The vice president parried persistent questioning on how she might separate herself from President Biden, whether she might pardon Donald Trump and where she stood on transgender rights.
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Vice President Kamala Harris during an event on Monday in Malvern, Pa. On Tuesday, she told Hallie Jackson of NBC News, “I will never assume that anyone in our country should elect a leader based on their gender or their race.”
Vice President Kamala Harris continued her busy schedule of news media interviews on Tuesday, sitting down with Hallie Jackson of NBC News to discuss how she would distinguish herself from President Biden and whether she thought race and gender were shaping the public’s response to her.
Ms. Harris largely stuck to safe territory, declining to engage with questions about whether she would pardon former President Donald J. Trump or how her administration would operate if Republicans controlled both chambers in Congress.
But she did try to push back when Ms. Jackson noted that her defense of transgender rights — an issue that Mr. Trump has tried to use as a wedge — has been less than full-throated.
Here are five takeaways from the interview.
No matter the electoral risk, she’s staying loyal to Biden.
Ms. Harris was again given an opportunity to break from Mr. Biden, the unpopular incumbent.
Again, she did not take it.
When Ms. Jackson asked if the Biden administration was “an obstacle to you in this race,” Ms. Harris responded by addressing the cost of living and expressing her loyalty to Mr. Biden. She did not provide substantive policy differences.
“Let me be very clear: Mine will not be a continuation of the Biden administration,” Ms. Harris said. “I bring my own experiences, my own ideas to it, and it has informed a number of my areas of focus.”
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Source: nytimes.com
