中美创新时报

哈里斯成为民主党总统候选人后首次接受采访的要点

【中美创新时报2024 年 8 月30 日编译讯】(记者温友平编译)卡马拉·哈里斯成为民主党总统候选人后首次接受采访的最大亮点很简单:她接受了采访。《波士顿环球报》记者James Pindell 对此作了下述报道。

CNN 的 Dana Bash 主持了哈里斯和她的竞选搭档明尼苏达州州长蒂姆·沃尔兹的联合采访,总共持续了不到 30 分钟。

没有重大失态或重大政策声明。她也没有暗示她可能会如何与现任老板乔·拜登总统不同地执政。

总体而言,哈里斯团队对结果感到满意。然而,他们可能会质疑为什么他们将采访的风险提高到不必要的程度。

对于那些错过采访的人,以下是一些要点:

哈里斯和她的竞选活动让她遭遇了巨大的失败

哈里斯和她的团队犯下的第一个(也是唯一的)错误是让采访受到如此多的炒作。他们没有悄悄地将采访内容以印刷形式发布,没有任何铺垫,而是给她施加了不必要的压力,让她避免哪怕是最小的失态。

毕竟,美国政界的每个人都在关注。反对者准备抓住任何可能将采访变成本月新闻的机会。

哈里斯并没有遭遇巨大的失败

最终,哈里斯和沃尔兹在采访中没有造成任何伤害。鉴于采访时间短,以及电视活动的专业基调,到周末很可能就会被遗忘。

那么,她到底说了什么?

她被问及从她参加 2020 年民主党初选(她于 2019 年底退出)到她突然成为 2024 年提名人期间,她做出的多次反复。

例如,在宾夕法尼亚州战场州的热门话题水力压裂问题上,她政治上很聪明。作为 2019 年的候选人,她赞成禁止水力压裂,这是一种通过一些公共卫生和环境专家质疑的方法开采天然气的过程。但在采访中,她说她自 2020 年以来一直反对禁令,并在辩论阶段也这么说。

是什么改变了?她成为拜登的竞选搭档并支持拜登的议程。她在 2020 年副总统辩论中对水力压裂说了什么?她说拜登不会禁止水力压裂,但不一定支持这一立场。

“乔·拜登不会结束水力压裂。他对此非常清楚,”她当时说。

哈里斯还承诺,如果当选,她的内阁中将包括一名共和党人,但她没有具体说明是谁或担任哪个角色。

“距离这次选举还有 68 天,所以我不会本末倒置,”她说。“但我想我会的。我认为这真的很重要。我的职业生涯都在邀请意见的多样性。我认为在做出一些最重要的决定时,让拥有不同观点和经历的人参与进来很重要。我认为我的内阁中有一名共和党成员将有利于美国公众。”

当她被问及几周前唐纳德·特朗普 (Donald Trump) 的评论时,他表示她只是“碰巧变成了黑人”。哈里斯回答说:“还是老一套。请问下一个问题。”

拜登打电话给哈里斯的那一刻

CNN 主播达娜·巴什 (Dana Bash) 首次询问副总统卡马拉·哈里斯 (Kamala Harris) 拜登打电话告诉她他将退出 2024 年连任竞选并支持她的那一刻。哈里斯说,接到电话时,她正和家人(包括她的小侄孙女)一起吃早餐。

“我的家人和我们住在一起,包括我的小侄女,我们刚吃完煎饼。你知道,‘阿姨,我可以再吃点培根吗?’‘好的,我会给你做更多的培根。’我们正要坐下来玩拼图游戏时,电话响了。是拜登打来的,他告诉我他决定做什么,”哈里斯回忆道。

哈里斯提到,她问拜登是否确定他的决定,表达了对他的关心,而不是对自己和支持,她暗示从未真正怀疑过这一点。

那沃尔兹呢?

沃尔兹在谈话中基本上是个旁观者,很少插话。他被问了几个直接的问题。当被问及他的“第一天”议程时,他说他完全支持哈里斯的议程,特别是与儿童税收抵免有关的议程。

沃尔兹还被问及他过去一些陈述中的矛盾之处,包括声称他曾在战斗中服役、未能准确讨论 1995 年酒后驾车被捕事件,以及他错误地声称他和他的妻子使用了体外受精,而实际上他们使用了不同的生育治疗方法。他回答说:“我当然会为自己犯的错误负责。”

然而,沃尔兹试图避开关于他曾在战斗中服役的问题,将讨论转移到学校枪支暴力的话题上。“在这种情况下,我在谈论的是校园枪击事件后携带这些战争武器的想法。我的妻子纠正了我的语法,所以这是准确的,”沃尔兹说。

他还被问及他的儿子格斯,他在民主党全国大会上情绪激动。“那真是一个发自内心的激动时刻。我很感激我能经历这一切,我为他感到骄傲,”沃尔兹说。

题图:副总统卡马拉·哈里斯在芝加哥举行的民主党全国代表大会上。Al Drago/Bloomberg

附原英文报道:

Takeaways from Harris’s first interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee

By James Pindell Globe Staff,Updated August 29, 2024 

Vice President Kamala Harris during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.Al Drago/Bloomberg

The biggest moment from Kamala Harris’s first sit-down interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee was simple: she did the interview.

The joint interview with Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, was conducted by CNN’s Dana Bash and lasted less than 30 minutes in total.

There were no major gaffes or significant policy announcements. Nor did she offer any hints about how she might govern differently from her current boss, President Joe Biden.

Overall, Team Harris had to be pleased with the outcome. However, they might question why they raised the stakes of the interview higher than necessary.

For those who missed it, here are a few takeaways:

Harris and her campaign set her up for an epic failure

The first (and only) mistake Harris and her team made was allowing the interview to receive as much hype as it did. Instead of quietly releasing an interview in print, without any buildup, they created unnecessary pressure for her to avoid even the smallest gaffe.

After all, everyone in the American political class was watching. Opponents were ready to seize on anything that might have turned the interview into the story of the month.

Harris didn’t epically fail

In the end, Harris and Walz did no harm in the interview. Given its short length and the professional tone of the television event, it will likely be forgotten by the weekend.

So, what did she actually say?

She was asked about a number of flip-flops that she has made from the time she ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primary (she dropped out in late 2019) to the moment she was suddenly the nominee in 2024.

On the question of fracking, for example, a hot topic in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, she was politically clever. As a candidate in 2019 she favored banning fracking, a process of extracting natural gas via methods some public health and environmental experts have questioned. But in the interview, she said she has been against a ban since 2020 and said so on the debate stage.

What changed? She became Biden’s running mate and supporting Biden’s agenda. And what did she say about fracking in the 2020 vice presidential debate? She said Biden wouldn’t ban fracking, not necessarily that she supported that stance.

“Joe Biden will not end fracking. He has been very clear about that,” she said then.

Harris also committed to including a Republican in her cabinet if elected, though she did not specify who or for which role.

“I’ve got 68 days to go until this election, so I’m not putting the cart before the horse,” she said. “But I would, I think. I think it’s really important. I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made who have different views and experiences. And I think it would benefit the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”

When she was asked about Donald Trump’s comment weeks ago that she had only “happened to turn Black” recently. Harris responded, “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.”

The moment Biden called Harris

CNN anchor Dana Bash asked Vice President Kamala Harris, for the first time, about the moment Biden called to tell her he would be dropping out of the 2024 race for reelection and endorsing her. Harris said she was wrapping up breakfast with her family, including her young grandnieces, when she received the call.

“My family was staying with us, including my baby nieces, and we had just finished having pancakes. You know, ‘Auntie, can I have more bacon?’ ‘Yes, I’ll make you more bacon.’ We were about to sit down to do a puzzle when the phone rang. It was Biden, and he told me what he had decided to do,” recounted Harris.

Harris mentioned that she asked Biden if he was sure about his decision, expressing more concern for him than for herself and the endorsement, which she implied was never really in doubt.

What about Walz?

Walz was largely a bystander during the conversation and didn’t interject himself much. He was asked a few direct questions. When asked about his “day one” agenda, he said he fully supported Harris’s agenda, especially as it related to child tax credits.

Walz was also questioned about discrepancies in some of his past statements, including a claim that he served in combat, his failure to accurately discuss a 1995 drunk driving arrest, and his false assertion that he and his wife used in vitro fertilization when they actually used a different fertility treatment. He responded, “I certainly own my mistakes when I make them.”

However, Walz attempted to pivot away from the question about his combat service claim, shifting the discussion to the topic of gun violence in schools. “I was talking about, in this case, after a school shooting, the idea of carrying these weapons of war. And my wife, namely, corrected my grammar, so that was accurate,” said Walz.

He was also asked about his son, Gus, who became emotional at the Democratic National Convention. “It was just such a viscerally emotional moment. I’m just grateful I got to experience it, and I’m so proud of him,” said Walz.

Exit mobile version