun buyback programs, which she backed during the 2020 Democratic primary.
• Harris no longer wants to ban fracking, she told CNN last week, in a change from her 2020 primary position. "We can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking," she said.
• Harris also has promised to sign a bill focused on the southern border that, as part of a larger compromise, would continue to build Trump's border wall. She previously called the barrier "un-American."

The bottom line: Harris told CNN her "values have not changed," even if some of her policy ideas have.

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In a last-minute move that surprised the prosecutors and judge, Hunter Biden switched to a guilty plea today in his federal tax evasion trial.

• "I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment. For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty," he said in a statement.
• His sentencing date will be Dec. 16, with the possibility of a 7-figure fine and up to 17 years in prison on the nine charges.

Zoom out: The president's son will successfully avoid having a second federal trial this year, Axios' Ivana Saric reports.

• Hunter Biden was convicted in June on federal gun charges and is awaiting sentencing.
• President Biden has promised not to pardon his son.

Between the lines: Hunter Biden's lawyers "believe that David C. Weiss, the special counsel in the case, had refused to engage in serious plea negotiations" after blowback from the initial plea agreements, the N.Y. Times reports.

With their Biden corruption probes sputtering, House Republicans are refocusing on Harris — and bringing her vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz along for the ride.

• House Oversight is probing Walz on China and Harris on immigration.
• The Education and Workforce Committee is probing Walz's handling of alleged fraud by a Minnesota-based nonprofit.

🔎 Look for hearings next week on the "VA Leadership Under the Biden-Harris Administration," the "Biden-Harris border crisis" and the "Biden-Harris energy agenda."

• Go deeper

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wants the four largest airlines to cough up more details on their frequent flyer programs, Axios' Joann Muller reports.

• 📫 American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines all got letters from Buttigieg on the subject.

Why it matters: "[M]any Americans view their rewards points balances as part of their savings," Buttigieg said in a statement.

• "But unlike a traditional savings account, these rewards are controlled by a company that can unilaterally change their value."