What Kamala Harris should say in her first sit-down interview

After enduring weeks of blistering criticism from Republicans, the Trump/Vance ticket, and members of the media (including this one), Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz are finally sitting down for a joint interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Aug. 29.

Despite Democratic push-back that this wasn’t even necessary, but in fact either merely a concern confined to the Beltway or the self-important press, it appears the Harris campaign inevitably agreed that venturing outside of the comfortable quarters of her rallies was needed.

And it’s important — voters deserve to hear from both candidates where they can be challenged by a skilled journalist on their past records and their future agenda.

But besides what an interview can do for voters is what it can do for Harris.

First, she can vanquish a top Republican talking point, which is that she’s too scared to sit down for interviews.

Former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have been hammering their lack of interviews for weeks, all while sitting down with various journalists themselves, friendly and otherwise, including Bash. The contrast was becoming a problem for Harris/Walz, and the credibility of Democratic surrogates who defended their media avoidance was beginning to sound strained.

That talking point loses its sting the moment that interview wraps.

Second, Harris can avenge some past performances that weren’t so positive for her. Namely, the 2021 Lester Holt interview in which she seemed overwhelmingly under-prepared, testy and dismissive about immigration and the border, an issue that was and still is top of mind for voters.

While her nascent campaign has had to hit the ground running, she’ll have hopefully had time to prepare thoughtful answers to the questions she should know are coming, not just on the border, but the economy and crime as well. She can’t dismiss voters’ fears this time but must acknowledge their concerns are real, and she hears them.

She can also hopefully avoid some of the word-salad answers she’s given in the past — if she just speaks plainly and directly, she can assure voters she knows what she’s talking about.

What about her flip-flops?

Third, she has to address her flip-flops.

Bash will undoubtedly ask about one or more of her noteworthy policy “evolutions” over the years, including:

On the border wall — she once called it "un-American" and Trump’s "medieval vanity project," and has now pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a wall along the southern border.

On fracking — she was once an ardent opponent and now her campaign said in a statement that she would not ban fracking.

On the Biden economy — as vice president, she’s naturally supported Bidenomics and is now reportedly trying to distance herself from policies that contributed to inflation.

On policing— she once praised a movement to defund the police, and now says she opposes it.

On health care — she once supported eliminating private health care in favor of "Medicare for all," and her campaign now says that’s not part of her agenda.

While everyone is allowed to change their mind, including politicians, it’s the "why" that needs explaining.

And rather than contort herself to invent substantive reasons for her evolution, which might open her up to critiques of her prior judgment, I would tell her to simply say that she’s campaigning to be the president of everyone, not just the far left, and wants her policies to reflect where a majority of Americans are. And that unlike her opponent, she won’t force unpopular policies down voters’ throats.

That would accomplish a fourth thing: appealing to moderates. With a newly energized Democratic base, the left is already with Harris. She has to win over undecided, moderate and independent voters in swing states. She can do that by showing she’s more practical than ideological.

Fifth and finally, she can get under Trump’s skin. As we all know by now, the two things he cares most about are crowd sizes and ratings — if she gets major tune-in, as I suspect she will, it will bother him more than any insult or indictment.

There are less than two weeks until the Sept. 10 debate in Philadelphia — a lifetime in politics and a vacuum Harris is smart not to leave for Trump to inhabit alone. This interview, if used effectively to do those five things, could be the bridge event her campaign needs to keep the DNC momentum rolling through to the debate.

Either way, this will be the first serious test of her campaign and her candidacy. Flunking or acing it could mean the difference in November.

S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.

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