AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In her light-speed campaign for the presidency, Vice President Kamala Harris has cleared another threshold - the sit-down interview. She was pressed by CNN's Dana Bash to defend shifts and policy positions from earlier in her career. And as NPR's Tamara Keith reports, she further explained her definition of change.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: On its face, it's a stretch for the sitting vice president to run as a change candidate. After all, she is a member of the current administration. In the CNN interview, Harris said she is running...
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: To bring America what I believe the American people deserve, which is a new way forward and turn the page on the last decade of what I believe has been contrary to where the spirit of our country really lies.
KEITH: Bash jumped in with the obvious follow-up question.
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DANA BASH: Of course, the last 3 1/2 years has been part of your administration.
HARRIS: I'm talking about an era that started about a decade ago, where there is some suggestion - warped, I believe it to be - that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down instead of where I believe most Americans are, which is to believe that the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.
KEITH: That's a not-so-subtle reference to former President Trump and his long trail of insults and zero-sum policy prescriptions. But as she campaigns, Harris doesn't dwell on her opponent. During a two-day bus tour through eastern Georgia this week, what emerged was a campaign where the idea of change is as much about attitude as anything else. You might expect the vice president to create separation from the less popular president she's trying to replace. But Harris isn't running away from President Biden or the policies of their administration, though her campaign is much more positive and forward-looking than his was.
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KEITH: When Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, walked into the Sandfly BBQ restaurant in Savannah, they were smiling. Walz earnestly told a group of schoolteachers, quote, "our politics can be hopeful. It doesn't have to be negative." The next day, at Dottie's Market, in a different section of Savannah, Harris admired a caramel chocolate cake as supporters excitedly mirrored her campaign messaging right back at her.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: We're not going back.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: We are not going back.
KEITH: At yet another event with campaign volunteers, a woman named Carly Shaw told Harris how excited her daughter was about her candidacy. So taking a page from the Joe Biden political handbook, Harris suggested getting her on the phone. After a few rings...
HARRIS: Madison. Madison, it's Kamala.
KEITH: Madison Stanley, on the other end of the line, lives in Wisconsin, another key swing state this election year.
HARRIS: Well, we're in it together. So we have 68 days to go, 68 days.
MADISON STANLEY: Oh, I'm counting down every single one. All my friends are voting for you. I'm up in Wisconsin. We have your back.
KEITH: When Harris said in the CNN interview that she was offering the American people a new way forward, that wasn't a spontaneous turn of phrase. Those words are printed big and bold on the side of her campaign bus and were displayed on a giant banner behind the stage at her rally in Savannah last night, a rally where 7,500 people stood in line in the rain to get inside to see her.
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HARRIS: And we will move forward.
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: Ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom.
KEITH: Not going back has become a rallying cry of the Harris campaign. In American presidential politics, voters have repeatedly chosen the candidate who represents change. In this unusual election cycle, you have a former president and the current vice president both trying to tell voters they are the one who represents the change they're looking for.
Tamara Keith, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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