Last week CNN’s KFile had a story pointing out just how opposed Kamala Harris was to a border wall before recently publishing a 30-second ad featuring the border wall. It was impossible to look at her past criticism and square it with the tough-on-immigration image being presented in the video.
This week the KFile is back with another deep dive into the policy positions Harris held prior to her current run for office. (Hat tip to my colleague David who spotted this before I did.) Back in 2019, Harris filled out an ACLU questionnaire in which she professed herself a fan of all manner of far-left policies, but once again her position on immigration seems most at odds with the one she is promoting now.
When asked about criminal justice reform on the questionnaire, she wrote she would end immigration detention facilities (along with private prisons). Harris also said she supported decreasing funding for ICE.
“Our immigrant detention system is out of control, and I believe we must end the unfair incarceration of thousands of individuals, families and children,” Harris wrote. “I was one of the first Senators after President Trump was elected to advocate for a decrease in funding to ICE.”
The push to abolish ICE was a far left campaign that really got started in 2018 on the far left. This sentiment was at its peak in mid-2019 when Willem Van Spronsen showed up at an ICE detention center in Tacoma, Washington with a gun and a bunch of Molotov cocktails. Van Spronsen was fatally shot by police.
Harris also pledged to end the use of ICE detainers which allow the group to pick up criminals from a jail rather than trying to find them in neighborhoods. We have one recent example from New York City of how failing to honor these requests can leave the door open for criminals to carry out additional crimes.
Getting back to the ACLU questionnaire, Harris also took far-left positions on other issues.
Harris also wrote that she supported taxpayer funding of gender transition surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners…
“It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition,” Harris wrote in a reply expanding on her answer.
Has Harris flip-flopped on all of these issues or just on immigration? It’s actually not possible to tell for certain. CNN contacted the Harris campaign for comment and instead of a quote from the candidate they got vague platitudes from an anonymous campaign advisor:
The Harris campaign did not answer questions from CNN on whether she continued to support these positions and instead provided a statement attributable only to an unnamed “Harris campaign advisor” saying, “The Vice President’s positions have been shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris Administration.”
They declined to elaborate on what her positions were.
They also provided a comment attributed to a Harris campaign spokesperson saying, “As President, she will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common-sense solutions for the sake of progress.”
Wow, that’s a spectacular bunch of nothing. Remember, this is the person who, in her only TV interview since becoming the nominee, said her values hadn’t changed. But her anonymous spox seems to be saying her positions have evolved. Maybe.
Or maybe they haven’t. That’s the beauty of a response this vague and unsourced. It could mean anything which is just another way of saying it means nothing.
There are no comments on the story but the response on X was telling. People attacked Andy Kaczynski as if he’d done something wrong by reporting it at all.
You paid in Russian or US currency?
— Banditti of the Prairie (@epicbret) September 9, 2024
Keep up your trashing of Harris while sane-washing Trump.
— Millennial Falcon (@MillennialF4lco) September 9, 2024
CNN reporters continuing to slosh shitty trump water on themselves and their reputations
— TerryAlfredo (@kevinmj76) September 9, 2024
And? Is this CNN’s big gotcha? Now do trump saying the other day that the mass removal of immigrants will be bloody.
— JEANNIE (@WorldPeace33334) September 9, 2024
You’re better than this garbage, @KFILE.
Tell the MAGA execs at @CNN if they want to push people like you to spew this garbage, you’ll walk.
— Shawn Peirce (@_silversmith) September 9, 2024
Yes, you read that right. Some of these sad folks believe CNN has gone MAGA. Or maybe it’s just Kaczynski who has gone MAGA.
the only thing this story is missing is an old-fashion drudge siren. this is a complete waste of bandwidth and makes you look like a maga stenographer. this is unworthy of you, do better, bro.
— Puck Buddys (@PuckBuddys) September 9, 2024
Interesting timing. I gave you more credit than this. Sadly, will unfollow.
— Morgan65 (@AriaGirl62) September 9, 2024
Take a long look in the mirror and ask yourself, How am I helping?
— Daniel (@CyranoKale) September 9, 2024
There’s a lot more of this but you get the idea. How dare someone at CNN actually report facts about Kamala Harris!
