Critics say Kamala Harris has run a campaign long on style and short on substance. The media, they complain, has given her a pass. Late Sunday evening, her campaign finally published an issues page on her website. We still suspect that David Muir and Linsey Davis, the ABC News anchors tasked with moderating Tuesday’s debate, the only one scheduled between the two major party presidential nominees, will be gunning for the vice president, eager to show that they are fair and balanced.
So Harris and her team have holed up in Pennsylvania for nearly a week of debate prep. Here are answers to some anticipated questions for Harris. If she hopes to prevail when she comes face-to-face with Donald Trump tomorrow night, she must account for her own policy changes — and flip the spotlight back onto the 78-year-old former president and convicted felon.
INFLATION AND AFFORDABILITY
Q: Vice President Harris, let’s start with the economy. As you know, poll after poll shows you trailing Donald Trump on the economy. What do you say to Americans who think their families will do better under former President Trump?
A: I say, “I am the underdog fighting for you, the hardworking people and your family.” I am the candidate who grew up without being given a thing. I worked at McDonalds and made my way up the ladder of opportunity in America.
I know what it’s like to have a hard time making ends meet and I also know that millions of Americans are experiencing that right now. Look, we’ve made a lot of progress in fighting inflation. But I also know that there is more that we need to do.I promise that I will take that fight personally. I know the price of bread, eggs, and the food Americans consume. I pay attention to the price at the pump for gasoline. I will go after price gouging that is costing you in the grocery store and the fuel pump. Donald Trump won’t. He will protect profits for his friends, the owners of the oil companies and the big grocery chains, profits that are already through the roof.
They even admit it. Last week, Andy Groff, Kroger’s head of pricing, said in an email that Bloomberg News obtained – I’m quoting now – “On milk and eggs, retail inflation has been significantly higher than cost inflation.” Translation: “We’ve raised prices way higher than our costs, gouging consumers.”
I won’t stand for that.
I am a believer in capitalism, but it’s fair capitalism that I believe in. I want a federal government that does what some state law already does – imposes fines on big companies that exploit crises to gouge hardworking Americans
As for my opponent, the only capitalism he believes in is crony capitalism: profits for the rich and problems for the poor.