Washington
CNN
—
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sat down with CNN anchor Dana Bash on Thursday for the first formal interview of their campaign.

Bash directed most of the questions to Harris. Here is a fact check of some of Harris’ responses, including a misleading statement and an exaggeration.


Bash noted that Harris said, while running in the Democratic presidential primary in 2019, that “there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” When Bash asked if she still wants to ban fracking, Harris responded: “No, and I made that clear on the debate stage in 2020 – that I would not ban fracking. As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.”

Harris’ Stance on Fracking

When Bash again noted that Harris said in 2019 that she supported a ban on fracking, and asked Harris if she changed her mind during that campaign (which Harris ended in December 2019), Harris said, “In 2020, I made very clear where I stand. We are in 2024 and I’ve not changed that position, nor will I going forward.”

Facts First: This is misleading. Harris did not make her position on fracking clear during her only debate in 2020, the general election’s vice presidential debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence; Harris never explicitly stated a personal position on fracking during that debate. Rather, she said that Joe Biden, the head of the Democratic ticket at the time, would not ban fracking if he was elected president.

Harris said in the 2020 vice presidential debate: “Joe Biden will not end fracking”; “I will repeat, and the American people know, that Joe Biden will not ban fracking.”

It made sense that Harris was addressing Biden’s plans at the time given that the president sets administration policy. But contrary to her claim on Thursday, neither of these 2020 debate comments made clear that she personally held a different view on the subject than she had the year prior.