(WASHINGTON) — Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado defended Vice President Kamala Harris’ shifts on policy between her 2020 presidential campaign and her White House bid this year as Republicans seize on perceived discrepancies.
Polis, a Harris ally, told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl that Harris’ shifts on issues like fracking, the border wall, health care and others are the sign of someone who can adapt as needed.
“I think it’s a sign of a good leader, that they learn and evolve over time,” Polis said. “Whether it’s a move to the middle, the left, the right, it’s really about what works. Kamala Harris is a pragmatic leader who looks at data and science and makes the best decisions she can.”
“Democrats are a broad tent party, and they have people who are conservative, they have people who are liberal,” he added when asked if Democrats running for president in 2020 had veered too far to the left. “What Kamala Harris has said, and I take her at her word, is she’s going to be a leader for all Americans, a president for all Americans. And that means, regardless of your ideology, there’s going to be a place for your viewpoints.”
Republicans have seized on what they cast as flip-flops on a range of issues from her 2020 campaign, when progressive fervor gripped the Democratic Party.
During an interview with CNN on Thursday — her first in-depth interview since accepting the Democratic nominee, Harris insisted that her values hadn’t changed — an argument Polis echoed on Sunday.
When pressed on Harris’ past support for “Medicare for All” — a proposal she no longer supports — the Coloradan said the vice president is still invested in making health care more affordable.
“As a basic value, should every American have access to health care? Absolutely. Almost every other wealthy country does that. We do it very poorly,” he said. “I think she understands that Americans want to have their choice of health care, but can we do better and save people money on health care? Absolutely.”
Harris in 2019 also lambasted the border wall proposed by then-President Donald Trump, calling it at the time a “medieval vanity project” and that she would not support funds for it. Now, she is touting support for a bipartisan border security bill that Republicans blocked from advancing at Trump’s direction, which included roughly $650 million for border wall construction — shy of the $18 billion Trump sought in 2018.
Polis said Harris was right to cast Trump’s border wall proposal as ineffective and a waste of taxpayer money, but that walls and other barriers in certain places along the border could prove effective.
“That’s true that the border wall that Donald Trump has proposed is a huge boondoggle and waste of taxpayer money. He effectively talked about a wall across the entire border, rather than using barriers of different kinds effectively in a cost-effective manner, including imagery from satellites, including on-the-ground intel to secure and lock down the border. What Kamala Harris is for is securing it in the most cost-effective way possible,” Polis said.
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