Since the sudden departure of Joe Biden from the presidential race, Kamala Harris has been quickly shoring up support and getting her policy positions in order in preparation for the general election.
To this end, now-presidential candidate Harris has recently made efforts to walk back a previous stance she supported on mandatory gun buybacks when she was a primary hopeful back in the 2020 election cycle.
Past Ideas
A New York Times article published Monday documented how positions further to the left that Kamala Harris used to have in her campaign four years ago may come back to haunt her as she gears up for a potential general election fight against Donald Trump.
“The archive is deep,” said Republican strategist Brad Todd. “We will run out of time before we run out of video clips of Kamala Harris saying wacky California liberal things. I’m just not sure that the rest of this campaign includes much besides that.”
Shedding Progressive Policies
Now, in comments to The Reload published Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign has clarified that Harris no longer supports one policy that used to set her apart: mandatory gun buybacks.
“Correct, the VP will not push for a mandatory buy back as president,” Lauren Hitt, a Harris spokesperson, told The Reload. “She has expressed support for red flag laws, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.”
Previous Stance
In 2019, Harris toyed with the idea as a Democrat primary candidate of instituting mandatory assault weapon buybacks if she was sworn in as president. Up until recently, Harris seemed to still be supporting and making allusions to the idea of gun confiscation as a solution to American gun violence.
“In our country today, the leading cause of death of American children is gun violence. Gun violence has terrorized and traumatized so many of our communities in the United States. And let us be clear, it does not have to be this way — as our friends in Australia have demonstrated,” Harris said at an event last October alluding to Australia’s gun confiscation efforts in the 1990s.
Past Interview
In an interview during the last election cycle, Harris asserted it was necessary to have a gun buyback program and pushed for it to be mandatory.
“We have to do a buyback program. I support a mandatory buyback program,” Harris said. “There are 5 million [assault weapons] at least, some estimate as many as 10 million.”
Banning Assault Weapons
Harris has since pivoted away from some past policies, instead recommitting her support for an “assault weapons ban” since announcing her new candidacy.
“They have the nerve to tell teachers to strap on a gun in the classroom while they refuse to pass commonsense gun safety laws,” Harris said at an American Federation of Teachers rally last week. “We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.”
Nebulous Definition
The term “assault weapon” is not clearly defined in politics and has no clear consistent definition, leaving open the possibility of it being strictly applied against many types of firearms.
A 2003 paper from the Department of Justice defines an assault weapon as a “civilian, semiautomatic version of a military weapon,” but this definition can vary widely in state and federal law, making regulation difficult.
Weapons of War
In a clip posted to X by Harris last year, she asserted that “assault weapons have no place on the streets of a civilized society.”
“Assault weapons: these are weapons of war,” Harris said. “These are weapons that were designed to kill a lot of people quickly.”
Criticism of the Term
Some online in responding to Harris’ fervor against assault weapons complain about the term being vague.
“‘Assault weapon’ is an incredibly vague term that can be applied to anything that government deems ‘dangerous,’ said an X user.
Walking Back Other Stances
As more attention is being brought to Harris’ past progressive stances she held as a primary candidate, the Harris campaign has been quick to come out and reverse course.
Last week, the campaign pledged that Harris no longer wanted to ban fracking, an issue that was central to her energy policy in her last campaign.
Swing State Considerations
Harris’ about-face on fracking comes as she plans to do battle with Trump in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, which heavily relies on it for its economy.
“Energy is the lifeblood of Pennsylvania’s economy, and our sector works hard every day to safely deliver affordable, clean and reliable energy for our country and the world,” said Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Callahan about a 2023 study showing the importance of natural gas to the state’s economy. “This new economic data, focused specifically on the natural gas sector within Pennsylvania’s borders, not only demonstrates the essential role of the natural gas industry but also the urgency to prioritize infrastructure development and permitting reform to maximize these job-creating benefits.”
Trump’s Criticism
Trump has seized on this weakness, hitting Harris hard on her fracking stance at a recent campaign rally.
“She pledged to ban fracking — no fracking, oh, that’s going to do well in Pennsylvania, isn’t it?” said Trump. “Remember, Pennsylvania, I said it. She wants no fracking. She’s on tape. The beautiful thing about modern technology is when you say something, you’re screwed if it’s bad.”
Hiding Her Stance
At a campaign rally, Trump accused Harris of hiding her real stance on fracking.
Trump said: “She said, ‘I’d never said that about fracking‘, then we played 90 tapes – there will be no fracking.” A spokesperson for the Harris campaign told Politico via email: “She would not ban fracking.”
A Distraction
Trump pinned Harris down on her pledge to ban fracking during her 2019 campaign for the primaries at a rally in Minnesota.
The Harris campaign responded in a statement: “Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class.” The statement said the “Biden-Harris Administration passed the largest ever climate change legislation.”
Lies on the Campaign Trail
Harris’s stance on fundamental issues is becoming increasingly obfuscated as Trump espouses falsehoods in his campaigns.
He made several falsehoods about the Biden administration’s energy policy, including that it includes a mandate forcing all Americans to buy electric vehicles. This is not true despite long-term goals from the EPA to encourage motorists to switch to electric cars.
Dialing Back on the Border
Harris has not just pivoted on gun rights and environmental policy. She has also reeled in her position on the border.
During the 2020 election cycle, Harris publicly expressed her support for decriminalizing illegal border crossings. Now, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign said that her position is more aligned with Biden’s administration. The spokesperson maintained that “unauthorized border crossings are illegal.”
Biden’s Stance on Illegal Immigration
Harris has aligned her position on the border more with Biden’s administration as the 2024 election has come into full swing.
Biden recently moved to increase immigration-related prosecutions and has leaned toward potential criminal penalties for illegal border crossings. A Harris campaign advisor said her positions have been “shaped by three years of effective governance.”
A Border Czar
Harris has come under fire for her role as Vice President while illegal crossings from Mexico have reached an all-time high.
Trump’s campaigns in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin have homed in on her previous statements about the border. Trump said that Harris is Biden’s “border czar” because of her particular focus on the border since 2021.
A Change in Stance
Trump’s advertisement attacks Harris’s previous position on migration in the U.S. In the past, she has called for a more humanitarian approach.
In 2021, she said: “This issue cannot be reduced to a political issue. We’re talking about children, we’re talking about families, we are talking about suffering.” However, this year, her campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said that Biden’s border crackdown “will continue” under Harris.
A Major Weakness
Some Democrats are concerned that the border is a serious weakness for Harris.
The border is a hot-button issue for states like Arizona that Harris needs to reel in to win the election. A campaign spokesperson said: “Kamala Harris has spent her career taking on and prosecuting violent criminals and making our communities safer. She’ll do the same as president.”
Listening to All Sides
Harris is facing criticism from Republicans for backpedaling on her more left-leaning positions. However, her spokespeople have commended her pragmatism.
Campaign spokesperson, Mia Ehrenberg, said: “While Donald Trump is wedded to the extreme ideas in his Project 2025 agenda, Vice President Harris believes real leadership means bringing all sides together to build consensus. As president, she will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common-sense solutions for the sake of progress.”
Medicare Mayhem
Harris has also backtracked on her position toward healthcare since before the presidential race.
In 2017, Harris co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-All bill, which would have scrapped private healthcare in the U.S. and replaced it with a publicly funded national health service. Since then, she has pulled back on this stance. She now suggests that private medical debt cannot be a factor in formulating a person’s credit score.
Positions on Policing
Harris has advertised herself as a tough-on-crime prosecutor since the early days of her presidential campaign at the beginning of July.
In her first major speech as a presidential candidate this year, she said she “took on perpetrators of all kinds” as California’s district attorney. She has also pivoted away from her statement in 2020 that cities should “redirect resources” away from police departments in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd.
Answering to Republicans
Undoubtedly, Harris is going to have to answer to the criticisms coming her way from Republicans.
On the surface, her change in position may show uncertainty in her conviction. However, her new loyalty to Biden’s administration could be part of her attempt to win over moderate and independent voters. This is especially true in swing states like Pennsylvania, which will be essential to winning the presidency.
