Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., gave a candid answer when asked about Vice President Kamala Harris flip-flopping on several of her progressive policy positions with less than two months to go until the November election.
“She has previously supported Medicare-For-All, now she does not. She’s previously supported a ban on fracking, now she does not. These, senator, are ideas that you have campaigned on. Do you think she is abandoning her progressive ideals?” NBC anchor Kristen Welker asked Sanders on “Meet the Press.”
“No, I don’t think she’s abandoning her ideals,” he replied. “I think she’s trying to be pragmatic and doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election.”
HARRIS SHIFTS KEY POSITIONS ON BORDER, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AS CAMPAIGN PROMISES ‘PRAGMATIC’ APPROACH
Since emerging as the Democratic nominee, Harris has distanced herself from far-left policies on immigration, energy and health care that she previously embraced.
When asked to defend her shifting policy positions during her first sit-down interview as the nominee in August, Harris said her “values have not changed.”
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash. “You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time. We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act.”
“We have set goals for the United States of America, and by extension, the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” Harris continued.
“That value has not changed. My value around what we need to do to secure our border, that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the attorney general of California prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, violations of American laws regarding the passage, illegal passage, of guns, drugs and human beings across our border. My values have not changed,” she said.
On NBC, Sanders said his views were “slightly different” than Harris’, but he still considers her a “progressive” with similar goals.
49 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS YET TO DO FORMAL PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE
“She has another approach toward moving to universal health care,” Sanders said about Harris no longer supporting Medicare-For-All.
“But again, I think on issues like expanding Medicare, like expanding Social Security and lifting the cap on taxable income that the rich put so we can raise Social Security benefits… the need to raise the minimum wage from a starvation, $7.25 minimum wage to a living wage… I think if you campaign on those issues, raising questions on billionaires, you know what? She’s going to win, and I think she can win big,” he continued.
Sanders reiterated that he believes Harris to be a “progressive” before listing policies they share support for.
“Look, she and I – she is not where I am, but I think, for example, when she talks about making the child tax credit permanent and you know, we did that in the American Rescue Plan. We lowered childhood poverty by 40%. Kristen, we should not have, as the richest country on earth, one of the highest rates of childhood poverty. When she talks about 3 million units of affordable housing, that’s a big deal because we have a major housing crisis in America. When she talks about passing the PRO Act to make it easier for workers to join unions, that’s a big deal because we have to expand the union movement so the workers get decent wages. So yes, her views are not mine, but I do consider her a progressive,” he added.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
A campaign spokesperson previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that Harris had changed several of her key policy positions and was taking a “pragmatic” approach to “bring all sides together.”
“While Donald Trump is wedded to the extreme ideas in his Project 2025 agenda, Vice President Harris believes real leadership means bringing all sides together to build consensus,” spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement. “It is that approach that made it possible for the Biden-Harris administration to achieve bipartisan breakthroughs on everything from infrastructure to gun violence prevention. As President, she will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common-sense solutions for the sake of progress.”
A Harris campaign adviser told Fox that her positions have been “shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris administration.”
Harris and former President Trump will meet Tuesday at a debate hosted by ABC News.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
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