Harris says there’s not much she’d have done differently than Biden over the last 4 years

(CNN) — Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday that she couldn’t think of anything she’d have done differently than President Joe Biden during the last four years, aside from having a Republican in her Cabinet.

“There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of – and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact, the work that we have done,” Harris said during an interview on ABC’s “The View” – a comment that was quickly seized upon by her Republican rivals and revealed the fine line the vice president must walk between being loyal to her boss and making the case to voters that she can usher in a new era in US politics.

While Harris has been running as the face of a new generation of Democratic politicians since taking over the top of the ticket from Biden in July, the answer shows a stark political problem for Harris: She’s running as a change candidate even though she has not revealed any major breaks that she would make with her boss. And given that Biden’s approval ratings are underwater – CNN’s Poll of Polls shows his approval rating at 40% and his disapproval at 55% – that is an issue for the Harris campaign.

In her answer on The View, Harris pointed to several policies under the Biden administration, including investing in American manufacturing industries and capping the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors, which she said she intends to expand to all Americans. She highlighted that they are “obviously two different people” with different life experiences.

The vice president later noted one way she would differ from Biden if she is elected president: “Listen, I plan on having a Republican in my cabinet,” Harris said.

“You asked me, what’s the difference between Joe Biden and me? Well, that will be one of the differences. I’m going to have a Republican in my cabin, because I don’t, I don’t feel burdened by letting pride get in the way of a good idea,” she said.

Breaking more with Biden is an ongoing debate within the campaign, as CNN reported on Sunday. But even as top advisers have pushed for ways to show and amp up differences – pointing to some specific poll numbers they’ve seen and the overall demand for change they sense in the electorate – Harris herself has held back.

Even on policies Harris has already announced that are clear differences from Biden – a change in the capital gains tax rate, and expanded child tax credit or a tougher border policy – the vice president has told aides in internal conversations she does not want to name these as differences with Biden because she thinks it could look disloyal, one Democrat who has spoken with told CNN on Tuesday.

Her answer to the popular ABC’s daytime talkshow quickly became fodder for the Trump campaign and its allies.

In a social media post, Trump himself said the border, US withdrawal from Afghanistan, inflation, the war in Ukraine, the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas “AND MUCH MORE” should all have been things Harris mentioned as what she would have done differently than Biden.

“Her dumbest answer so far!” Trump said, along with a myriad of insults aimed at the vice president’s intelligence and the hosts of “The View,” who he called “degenerates.”

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance criticized Harris for the remark.

“You’d think after all this time, all this time of thinking about how she would do things differently from Joe Biden, she would have a well-prepared answer for the interviewers on ‘The View.’ Well, they ask her one thing you would do differently from Joe Biden, you know what she says, ‘I can’t really think of anything off the top of my head,’” Vance said.

Digging at Harris’ intelligence, Vance said, “Now, in in her defense, I’m not sure she could think of anything off the top of her head, whether about Joe Biden’s policies or anything else.”

The Trump War Room X account posted a clip of that exchange and added three siren emojis. Trump ally Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton responded to the moment and posted on X, “A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for four more years of Biden’s policies on inflation, the border, and national security–only with even less competent leadership.”

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