During Thursday's “CNN Newsnight” broadcast, CNN senior political commentator and former adviser to President Obama David Axelrod said that Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, took a number of positions during the last presidential election that “didn't really reflect what I was comfortable with and didn't seem to connect with the words that were being spoken,” but only because she was told to do so by political consultants.
Axelrod began his segment by praising Harris for how she handled questions about policy changes.
Later, when the topic turned to Harris' shift in immigration policy, Axelrod said, “The reason Harris didn't make it to 2020 is because she took a number of positions that were cutting-edge political advice that she didn't actually believe in and she didn't seem to be consistent in what she was saying,” before being interrupted by moderator Abby Phillips.
Elsewhere on the show, Axelrod said Harris was a “pragmatic progressive” and believed the Democratic Party had changed course on immigration.
Afterwards, columnist Scott Jennings, a former senior Bush administration official and CNN political commentator, asked Axelrod, “What do you think about this?[Y]You said she did what she did in 2019 because she was getting cutting edge political advice. If you didn't know anything about this person who wanted to be president, would it bother you to know that he may have certain instincts and values, but that he was willing to put those aside because he had political consultants?
Axelrod interjected, “I guess my answer is that she finds some solace in the fact that they have values and principles and they're not completely transactional. And that's what differentiates her from the candidate she's running against.”
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