Vice President Kamala Harris muddied her attempt to be the 2024 election‘s change candidate, telling ABC’s The View she would not change anything about President Joe Biden‘s administration.
Since Biden adhered to Democratic pressure and endorsed Harris to be the party’s replacement nominee in July, the vice president has tried to portray herself as this cycle’s change candidate compared to former President Donald Trump as voters tell pollsters the country is headed in the wrong direction.
But during a live, in-studio interview with the daytime talk show, Harris did not distance herself from the unpopular incumbent president, except to promise to have a Republican in her Cabinet.
“We’re obviously two different people, and we have a lot of shared life experiences,” she told the hosts. “There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of [anything that she would have done differently to Biden], and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact on the work that we have done.”
Trump has argued that if Harris wanted change, she would have enacted it during nearly four years of power with Biden. Trump’s team promoted the clip, with Trump senior adviser Jason Miller posting: “How glorious is it that The View of all shows killed Kamala Harris’ candidacy? Karma!”
How glorious is it that The View of all shows killed Kamala Harris’ candidacy? Karma!pic.twitter.com/icF7s4URvg
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) October 8, 2024
Harris’s pledge to have a Republican in her Cabinet is stronger language in contrast to a similar statement she made in August when she told CNN during her first sit-down that she was amenable to the idea.
“That will be one of the differences,” she said on Tuesday in comparison to Biden. “I’m going to have a Republican in my Cabinet because I don’t, I don’t feel burdened by letting pride get in the way of a good idea.”
Former President Barack Obama had multiple Republicans in his Cabinet, including former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, and former Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald.
Harris’s promise also coincides with her appeal to Republicans to support her and not Trump, holding campaign events last week with former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and reminding them about the former president’s lowest political moments, such as his response to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
But one Republican Harris has not experienced any success appealing to is Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). In a possible preview of the 2028 race, the pair have feuded during the past two days regarding whether they should talk on the telephone as Hurricane Milton barrels toward the Sunshine State, months before the 2024 election and one week after Hurricane Helene killed more than 200 people in the Southeast.
“I have called and talked with, in the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, Democrat and Republican governors,” Harris told The View. “I just can’t stress enough, this hurricane coming to Florida is, it is predicted to be historic in terms of how serious and devastating it will be. And I urge every and anybody who is watching, or has family members in that area, please, please, please, take seriously your local officials’ admonition to you. If they’re telling you to evacuate, get your stuff and go.”
After weeks of not speaking with the news media, Harris’s appearance on The View is part of a new, more aggressive media strategy amid criticism that, despite her campaign coddling her from tough interviews, her poll numbers against Trump have tightened. Trump and Harris average within the margin of error in all of the seven battleground states, according to RealClearPolitics.
Harris’s performance on The View demonstrated her broader political bind about being a change candidate, too. The vice president needs to distance herself from Biden but, without a traditional primary process and given her own, at times, more liberal record, cannot put too much space between them.
With The View’s audience dominated by middle-aged and older women, Harris used the opportunity on Tuesday to announce her proposal to expand Medicare to include at-home care for seniors — a pitch to the “sandwich generation,” or adults raising children who are looking after their own parents as well. Earlier in the week, Harris participated in an episode of the Call Your Daddy podcast, whose audience is younger women, and on Tuesday afternoon, she will do the same for Howard Stern’s nationally syndicated radio show, whose audience is men.
A senior Harris campaign official contended that almost one-quarter of the U.S. population is a member of the sandwich generation and that a disproportionate number of them are undecided voters. More than 105 million people in the United States are caregivers for loved ones, according to the aide.
Harris framed her proposal around her personal experience of caring for her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who died from colon cancer in 2009.
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Right now, Medicare does not cover long-term senior services and assistance, including home healthcare, except in some circumstances. The average out-of-pocket cost of a home carer is almost double the income of the typical Medicare beneficiary, per the Harris campaign.
The Harris campaign proposes that the new benefit can be fully paid for by simultaneously expanding Medicare drug price negotiations, increasing the discounts drug manufacturers provide for certain brand-name drugs in Medicare, cracking down on hidden pharmacy benefit manager costs, and other measures.