Even big Kamala Harris fans can’t tell what the flip-flopping VP represents

Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris are backing her campaign despite admitting they can’t tell where she stands on major issues — as the Democratic nominee continues to overturn major policies.

Harris, 59, has changed his views on energy issues, health care and illegal immigration since replacing President Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, in an apparent effort to make him unique in being balanced in important changing areas.

Harris’s rejected policy positions include his pledge to end health insurance, repeal illegal immigration, curb oil and natural gas fracking, and ban the sale of new self-driving cars. of gas in 2035 – each of which was made in 2019 during that time – the California Senator was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.

In recent weeks, The Post has spoken with several swing state voters who plan to vote for Harris. Most of them gave a vague picture of what the vice president stands for – “pro-choice” and “environment.”

But the main reason they’re supporting Harris is because he’s not former President Donald Trump.

Immigration

“I would say I believe he’s more moderate on immigration. In the sense that he’s not like, ‘Let’s let everybody in,'” Aaliyah Dittman, a 20-year-old college student in Clarion County, Pa., said. he told The Post when asked about Harris’ position on the border and immigration.

“But I feel like he’s like Biden,” added Dittman, a first-time voter who was happy for Harris. “And that’s the hard thing. Being the vice president, he has to separate himself from the administration and say, ‘This is what I stand for,’ and he probably hasn’t done a good job of doing that.”

Harris has previously supported decriminalization of illegal border crossings, opposed Trump’s wall and oversaw policies of the Biden-Harris administration that allowed more than 8 million immigrants. Now, he says he works for the wall and wants to hire more Border Patrol agents.

Dittman also recalled that Harris, at the Democratic National Convention, “talked about the border deal that Trump had told Republicans to shut down, and that he would take it back.”

The 28-year-old librarian at George Mason University, who did not want to be named, also could not articulate Harris’ position on immigration and hesitated to say the vice president overturned this issue.

I think he is always true to himself. Honestly, I can’t give you a definitive answer, because I haven’t seen him fly yet,” said a Fairfax, Va., school employee.

“I’m not that invested in the news, but from what I’ve seen, knowing from his beginnings as a California attorney general to where he is as a vice president to a presidential candidate — he’s always seemed to faithful to him. , although he changed his mind,” he added. “I think he really does [illegal immigration] as much as an opportunity for growth and development as based on what most Americans want. ”

Energy and environment

Harris supporters who spoke to The Post seemed skeptical that the vice president would do much to address the environment and admitted they were unclear where he stood on the issue.

“I don’t know that — the environment is not really my focus,” Mckenna Anderson, a junior at the University of Michigan, told The Post.

“My big thing is gender, so I don’t know environmental issues in general,” Anderson said. I know he and Biden did the Alaskan oil pipeline, which is not as environmentally friendly, I think. So I don’t know exactly where he stands, but from what little I know, he doesn’t like the environment.”

Harris previously supported a ban on fracking and was an early sponsor of the $2 trillion Green Deal. He has reversed course on the fracking ban, and avoids talking about proposed climate legislation.

Anna Klein, a freshman from Flat Rock, Mich., studying statistics at the University of Michigan, suggested that Democrats often pander to voters on the environment but that won’t stop her from voting for Harris.

I will tell the truth. I’m not sure he’s going to do much about it,” Klein said. “He can talk about it and he can pretend he’s going to do something, but like, even Biden said he’s going to do a lot and I’m sure there are policies that have helped, but like, they stay they talk about it. to get people on their side and not do much.”

“I think the biggest issue right now is whether or not we want a moral person in office,” he argued. “I don’t really worry about certain issues.”

Abortion

The abortion policy was on the minds of several military commanders who spoke to The Post, but few could explain what Harris would do to expand reproductive rights. like the president.

Anderson, Michigan’s gender director, described Harris as “really for more, like women’s health.”

“I believe, I believe,” he added before agreeing, “I really need to learn more.” [about Harris’ policies].”

Klein, a Michigan statistics major, gave a similar response when asked if Harris’ policies were unique.

He said: “I agree very much with his voting strategies. “I probably won’t memorize them now.”

Dittman, a Pennsylvania college student, recalled, “Kamala said in one of her speeches that she was going to overturn Roe” — referring to the landmark case that legalized abortion across the U.S. .

The Keystone State native noted that reproductive rights are among her two “core values,” with the other being “gun safety.”

Does the policy matter?

Dittman told The Post that while the DNC was tight-lipped about policy, he was happy with the “messages” and hoped Harris would get specifics during his Sept. 10 against Trump.

“You need to start those messages now,” said Dittman, noting that he likes to follow the “interesting” and “relatable” Kamala HQ X account but “maybe it would be a good idea to expand the strategy.”

“I hope he hits the policy hard in the debate, because I feel like it’s a debate, Trump is going to talk about whatever he’s going to talk about and I feel like Kamala, at least I hope, has answers and answers. his policy is good,” he added.

Brandyn Fragosa, a 20-year-old communications major from Stafford, Va., who attends George Mason University, has indicated that she plans to vote for Harris in November regardless of where the vice president stands on policy issues. .

He said: “I will vote for Kamala Harris, because I feel that her, her beliefs are in line with what I believe.

Fragosa couldn’t identify a single Harris policy that stood out to him, but said he plans to do “some more research” even if it won’t change his vote.

“Right now, it’s almost like, well, I know what Trump believes, and I know that doesn’t line up with what I believe,” he said. “I know that he worked under the Biden administration as vice president, and I knew that a lot of the things that they followed and believed in were things that I believed in. them.”

Like Fragosa, Kyle Woody, an 18-year-old psychology major from Ashburn, Va., who studies at George Mason University, also said he doesn’t “know much about Harris’s tactics” but he may not be playing. a lot in the way he chooses.

“I don’t think Trump is a good person,” Woody said.

Even more experienced voters told The Post that politics did not play a big role in their voting decisions this election season.

In Las Vegas, Nev., Craig Wuest, a former Pentagon expert on nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, said he believes Trump is “a big threat in terms of the most democratic I have seen in my career.”

For Wuest, that, more than Harris’ policies, influenced his choice.

Pastor Tanesha Jordan Roberts of Las Vegas’ Greater Grace Global Church said she is a registered Republican but did not vote for “the top of the ticket” in several elections until 2020, when she pulled the trigger for Biden.

“I believe we just need to get back to politics being boring,” Roberts told The Post. “I probably won’t agree with 90 percent of what he says. But this is not a policy decision. This is about our democracy. This is about the rule of law. This is about our way out of the madness we are in. ”

Additional reporting by Ethan Dodd and Mark A. Kellner