Vice President Kamala Harris recently took the stage at a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania, where she sharply criticized former President Donald Trump and outlined her vision for the future.
Addressing high grocery prices, immigration reform, and support for building more border walls, Harris declared that her administration would prioritize tackling inflation and implementing significant policy changes. She appeared to distance herself from President Joe Biden’s policies for the first time.
Moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the town hall replaced the second presidential debate of the 2024 campaign. Trump has “declined” to participate in either a town hall or a debate.
The event featured questions from undecided voters, providing some of the most candid exchanges of the campaign. With less than two weeks until Election Day and millions of early votes already cast, most polls indicate a very tight race.
“Some cast votes for Joe Biden in 2020, others for Donald Trump,” Cooper said of the 32 voters who participated in the town hall. “Some didn’t vote at all.”
Right out of the gate, the 2024 Democratic nominee argued that her Republican rival is “unstable” and “unfit to serve.”
“Understand what could happen if Donald Trump were back in the White House,” Harris warned.
Here are some key takeaways from the town hall:
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Cooper asked Harris whether she considers Trump a fascist. “Yes, I do,” she said, adding that prominent figures from his own political party have also been critical of the former president.
“And I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted,” Harris said. She noted that some Republicans, like Liz Cheney, have endorsed her.
Harris also pointed to senior military leaders who served under Trump, including former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Trump’s former White House chief of staff, retired Marine general John Kelly, who have said the former president is a fascist.
A voter asked Harris how she would address antisemitism. The vice president highlighted her efforts to combat hate crimes and advocated for new laws to prevent future attacks.
When Cooper asked if she thought Trump was antisemitic, Harris responded, “I believe Donald Trump is a danger to the well-being and security of America.”
Asked if she would be more pro-Israel than Trump, Harris criticized his foreign policy, including his admiration for authoritarian figures, and more. “We know who he is. He admires dictators, sending love letters back and forth with Kim Jong Un.”
She slammed him for allegedly sending COVID-19 tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin “for his personal use.”
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Harris acknowledged that “the price of groceries is still too high” when asked by a voter about inflationary issues.
She emphasized her priority to bring prices down, highlighting her work combating price gouging when she served as California’s attorney general and her new plan to enact a “national ban” on the practice.
Also, Harris reiterated her plan to build affordable housing units to reduce rent prices. “I bring to it my experience, knowing what has been happening in terms of corporations buying up blocks of property to diminish competition, and then rents get jacked up,” she said.
Harris said both sides of the aisle haven’t done enough, stating, “For too long… Democrats and Republicans haven’t done enough to deal with the issue of housing. We need a new approach.”
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Harris ridiculed Trump for not delivering on his promise to construct a border wall along the U.S. southern border and have Mexico cover the costs.
“I think of what he did and how he did it didn’t make much sense because he didn’t do much of anything,” she said.
At one point, a registered Republican voter, leaning towards supporting Harris, asked how she would ensure that “every immigrant to the U.S. is integrated into American society safely” and what benefits and subsidies they would receive, including the cost to American taxpayers.
Harris said, “Let’s start with this: America’s immigration system is broken, and it needs to be fixed.” She also pointed to her support for a bipartisan border bill that Trump had blocked in early 2024.
But Cooper questioned her past support for decriminalizing border crossings. Harris firmly stated, “I never intended, nor will I ever allow, America to have a border that is not secure.”
A Harris administration won’t be ‘a continuation of the Biden administration’
Harris has been mum when asked about what she’d do differently in office than Joe Biden during previous interviews.
During the town hall, Harris changed her approach and seemed more comfortable distancing herself from the Biden administration. If elected, she said she wouldn’t strictly follow Biden’s policies.
“I bring a whole set of different experiences to this job and the way I think about it than Joe Biden,” Harris said. “My administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration.”
She added: “I bring to this role my own ideas and my own experience. I represent a new generation of leadership on a number of issues and believe that we have to actually take new approaches.”
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