Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday pledged to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet if elected, saying she believes it would be crucial to hear from different viewpoints while in office.
“I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences,” she said in an interview with CNN. “And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”
The commitment came as part of an extended sit-down with CNN, which marked her first major television interview since she became the likely Democratic nominee in late July. Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also participated in the interview, which was conducted in Savannah, Georgia.
In an initial excerpt released on Thursday afternoon, Harris also downplayed instances in which she’s changed her policy positions, insisting that her values remain the same as when she first ran for president in 2019.
Harris as well offered a brief dismissal of GOP nominee Donald Trump’s assertion that she “happened to turn Black” after ignoring that part of her heritage, calling it part of the “same old, tired playbook,” according to CNN.
The full interview, which is set to air later Thursday evening, is expected to span a series of topics including the economy, foreign policy and the decision by President Joe Biden to abandon his reelection bid and instead endorse Harris for the Democratic nomination.
Harris had faced growing pressure to sit for an interview in recent weeks, amid questions about the specifics of her policy ambitions and vision for her administration. Harris has so far largely embraced Biden’s agenda and vowed to build on it, while declining to specify areas where she would break from the current president, both in her domestic priorities and her approach to foreign relations.
In the interview excerpt, Harris told CNN that “my values have not changed,” even as she’s abandoned her support for policies she supported in 2019, like Medicare for All and a ban on fracking.
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” she said, pointing to the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act that included a series of climate provisions. “I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.”
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