Democrats defend Vice President Harris for not delving too deeply into politics during her compressed campaign, arguing that the tight time frame allows her to focus on broad issues.
The Democratic convention focused on issues ranging from freedom to patriotism, placed a bulky emphasis on biographies and history, and made a point of building on the momentum that underpinned Harris’ campaign.
Harris, however, has been criticized for her limited reporting on concrete policy measures.
Democrats argue that she can afford not to go into too much political detail because Americans want to know what her priorities are.
“We are really in the final stages of a campaign. We are both in the beginning and the final stages, and that is why the political pages are for the spring. Voters want to know which direction you are going,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told reporters in the Capitol this week.
“I really think it’s more honest with voters to say, ‘Here are the 10 things I’m going to work on,’ than to engage in false precision and publish a 700-page document with [legislative] The text is ready because the truth is that good presidents do what Biden, for example, did and say, ‘I want to pass an infrastructure bill, you think of it and I will sign it.'”
“The chief executive’s job is to set national priorities, work with the legislature and figure out what the market will bear,” Schatz continued. “This idea that we should release bills as if they were in their final form is something for 12 people who run podcasts.”
Republicans have joined in the criticism. Harris does not have a policy page on her website, and the Trump team has mockingly set up the site kamala2024policies.com, which says things like “abolish borders” and “end private health insurance.”
Harris’ allies say the criticism is a double standard. Republicans urged Trump to focus more on policy than on personal jabs at Harris, but the former president continued his personal attacks.
“The fact that this is even being talked about shows the double standards between Vice President Harris and Donald Trump. In just one month, Vice President Harris has run an impressive campaign full of vision and substance, laying out her plans to build the middle class and fight for freedom,” said Rachel Palermo, former deputy communications director and deputy White House counsel to Harris.
The vice president will give her first interview since launching her presidential campaign on Thursday. CNN reporter Dana Bash is sure to ask her about sensitive issues such as immigration, the economy and Gaza.
Harris also released cost-cutting proposals earlier this month, announcing them in a speech in Raleigh, NC
Harris’s Apartment plan calls for the construction of three million recent housing units, tax incentives for builders to build “starter homes” to sell to first-time buyers, and a $40 billion housing innovation fund for local governments.
Her Childcare plan would restore and expand the child tax credit, which was created in the 2021 American Rescue Plan and expired this year. It would work to provide up to $3,600 in tax credits per child and require up to $6,000 in tax relief for middle- and low-income families in the first year of their child’s life.
And she demanded a federal ban against price gouging by urging the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to investigate companies that violate these regulations.
One of the biggest challenges in implementing policy, Democratic officials say, is sheer timing, as Harris and her team must make hard decisions given the compressed time frame.
“We don’t have time for this crap,” one Democratic politician said of the idea of lengthy policy proposals. “The reason you talk about policy is to get the campaign back on values, and this campaign is about values now, so why distract?”
“One of the things about a 100-day campaign is that the Harris camp has the ability to be very precise in its policy proposals. They don’t have to overdo the progressive wish list,” the spokesman continued. “They have to be very smart and specific about policy ideas that address the most important concerns of voters, whether it’s lowering housing costs or food prices, fixing the tax system so it works for working people, or maintaining affordable health care.”
Still, Republicans have heavily criticized Harris since the end of the convention for avoiding questions about how her political stance has changed since her 2020 presidential campaign.
These changes include universal health insurance and fracking, two issues that Republicans are using to pressure their campaign.
“That’s one reason why she needs to go to the American people and answer those questions,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “Because the only basis on which they can conclude what she will be like as president is what she has done in the four years of this administration and what she herself said in the last campaign.”
Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has called Republicans want to get tougher on Harris on policy issues, focusing on her change of course on issues like fracking, which she does not support banning after declaring in 2019 that she supported it.
GOP members also believe that politics is on their side, especially on economic and border issues.
“Politics is your friend…that’s how you can win this race,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) said on CNN“Nothing will change with Vice President Harris.”
