Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was candid when asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ repeated backtracking on her progressive policy positions less than two months before the November election.
“She used to support Medicare-For-All, but not anymore. She used to support a ban on fracking, but not anymore. Senator, these are ideas that you campaigned on. Do you think she’s abandoning her progressive ideals?” NBC anchor Kristen Welker asked Sanders on “Meet the Press.”
“No, I don’t think she’s giving up her ideals,” he said. “I think she’s trying to be practical and doing what she thinks is right to win the election.”
Harris shifts major stance on border, illegal immigration, promises ‘pragmatic’ approach in campaign
Since emerging as the Democratic nominee, Harris has distanced herself from the far-left policies she previously supported, including on immigration, energy and health care.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Vice President Harris’s decision to abandon far-left policies “is pragmatic” in order to “win the election.”
When asked to defend her changing policy positions during her first interview as a candidate in August, Harris said her “values have not changed.”
“The most important and meaningful aspect of my policy views and decisions is that my values have not changed,” Harris told CNN’s Dana Bassey. “You mentioned the Green New Deal. I’ve always believed that the climate crisis is real and urgent, and I’ve been working on it. We have to have metrics that include meeting deadlines on time. We did that with the inflation reduction act.”
“We’ve set goals for the United States and the world by centered around a certain threshold for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Harris added.
“Those values haven’t changed. My values about what we need to do to secure our borders haven’t changed. I spent two terms as California attorney general prosecuting violations of U.S. law regarding organized crime, guns, drugs, and the illegal movement of people across our borders. My values haven’t changed,” she said.
Sanders told NBC that his views are “slightly different” from Harris’s, but he still considers her a “progressive” with similar goals.
Day 49: Kamala Harris has yet to hold a formal press conference since she emerged as the Democratic nominee.
Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont) and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images)
Sanders said Harris no longer supports Medicare-For-All because “she has a different approach to moving to universal health coverage.”
“But again, I think on issues like expanding Medicare, expanding Social Security, raising the income cap so the rich can increase their Social Security benefits… We need to raise the minimum wage from a hunger wage of $7.25 to a living wage… If you campaign on those issues and question billionaires, you know? I think she’ll win, and I think she’ll win big,” he continued.
Sanders reiterated that he believed Harris was a “progressive,” then listed the policies they support.
“She and I — she’s not where I am, but, for example, when she talks about making the child tax credit permanent, and you know, we did that in the American Rescue Plan. We reduced child poverty by 40 percent. Christine, we should not be the wealthiest country on earth having one of the highest rates of child poverty. When she talks about 3 million affordable housing units, that’s a big deal, because we have a serious housing crisis in the United States. When she talks about passing the PRO Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize, that’s a big deal, because we need to expand the union movement. So yes, her views are not my views, but I consider her a progressive,” he added.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
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Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, disembark from their campaign bus in Savannah, Georgia, on August 28, 2024, as they begin a two-day campaign bus tour across Georgia. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
A campaign spokesperson previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that Harris had shifted some of her key policy positions and was taking a “pragmatic” approach to “bringing all the pieces together.”
“While Donald Trump has been fixated on extreme ideas in his 2025 agenda, Vice President Harris believes that true leadership means bringing all sides together to build consensus,” spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement. “It’s this approach that has allowed the Biden-Harris administration to build bipartisan consensus on everything from infrastructure to gun violence prevention. As president, she will take the same pragmatic approach, focusing on common-sense solutions to drive progress.”
A Harris campaign adviser told Fox that her stance was “shaped by three years of effective governance under the Biden-Harris administration.”
Harris and former President Trump are scheduled to meet in a debate hosted by ABC News on Tuesday.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
