Takeaways from Kamala Harris’ CNN town hall

(CNN) — Over and over, Vice President Kamala Harris argued at a CNN town hall Wednesday night that Republican rival Donald Trump is “unstable” and “unfit to serve.”

The Democratic nominee’s message in the closing weeks 2024 presidential race is squarely focused on warning Americans – particularly undecided independents and moderate Republicans – that Trump poses a threat to the nation’s core principles.

She pointed repeatedly to former senior military figures in Trump’s administration who have called him a fascist and claimed the former president spoke glowingly of the loyalty of Hitler’s Nazi generals. She also raised concern over his comments about turning the military against “enemies within.”

If Trump wins, Harris said, “He’s going to sit there, unstable and unhinged, plotting his revenge, plotting his retribution, creating an enemies list.”

Harris was as focused on putting the former Trump aides and military leaders’ comments in front of the Pennsylvania town hall crowd, and voters watching at home, as she was on detailing her own policy agenda.

Here are six takeaways from Harris’ CNN town hall:

Yes, Harris thinks Trump is a fascist

Harris was asked Wednesday night if she considers Trump a fascist.

“Yes, I do,” she said. But, she added, she doesn’t want voters to take her word for it.

Harris pointed to senior military leaders who served under Trump and have said the former president is a fascist – including the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and Trump’s former White House chief of staff, retired Marine general John Kelly.

“I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted,” Harris said.

The vice president’s condemnation of Trump as a threat to the United States’ founding principles is a window into how she is trying to win over the small number of undecided voters — including educated, suburban moderate Republicans and independents — in the race’s closing weeks. She is casting Trump as a threat to democracy, rather than focusing on her policy differences with the former president.

Harris said more than 400 members of Republican presidential administrations have endorsed her – and she named former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who has campaigned with her, and former Vice President Dick Cheney, specifically.

She said those Republicans’ support for her campaign is motivated by “a legitimate fear, based on Donald Trump’s words and actions, that he will not obey an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Harris distances herself from Biden, promises ‘a new generation of leadership’

Harris has faced repeated questions on the trail over how – and to what degree – she would break from Biden on policy. Mostly, she has brushed them off.

In one particularly awkward exchange, she told the hosts of ABC’s “The View,” who asked what she would’ve done differently from the president, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”

On Wednesday night, though, Harris seemed more comfortable with the proposition and argued that, if she was elected, change would follow.

“My administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration,” Harris said. “I bring to this role my own ideas and my own experience. I represent a new generation of leadership on a number of issues and believe that we have to actually take new approaches.”

After ticking off a few major policy plans, like having Medicare cover home health care for the elderly, Harris returned to what she described as “a new approach.”

“I bring a whole set of different experiences to this job,” she said.

Pressed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper about why she hasn’t, during her time as vice president, been more assertive on those points, Harris was short on details – later on she would present a Middle East policy identical to Biden’s – but hammered home the talking point.

“There was a lot that was done (during the Biden administration), but there’s more to do,” Harris said. “I’m pointing out things that need to be done, that haven’t been done.”

Border security and migration are a tricky area for the vice president

By both Cooper and audience members, the vice president was pressed on border security.

She was asked on the record number of illegal border crossings that occurred during the Biden administration in spite of multiple executive orders. That flow had only begun to shrink after a major executive action earlier this year, Cooper noted, and asked why Biden and Harris hadn’t done something sooner.

Harris argued that the Biden administration, and she personally, believed that executive actions were just short-term solutions and that a long-term fix could only happen through a bipartisan agreement in Congress. She stressed the need for a large bipartisan bill on border security.

“Let’s just fix the problem” Harris said multiple times.

She contrasted that with Trump’s record on border security where she mocked him for failing to fulfill his promise to build a border wall across the United States’ southern border and make Mexico pay for it.

“I think of what he did and how he did it didn’t make much sense because he didn’t do much of anything,” she said.

Harris also pushed back on the idea that she was soft on border security and immigration, saying “people have to earn it” in gaining American citizenship and that she wanted “to strengthen our border.”

Harris wants Sinwar’s death to be a moment to end the Israel-Hamas war

One of Harris’ biggest challenges has been attempting to find a middle ground between staunchly supporting Israel’s war in Gaza in the wake of the October 7, 2023, attack and calling for the return of hostages held by Hamas, while seeking a ceasefire to end the humanitarian crisis and tens of thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths in the territory.

Democrats have sought to maintain support among voters who oppose the US’ continued military aid to Israel. One undecided voter in the audience asked Harris what she would do to “ensure not another Palestinian dies due to bombs being funded by US tax dollars.”

Harris said it was “unconscionable” how many innocent Palestinians have died, but that she hoped the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – who helped plan the October 7 attack and was killed by Israel earlier this month – would create an opportunity to end the conflict.

“With Sinwar’s death, I do believe we have an opportunity to end this war, bring the hostages home, bring relief to the Palestinian people and work toward a two-state solution, where Israel and the Palestinians – in equal measure – have security, where the Palestinian people have dignity, self determination and the safety they that they so rightly deserve,” Harris said.

Cooper followed up by asking what Harris would say to people who are considering voting for a third-party candidate or staying home over the administration’s approach to the conflict in Gaza. Harris said that she understood that anyone who has seen what has happened in Gaza or lost family there would have strong feelings, but she said she believed those same voters care about their president’s approach to other issues, including the cost of groceries and reproductive rights.

The next question came from a voter asking how Harris would handle antisemitism. The vice president touted her work cracking down on hate crimes and called for new laws to deter future attacks. She also referenced Kelly’s comments regarding Trump and Hitler.

Cooper asked Harris if she thought Trump was antisemitic.

“I believe Donald Trump is a danger to the well being and security of America,” she said.

Asked if she would be more pro-Israel than Trump, Harris criticized Trump’s foreign policy more broadly, including his affinity for authoritarian figures, reports that he sent Covid-19 tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin, his handling of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and, again, his alleged comments on Hitler.

Harris speaks Republicans’ language as she courts anti-Trump GOP vote

Harris’ campaign has spent the last few weeks working feverishly to court Trump-skeptical Republicans and right-leaning independents. On Wednesday night, the vice president reprised that appeal – both in what she said and how she said it.

She repeatedly name-dropped Liz Cheney, the former House member who broke from her party over Trump and lost her GOP leadership position and a primary for her sins – and has been at the center of Harris’ efforts to win over wobbly Republicans.

“I traveled this state and others with Liz Cheney,” Harris said early on, adding, “She has endorsed me.”

And not only her, she reminded the audience.

“Dick Cheney is voting for me. Over 400 members of previous members of” Republican administrations “have endorsed my candidacy,” Harris said, “and the reason why – among them is a legitimate fear based on Donald Trump’s words and actions, that he will not obey an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

A little while later, when discussing abortion rights, Harris again mentioned Liz Cheney, an “unapologetically pro-life” politician who, as the vice president put it, “doesn’t agree with what’s been happening” in states that banned abortion.

Harris also made a point of her desire to work with the private sector to solve public problems like the housing crisis.

“We need a new approach that includes working with the private sector. I say that as a devoted public servant,” Harris said, before assimilating traditionally moderate Republican rhetoric to describe her plan, which includes “working with the private sector to cut through the red tape, working with home builders, working with developers to create tax incentives so that we can create more housing supply and bring down the price.”

Unity is a bipartisan talking point, of course, but Harris repeatedly argued that “common sense” solutions were within grasp.

“The American people deserve to have a president who is grounded in what is common sense, what is practical and what is in the best interest of the people, not themselves,” Harris said, jabbing at Trump but hardly embracing anything like an ideologically liberal agenda.

Flip-flopping on issues

Another voter question challenged Harris on her shift to the middle during her three-month presidential campaign. Since becoming the nominee, the vice president has changed her stance on key issues, including backing away from her past support for redirecting police department funds to social services and banning fracking.

Harris said she does not want to ban fracking and hasn’t moved to do so as vice president, while reiterating that her “values” when it comes to addressing climate change haven’t changed. And when directly asked by Cooper if she thinks fracking is bad for the environment, Harris dodged the question.

“I think that we have proven that we can invest in a clean energy economy, we can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, we can work on sustaining what we need to do to protect this beautiful earth of ours and not ban fracking,” she said.

On her stance on law and order, Harris said there has been a “whole lot of misinformation” and emphasized that she’s spent most of her career as a prosecutor.

Harris then addressed her changed policy stances more broadly by defending what she described as her willingness to embrace good ideas, build consensus and not “stand on pride.”

“I believe in fixing problems. I love fixing problems,” Harris said. “And so I pledge to you to be a president who not only works for all Americans, but works on getting stuff done, and that means compromise.”

Cooper followed up to ask Harris about her shift in support for Medicare for All (Harris co-sponsored the single payer health care legislation when she was in the Senate but proposed a more moderate plan during her 2020 presidential campaign) and her past support for decriminalizing border crossings.

“I never intended, nor will I ever allow, America to have a border that is not secure,” Harris said, adding that there must be consequences for entering the country illegally.

This story has been updated.

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