Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris spent much of Wednesday night’s debate trying to run away from the liberal policy agenda that she and Joe Biden spent much of their presidential runs advocating.
Harris, under questioning from Vice President Mike Pence and moderator Susan Page, either refused to answer questions or promoted policies that were starkly different from clearly laid out positions.
Harris, for instance, insisted that the Democratic contenders did not support banning fracking and that they would not raise taxes on anybody earning under $400,000.
But during the primaries, Harris herself plainly stated, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” Biden also told a voter he favored banning fracking, and during a Democratic primary debate, he declared, “No new fracking” and said he would “make sure it was eliminated.”
On taxes, Harris herself came out in favor of fully repealing the 2017 tax cuts, which would represent a substantial middle-class tax increase. Biden, too, had called for immediately repealing the Trump tax cuts. The Tax Policy Center, hardly an organ of the Trump campaign, concluded that though Biden’s tax plan would mostly raise taxes on higher incomes, it also “would increase taxes on average on all income groups.”
Harris refused to say whether the Biden-Harris administration would support the Green New Deal. Biden ran away from the radical proposal at last week’s debate, but his own website’s plan reads, “Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face.” Biden added Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a co-chair of his climate advisory panel after he won the primary, adapting his plan so it was much closer to the Green New Deal. Harris, for her part, was one of the original co-sponsors of the Senate version of the resolution.
When it came to packing the courts, just like Biden before her, Harris refused to answer the question. In reality, liberals and many high-ranking Democrats have called for expanding the Supreme Court to pack it with liberal justices if they retake power as retaliation should Republicans confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Perhaps most perplexing, when Pence pointed out that Biden-Harris back taxpayer funding of abortions, Harris shook her head — as if to indicate it wasn’t true.
Yet early in his candidacy, Biden abandoned his previous support for the Hyde Amendment, a once bipartisan standard that has kept taxpayers from funding abortion through Medicaid. To this day, Biden’s actual healthcare plan reads: “Vice President Biden supports repealing the Hyde Amendment because health care is a right that should not be dependent on one’s zip code or income. And, the public option will cover contraception and a woman’s constitutional right to choose.”
It is not shocking that Harris would try to hide the agenda she and Biden have in mind.
Open support for banning fracking could cost Democrats Pennsylvania. Admitting to tax increases below $400,000 could eat into gains the party has been making in the suburbs.
On court-packing, as a Washington Examiner/YouGov poll found, the public overwhelmingly opposes expanding the Supreme Court — even if Republicans go through with confirming Barrett before Election Day.
If polls are to be trusted, Biden and Harris are solidly ahead, and so such evasions may be a savvy strategy to avoid making any sort of news that could change the trajectory of the race.
However, the obfuscations are likely to haunt Biden and Harris should they win because they will be caught between the demands of an angry and emboldened Left and more centrist voters who weren’t expecting radicalism when they hopped on board because they wanted an alternative to President Trump.
