Where Kamala Harris Stands on Key Issues

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris says she plans to eliminate taxes on tips, a policy already put forth by her contender Donald Trump. Here for the latest on this and more is Epoch Times political reporter Lawrence Wilson. Lawrence, good to have you with us. Based on this policy announcement over the weekend, can we expect Harris' upcoming official platform to be more moderate than her current positions? Tell us what you know so far. Well, I think you are going to see a more moderate version of Kamala Harris than what you saw in her, excuse me, in her original campaign back in 2020 when she was running for president. There she was touting some more progressive positions like banning fracking, for example, and defunding the police. She's moderated those since then. And especially now, now says she's in favor of fracking under certain conditions and doesn't want to defund the police, but does favor, for example, barring chokeholds and some reforms. So yeah, she's going to be a little bit more to the middle than what people may be expecting based on her previous statements. And tell us where Harris currently stands on economic and financial policy. Well, you mentioned the idea of, which President Trump came out with a while ago, of no taxes on tips. You're going to see her calling for lower taxes on working people and middle-income people, higher taxes on wealthier people and corporations. That's the basic line that she's taking on taxation, which is very similar to what President Biden has said. So if you make more than $400,000 a year in household income, or if you're an owner or a stockholder in a larger corporation, then you could see a tax increase under Harris administration. Working people are probably going to get some breaks if she has anything to say about it. And what about where she stands on other key policy issues, such as immigration and foreign policy? Well, on immigration, she is trying to walk a line between being pro-enforcement. She touts her record as an attorney general in California, prosecuting cartel members, international gangs, and so on. And so she says she wants strong enforcement of the border and a legal pathway to citizenship for immigrants. So it's kind of a both and. What that means in practice, she hasn't put a lot of definition to. It's just those big ideas out there for now. Whether that means closing down the border for illegal immigration or not, she hasn't said. But she says she talks the enforcement talk, but also wants to see legal pathways for citizenship. And do you think her new platform could be expected to include any areas of unity between Democrats and Republicans? It's hard to see where that would be. Maybe some on support for Israel. She talks strong support for Israel. She's trying to hold them accountable for the civilian casualties in Gaza, but says she strongly supports the right of Israel to defend itself as something very important to Republicans. She hasn't said much about Ukraine. Don't really know what she intends to do there. But it's hard to see beyond that, that there is going to be much overlap between the two platforms. Lawrence, you've been to several Harris campaign rallies over the past week. Based on what you've experienced there, what type of voters is she mainly bringing in? Does it seem to be largely loyal Democratic Party voters or are independents and undecided voters also showing up? It's largely Democratic voters, people who have already made up their mind that they're supporting Kamala Harris. Most of them seem to have been willing to support President Biden, although they're much happier now to have Harris as the nominee. There are some independents. I was meeting a few independents and a few undecided voters, but it's mostly Democratic voters. And they fit, I guess, what you'd call a profile of the Democratic Party. A lot of minority voters and a lot of what appear to be upper middle voters who are higher educated, meeting college professors, for example, at her rallies. What I didn't see was a lot of union people, working people, except at the rally in Detroit, which was in the evening. Of course, most of these rallies are held during the day, so anybody that is working a job has to be at it, has less discretion over their time. But mostly Democratic voters, as you would expect. And what are you hearing from those voters at the rallies about the benefits that they believe the Harris administration would bring to the U.S.? Well, some of them are touting specific things like education policy and specific policies, especially access to abortion. Mostly, it's just that they feel excited now to have a candidate that they think represents them better than President Biden did. And they feel, the word I hear is a sense of hope about the future. So they're excited after what had been kind of a sleepy campaign on the Democratic side. They're excited to see some energy in this campaign. Especially considering the polling just before Biden decided not to continue his campaign. All right. Thank you so much. That's all we have time for. Epoch Times political reporter Lawrence Wilson, good to speak with you. Thank you.