Flip-flop? Harris under scrutiny for changes to past stances

(The Center Square) – Vice President Kamala Harris was once anti-fracking and opposed to former President Donald Trump’s tough immigration policies.

Now, it’s apparently a different story.

In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash this week, Harris was asked about the change in her stance on fracking. Fracking is a major industry and economic driver in the swing state of Pennsylvania, a state where Harris is up a slim 0.8%, according to Real Clear Politics’ polling average.

Harris said during a town hall in 2019 that there is “no question” she supports banning fracking. During the CNN interview, Harris said she does not want to ban fracking and that she “made that clear on the debate stage in 2020.”

“As vice president I did not ban fracking, and as president I will not ban fracking,” Harris said.

Harris has previously said she supports a ban on fracking, offshore drilling, and plastic straws. She also said she supports passing the Green New Deal, which includes a treasure trove of far-left energy policies.

Harris’ inconsistency on the fracking issue has drawn criticism.

”If Kamala Harris can so quickly reject her firm energy positions from the past, there is no telling how quickly she’ll renounce today’s positions in the future,” Daniel Turner, who leads the energy workers advocacy group, Power the Future, said in a statement. “Just like Vice President Harris abandoned her support for Joe Biden after telling the American people he was perfectly fine, she will abandon any position she pretends to have now. Harris is bankrolled by green billionaires who want to ensure the funding of their pet projects continue, so it’s beyond clear that she doesn’t care about the truth of her energy positions, she cares only about keeping the tax dollars flowing.”

During the same CNN interview, Harris said those who illegally cross the border should face “consequences.”

“We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally,” Harris said. “And there should be consequence. And let’s be clear, in this race, I’m the only person who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who traffic in guns, drugs, and human beings. I’m the only person in this race who actually served a border state as attorney general to enforce our laws. And I would enforce our laws as president going forward. I recognize the problem.”

However, Harris posted on then-Twitter in 2017 that “an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.”

Harris had also mocked Trump’s border wall during the Trump administration as a “vanity project” but has now expressed her support for a Senate immigration bill that allocates $650 million for building the border wall.

“Funding Trump’s unrealistic border wall would be a gross misuse of taxpayer money,” Harris wrote on Twitter in April of 2018.

A year earlier, Harris called Trump’s wall a “ stupid use of money” and pledged to “block any funding for it.”

It is possible the border wall funding was a concession Harris was willing to make rather than a policy goal.

However, any policy changes are notable since Harris has offered unusually few details on her platform if she were elected president.

Harris’ main campaign website offers no policy platform, and her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention largely avoided policy specifics.

Trump took a jab at Harris at a recent rally on this point.

“Now she’s saying ‘oh we want to build a strong border,’” Trump told his supporters. “Where has she been for three and a half years as we took in 20 million people, many of them horrible criminals?”

Harris is not alone in announcing new policy ideas, apparently to appeal to moderate voters. Trump announced at a recent rally that IVF treatments should be free to women, either paid for by insurers or the government.

• By Casey Harper | The Center Square