Harris: My values have not changed. I still don’t approve of fracking, but I still need the votes of Pennsylvanians.

In case anyone did not have the hour required to watch CNN’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (and also some ads and clips from the same interview), here is a summary.

Dana Bash: Hello. We have assembled some confusing furniture so we can all look different heights than we are. We will interview you near a big glass window so we can see your bus. That is the important thing of interviews, that they can be chaperoned by a bus. We feel good about this. My first question is: What will you do as president? Day one?

Kamala Harris: I will work hard to restore the vibes. I think the simple fact that people will see someone taking office who is not Donald Trump will do a lot for the vibes, and then I will try to build off of that. Also, opportunity.

Bash: Any policy specifics?

Harris: You mean policy specifics, like Project 2025? Here is one policy specific I can offer: I will not be doing Project 2025, and I will be doing a child tax credit!

Tim Walz: That is all I personally need to hear!

Bash: How about fracking? We hear that fracking is very big in Pennsylvania, a state you need to win. Yet you said in 2019 that you didn’t approve of fracking.

Harris: Yes, and then in 2020 when I realized I needed the votes of Pennsylvanians, I said I would not ban it. My values have not changed. I still don’t approve of it, but I still need the votes of Pennsylvanians. I would prefer to be elected than not elected. Am I jazzed about it? No. I can continue to promise that I am not jazzed about fracking, but if what makes a difference to you in voting for me is whether or not I will ban fracking, I will not ban it. Would you rather have Donald Trump be president? I hear he likes to go out to the ocean and just pour oil on the pelicans there, from spite.

Bash: Governor Walz, you said you had fired a weapon in war and that you had conceived your child via IVF, but in fact you served in the military for decades but not in war and conceived your child via a different fertility treatment. How can anyone trust you?

Walz: Consider that Donald Trump says he won the election, whereas he did not win the election. Now, look at the sentence you just said, and tell me if that is a hill you want to die on. My grammar is sometimes bad.

Bash: How about foreign policy?

Harris: We are working tirelessly on a cease-fire.

Bash: Here is something insulting Donald Trump said about you. Do you care to respond?

Harris: No.

Bash: Okay, well, that’s all the substantive questions we had time for. Tell me about that picture of your grandniece looking at you as you gave your acceptance speech. I know you’ve been trying to run for office in a way —

Harris: Those were the substantive ones?

Bash: — trying to run for office in a way that doesn’t focus on how historic it would be if you were to be elected. But that picture suggested that it might mean things to people. Maybe?

Harris: Please, Dana. Every time anyone is elected president, it’s always historic. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president; James Buchanan was the first bachelor president; Donald Trump was the first president to try to overturn the results of the election. There’s always something historic about every candidacy, if you really dig, and I’m sure that would also be true of mine. Just one of many ways that I am just a normal candidate for president! Just a regular person who wants to be president!

Walz: I was a teacher and I did notice one thing that was historic about this candidacy, but I want it to be a surprise for after she’s elected! Please just vote for her!

Harris: Again — no Project 2025, and child tax credits!

Excerpts : Washaingtonpost, 30th August 2024.