CNN host Erin Burnett seemed surprised that Vice President Kamala Harris had previously suggested she would support “taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery for illegal immigrants in custody,” a departure from the centrist positions she has taken during her current presidential campaign.
“Did she actually say she supports that?” Burnett asked her CNN colleague Andrew Kaczynski on her show Monday night.
Kaczynski is reported on Monday Harris openly supported liberal positions. When she answered the questionnaire It was distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2019, when she was a senator from California.
According to CNN, Governor Harris has supported taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery for illegal immigrants and federal prisoners, as well as the decriminalization of drug possession for personal use under federal law.
“It is important that transgender people who rely on state care receive the care they need, including access to treatment related to gender transition,” Harris wrote in the questionnaire.
She touted her record as California's attorney general, “pressuring the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide sex-reassignment surgery to state inmates.”
“Transitional care is medically necessary, and I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential health care to provide transitional care,” she added.
Harris also wrote in the survey that she supports making deep cuts to the budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency tasked with apprehending and deporting illegal immigrants.
In her ACLU filing, Harris also stated she supports “abolishing” immigrant detention centers.
“I believe our nation's immigration detention system is out of control and that the unjust incarceration of thousands of individuals, families and children must end,” Harris wrote in the questionnaire.
She vowed that as president, her focus will be on strengthening public safety, not on tearing apart immigrant families.
“I was one of the first senators to advocate for defunding ICE after President Trump was elected.”
“This includes requiring ICE to obtain warrants when there is probable cause to end the use of detention.”
The ACLU sent a survey to all Democratic and Republican candidates running for president in the 2020 election.
Harris sought the Democratic presidential nomination that year but withdrew from the race before primary and caucus voting began.
Joe Biden ultimately won the nomination and defeated then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Harris has given just one interview since Biden announced he would not seek a second term, effectively handed the nomination to her.
She has been criticized for reversing policy positions from years ago and for refusing to answer questions about her current positions.
Harris' campaign declined to comment on whether the vice president still holds the same position as she did in 2019.
“The vice president's position has been shaped by three years of effective governance of the Biden-Harris administration,” a Harris campaign adviser told CNN.
The campaign declined to provide details.
