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Kamala, Who Has No Policy Platform, Will Deliver Economic Speech That's 'Light on Details'

Kamala Harris (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
August 14, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris will be "relatively light" on the details of her policy platform during her speech this Friday, despite mounting pressure from voters for her to lay out her policies as the Democratic nominee.

Harris plans to "lay out an approach relatively light on details" and "outline a sort of reboot of the [Biden] administration’s economic agenda" in her economy-focused speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, Friday, according to four individuals familiar with Harris’s strategy, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Harris has yet to sit down for an interview or hold a press conference to discuss her policy vision since she emerged as her party’s presumptive nominee more than three weeks ago. Voters are eager to hear how Harris will pivot from her earlier positions, as the Biden-Harris administration holds one of the lowest approval ratings in history following significant spikes in inflation, illegal border crossings, and drug overdose deaths in the United States.

While she intends to "shift emphasis from Mr. Biden’s focus on job creation and made-in-America manufacturing, and toward efforts to rein in the cost of living," Harris "will rarely break from Mr. Biden on substance," the Times reported, citing the four individuals.

Harris’s decision to remain vague on policy is reportedly aimed at winning over business groups alienated by some of President Joe Biden's initiatives, while also minimizing potential targets for criticism, according to the outlet.

"My guess is that the vice president is going to look at this massive collection of Biden administration policies and emphasize the ones that are most important to her," said Ben Harris, a former Treasury official who worked on economic policy for Biden’s 2020 campaign.