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Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris campaigns on Aug. 29, 2024, in Savannah, Ga.
Harris’ first interview recap: She’s pragmatic, not progressive
In Kamala Harris’ first interview since becoming her party's nominee, she sat down with CNN’s Dana Bush and staked her flag solidly in the center of the Democratic Party.
On policy. Harris has been accused of abandoning some of the more liberal positions she held when she ran for president in 2019, particularly on the environment and single-payer health care. Harris’ rebuttal was to refocus on the Biden-Harris administration's record. She bragged about decreasing drug prices and that as vice president she “cast the tie-breaking vote that increased leases for fracking,” while also increasing clean energy production with the Inflation Reduction Act. However, she distanced herself from the former president when it came to the economy and immigration.
While her answer might not silence accusations that she is a “flip-flopper,” Harris is betting on pragmatism over progressive idealism. Being open to fracking, ready to crack down on the southern border, and dismissive of Medicare for All are all positions focused on getting elected.
On strategy. In a continuation of what we saw at the Democratic National Convention, Harris presented herself as a “joyful warrior,” betting that Americans are “ready for a new way forward … fueled by hope and by optimism.” Harris also shied away from emphasizing her potential to be the first woman and first woman of color to serve as president, saying instead that she is “the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender.”
Performance review. The interview came amid criticism that she had been avoiding a hard-hitting media interview. This attempt to answer that criticism may have fallen flat. Harris appeared comfortable and articulate, but the interview consisted mostly of soft-ball questions. The real test of Harris’ mettle is yet to come on Sept. 10 when she faces off against Donald Trump on the debate stage.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) and Vice President Kamala Harris seen at a Harris/Walz campaign event at the Liacouras Center at Temple University in Philadelphia.
What to expect from first Harris-Walz interview
On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris will tape her first interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, sitting down with CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz. The interview will air later that night at 9 p.m. ET.
Harris will face questions about how her policy has evolved and pivoted from when she ran in 2019 – like backtracking on a fracking and offshore drilling ban and support for single-payer health care – and how her approach differs from President Joe Biden.
Harris holding her first official interview since Biden dropped out is notable – and doing it with Walz signals that she is presenting them as a package deal while continuing to introduce him to a national audience. It also occurs in the middle of their bus tour through Georgia, where Harris hopes her running mate’s Minnesota charm can appeal to the swing state’s rural voters.
Donald Trump has been critical that Harris has gone over a month as the Democrats’ nominee without facing the scrutiny of a sit-down interview. Now, his team says Harris is cherrypicking a sympathetic journalist and “incapable” of doing it live or without Walz.
Harris, meanwhile, is trying to keep up the momentum from last week’s Democratic National Convention in the run-up to her first presidential debate. We’ll be watching to see how she responds to scrutiny of her policies, and Trump’s team will likely be looking for ways to attack Harris when they meet on the debate stage on Sept. 10.
Will the DNC momentum take Democrats all the way?
Watch full episode: Kamala Harris makes her case
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
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Kamala Harris makes her case
Vice President Kamala Harris closed out a historic week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that rallied Democrats around themes of freedom, joy, and unity. Harris used the DNC to try to show US voters that she can unite all Americans behind a ‘new way forward,’ but did she succeed in making the case for a Harris-Walz ticket? On GZERO World, former Congresswoman Donna Edwards and presidential historian Douglas Brinkley joined Ian Bremmer to give their take on a truly unprecedented DNC that capped off one of the most extraordinary months in modern political history. Joe Biden and Democrats passed the baton to a new generation of political leaders, showcasing the talent and diversity within the Party. While the energy in the United Center was like nothing Dems have seen since Barack Obama led the ticket, Harris will be the first to point out that she is still very much the underdog in this election. And with polls showing the presidential race is essentially tied between the two parties, will any convention bump be too little too late to defeat Donald Trump?
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don''t miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO’s YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
DNC unites around 3 key themes
Jon Lieber, Eurasia Group's head of research and managing director for the firm's coverage of United States political and policy developments, shares his perspective on US politics from the DNC in Chicago.
What we're watching in US Politics: The running themes at the Democratic National Convention.
I'm here in Chicago for the third night of the Democratic National Convention, where Tim Walz, the vice presidential nominee, just spoke this evening at the United Center.
A couple of key themes have jumped out to me so far in this convention. The first is the attempt to turn the focus on Donald Trump thinking only of himself. This is something that you heard Pete Buttigieg talk about, it's something you heard Bill Clinton talk about, and it seems like this is an emerging major theme for Democrats to hit on, is that Donald Trump doesn't actually care about America all that much. He cares about himself. So, that's going to be one thing you hear about a lot going forward.
The second thing is the Democrats trying to reclaim "freedom" as a concept and as a term that actually it fits more with their values than what they say are Republican values. And this has been something that Tim Walz has talked a lot about, you heard Michelle Obama talk about it, and you heard Oprah Winfrey talk about it. That freedom is about people being free from the government messing around with what's going on inside their bedrooms or what's going on inside their doctor's offices, obviously references to social policies where Democrats and Republicans have large differences; and attempting to flip the script on several decades of political rhetoric about who actually is the party of freedom. So, that's another thing you'd expect to hear a lot about in the coming weeks and months.
The third big theme of this convention so far has been celebrating Kamala Harris's background as a prosecutor. Now, this isn't really something we heard a lot about in the 2020 campaign; perhaps because of the George Floyd riots that were happening at the same time, and the fact that many Democrats were turning openly skeptical of police and policing. But now, fast-forward four years later where crime is a growing issue in the political discourse, and you have a lot of focus on Harris's background as a prosecutor; they talk about her prosecuting transnational drug gangs, her prosecuting people like Donald Trump, who of course has felony convictions now in his background.
So, those are three themes we've heard so far at the Democratic National Convention, and I think those are things we're going to hear a lot of over the next 74 days. On night four, Kamala Harris is set to make her own pitch for why she should be president. And of course, the crowd in Chicago will be euphoric and jubilant listening to her. But the real question here is, do any of these messages resonate with moderate voters that they need to win?
So, thanks for watching. We'll be here tomorrow in Chicago, and we'll see you then.
- Why Project 2025 is getting so much attention at the DNC ›
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- Defining Kamala Harris at DNC 2024 - GZERO Media ›
- Will the DNC momentum take Democrats all the way? - GZERO Media ›
- Kamala Harris makes her case - GZERO Media ›
Democrats criticize the Republicans during the Democratic National Convention.
The Democrats rally the troops, warn about Trump
The Democratic National Convention is wrapping up Thursdayafter four days of speeches, rallies, gatherings, bar chats, (smaller than expected) protests, and general troop rallying ahead of the November presidential election. Oprah Winfrey even made an appearance.
Last night, Tim Walz formally accepted the nomination for vice president, and tonight Kamala Harris will do the same for the Democrats’ presidential nominee nod. She faces the challenge of delivering a speech that can rival the ovation-moving addresses of the week – from the likes of Oprah, Hillary Clinton, and Barack and Michelle Obama.
The Democrats have used the convention to hammer on Republican opponent Donald Trump, warning that a second Trump administration would mean an end to rights and freedoms, a cozying up to Russia and North Korea, the dismantling of improvements in health care affordability, and more. Former President Obama even managed to sneak in a jab at Trump’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes,” a joke that hit … below the belt.
Trump wasn’t pleased, hitting back that the Obamas were “getting personal,” a habit shared by the Republican nominee himself. Trump also attacked Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro over his criticisms, calling him a “highly overrated Jewish governor.” At a rally in North Carolina, Trump also took a run at Harris, calling her “stupid” and suggesting she was a “Marxist or a communist.”
While convention time is ripe for jabs, the partisan fervor of the DNC and RNC gatherings this summer suggest that some of the upcoming presidential election may be a study in going low – very low – or what Trump might call “nasty.”
But there may also be some good vibes, a notion that Walz singled out in his acceptance speech as he thanked the crowd for “bringing the joy,” and which has buoyed Democrats since Harris replaced Joe Biden as the presumptive presidential nominee.US Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz takes the stage on Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 21, 2024.
Tim Walz introduces himself to America
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had a heavy task before him when he stepped onto the Democratic National Convention stage Wednesday night to formally accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for vice president. He’s a relatively unknown politician who was tapped to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate — in an election unlike any this country has ever seen — earlier this month. Walz needed to deliver and sell himself as a viable, attractive VP candidate. And he was following some tough acts: former President Bill Clinton, Stevie Wonder, and a little-known talk show host named Oprah Winfrey.
By the time Walz was done speaking, however, the crowd in Chicago’s United Center was roaring with approval.
After walking out to the beat of John Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” in an allusion to Walz’s Nebraska roots, the Minnesota governor took it upon himself to lay out his life story — he was introducing himself to the country. Walz talked about serving in the military, falling in love with teaching, coaching high school football, and ultimately transitioning into politics.
“It was my students who first inspired me to run for Congress. They saw in me what I hoped to instill in them — a commitment to the common good,” Walz said.
Walz is a progressive, which could be a double-edged sword for Harris. He could help her draw in more left-leaning voters who’ve soured on the Democratic Party in recent years, but he might also turn off centrist voters who are on the fence.
But Walz leaned into his progressive record in his speech, at times contrasting his policies as governor with the culture wars being waged by many Republican governors and politicians. “While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” Walz said at one point, referring to his free school lunch program.
Walz said he would be an advocate for personal freedoms, summing up his view with the phrase: "Mind your own damn business." He also said Harris would "stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead."
Walz laid out what Harris would do for the country as president, including cutting taxes for the middle class, taking on big pharma to lower prescription drug prices, and fighting to make homes more affordable.
He wrapped up with a rallying cry for Democrats. “We’ve only got 76 days to go. That’s nothing. There’ll be time to sleep when we’re dead,” Walz said, offering a countdown until Election Day, with the crowd erupting in response.
While Walz’s speech was well-received at the convention, it remains to be seen whether it resonated with a national audience. Democrats are clearly fired up now that Harris is their nominee, but polling shows that she still faces a tight race with former President Donald Trump — and riling up party loyalists is a lot easier than winning over undecideds.
Walz was “very good, but the message seems very targeted toward Democrats,” says Jon Lieber, Eurasia Group’s managing director for the US, adding that the more important speech of the night was likely from Oprah Winfrey, who “was speaking to a broader audience.”
“Democrats like to paint Walz as a normal guy who can appeal to ‘everyday Americans,’ but the fact is that the margins in his two elections were pretty consistent with a D-leaning state that’s divided around 55/45 party lines,” Lieber adds. “He seems like a dedicated public servant, caring teacher and coach, and devoted family man, but I’m just not sure any of that translates into votes.”
DNC Night 2: Obama set to rally support for Harris
Jon Lieber, Eurasia Group's head of research and managing director for the firm's coverage of United States political and policy developments, shares his perspective on US politics from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
What we're watching in US Politics: The Democratic National Convention Day 2, where former President Barack Obama is set to speak and rally support for Kamala Harris ahead of her Thursday appearance.
We are here in Chicago on day two of the Democratic National Convention, where tonight, former President Barack Obama is set to speak. Yesterday's, opening day at the convention was all about turning the page on the old guard of the Democratic Party, with Hillary Clinton giving a speech and Joe Biden giving a strong endorsement of Kamala Harris. And today is all about handing that off to her, with Obama, who's considered the Democrat's best speech giver and one of the most exciting figures that unifies the party set to speak tonight in order to send a message of Democratic unity rallying around a Harris. Kind of a quieter day here in Chicago. There are some protests going on related to Gaza that aren't really affecting the proceedings at all.
The big build-up is, of course, leading up to Harris's appearance on Thursday night. So lots of delegate activity, lots of side meetings going on about how to campaign, how to deliver the message the Democrats want to hit on this year. Lots of stuff going on inside the hall focusing on issues of freedom, access to abortion, and the diversity of the Democratic Party on display with a lot, of course, of union representation representing a contrast with former President Donald Trump. So should be an interesting, exciting night as Democrats try to unify around Kamala Harris and make the case to the American people that she is worthy of their vote.
So we'll be here all week. Thanks for watching and stay tuned for more of what we're paying attention to in US politics.
- What to expect at the 2024 Democratic National Convention ›
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- Night one of the DNC: Goodbye Biden, hello Harris ›
- Will Kamala Harris’ momentum last in the race against Trump? ›
- Kamala Harris on foreign policy ›
- Why Project 2025 is getting so much attention at the DNC - GZERO Media ›
- DNC unites around 3 key themes - GZERO Media ›
- Defining Kamala Harris at DNC 2024 - GZERO Media ›