Harris shifts stance on EV mandates, declines to clarify how new position is consistent with her values
During Vice President Kamala Harris' first interview as the Democratic Party's official nominee for president, she insisted her "values have not changed," pointing to her work to promote the Green New Deal as an example.
"The most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed," Harris told CNN's Dana Bash Thursday. "You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time."
But Harris' remarks do not align with a statement her campaign put out last week, indicating she "does not support an electric vehicle mandate," a main component of the progressive climate package Harris claims to still support. Similarly, her support for "metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time" also diverges from such a claim.
Subsequently, news outlet Axios reached out to the Harris campaign last week, asking for clarification of the vice president's position. Yesterday, the campaign responded to Axios, but declined to comment on the matter. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Harris campaign repeatedly and asked for clarification on how Harris' lack of support for electric vehicle mandates is in line with her values, particularly when it's a policy measure she has promoted more than once. Fox News Digital did not receive a response.
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In addition to supporting the Green New Deal, which included EV mandates, Harris also sponsored a bill during her time as a U.S. senator that sought to create a "national zero-emission vehicle standard," which would have required all passenger vehicles to be electric by 2040. Meanwhile, Harris ran on a platform as a presidential candidate in 2019 that called for mandates to phase out gas-powered vehicles even sooner, in 2035. After the Biden-Harris ticket won in 2020, Harris also pledged that all new medium- and heavy-duty vehicles would be "zero-emission" by 2030.
"The American people don’t want top-down, one-size-fits-all energy and climate policies like federal EV mandates," said Chris Barnard, president of the American Conservation Coalition, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group focused on limited government and conservative approaches to environmental issues.
"We should pursue an all-of-the-above energy dominance strategy that prioritizes affordable, reliable, and increasingly cleaner energy solutions, rooted in American innovation and competition with China. From nuclear energy to permitting reform, this energy dominance agenda tackles both environmental and economic concerns to make America the cleanest and most prosperous nation in the world."
Barnard added that Harris "flip-flopping" on issues as important as the future of American energy "is neither productive nor compelling."
Besides shifting her position on electric vehicle mandates, Harris has come under fire for similar pivots on issues like the border, health care and fracking.
For example, during Harris' first interview as the Democratic nominee on Thursday, the vice president insisted she would enforce the law against illegal border crossings. But in the past, Harris has said prosecuting migrants for crossing the border illegally was something she was against.
During a nationally televised debate amid Harris' 2019 run for president, she said as much, and in 2015, as California's attorney general, Harris told the San Francisco Chronicle that "an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal." She also posted the claim on social media. And in a riff with the late Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain's daughter, Meghan, during a 2019 episode of "The View," Harris reiterated her stance.
As California's attorney general, Harris also instructed local law enforcement not to adhere to ICE detainers when they request that someone who has committed a crime and crossed the border illegally be held until they can be taken into custody by federal immigration authorities.
As a U.S. senator, Harris sought to strip funding from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and she has also previously compared ICE to the Ku Klux Klan.
On health care, Harris campaign officials have said the vice president does not support "Medicare-for-all." However, Harris has yet to share publicly that she is not in favor of a single-payer health care system after indicating during a 2019 debate that she would "abolish" private health care in favor of a "government-run plan." Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign earlier this week for clarity on Harris' position when it comes to health care, but did not receive a response.
During Harris's CNN interview last week, she also argued that she made it clear as the vice presidential nominee in 2020 that she does not wish to ban fracking, despite indicating as a presidential nominee in 2019 that she was "in favor of banning fracking" on federal land.
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Harris supporters have responded to GOP criticism slamming Harris for her shifting policy stances by arguing it is a natural evolution that shows she is a good leader, and pointing the finger at Trump for his changing position on abortion.
"This idea that she hasn't been consistent — I mean what about Donald Trump's flip-flops? What about his flip-flops on abortion?" Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said on NBC News' "Meet The Press" over the weekend. "I think the vice president is consistent on the position on fracking. It's exactly how Joe Biden ran."
"I think it's a sign of a good leader, that they learn and evolve over time," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Sunday on ABC News' "This Week."