Vice President Kamala Harris did not get grilled in her sit-down with MSNBC‘s Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday, but the interview did signal the ways in which Harris plans to blunt former President Donald Trump‘s perceived advantage on the economy in November.
Much of the interview with Ruhle focused on Harris’s stance on tariffs, corporate tax rates, and how best to address the struggles of working- and middle-class voters. At one point, she even used her past stint as a fast food worker to contrast her upbringing with that of Trump.
“It was not a small job,” Harris said as she pushed back against Trump’s repeated claims that she didn’t work at McDonald’s.
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Later on, the vice president touched on topics including immigration and abortion. Here are the top takeaways from her second solo interview of the campaign cycle, filmed in Pittsburgh.
Harris defends economic agenda to blunt Trump edge
Before the MSNBC interview, Harris had given a speech outlining her policies on growing the middle class at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh.
She has in some polls eaten into the advantage Trump enjoys on the economy but will face voters in November as consumers still grapple with a post-pandemic surge in the price of goods.
The vice president used the Ruhle sit-down to reiterate her proposals, among them not raising taxes on anyone making less than $400,000, expanding the Child Tax Credit, creating 3 million new housing units for rent, and helping first-time home buyers with $25,000 for a down payment.
But Harris also had strong criticisms of how Trump would handle the economy, slamming his embrace of high tariffs on corporations that move their business out of the United States. The Biden administration has generally kept the tariffs Trump levied as president intact, but Trump has promised to go further if elected to a second term.
“Well, part of it is you don’t just throw around the idea of just tariffs, across the board, and that’s part of the problem with Donald Trump,” Harris said.
“I say this in all sincerity, he’s just not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues,” Harris continued. “And one must be serious and have a plan, any real plan, that’s not just about some talking point ending in an exclamation at a political rally. But actually putting the thought into what will be the return on the investment, what will be the economic impact on everyday people.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment by press time but has accused Harris of pursuing a socialist agenda despite her pivot to the right on some issues, citing the views she held in her first run for president in 2019.
Harris also stated that billionaires should “pay their fair share” as she was questioned about the economy. Ruhle briefly asked about her plan to ban price-gouging for groceries, criticized by Republicans as price controls, but Harris did not revisit the proposal.
“I am not mad at anyone for achieving success, but everyone should pay their fair share,” Harris said. “And it is not right that the teachers and the firefighters that I meet every day across our country are paying a higher tax than the richest people in our country.”
When asked about her time at McDonald’s, Harris suggested Trump is an out-of-touch billionaire who does not represent the middle class. The two candidates have dueled for the working-class vote with proposals that would cut taxes, including on tip wages.
“Part of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald’s is because there are people who work at McDonald’s in our country who are trying to raise a family,” she said. “And I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people, and what our responsibility, then is to meet those needs.”
Harris headed to US southern border
The vice president will head to Douglas, Arizona, a border state, on Friday, which Ruhle brought up during the interview.
Harris largely repeated her past statement calling for immigration reform and a pathway for citizenship as voters name illegal border crossings as one of their top concerns heading into November.
“We do have a broken immigration system, and it needs to be fixed,” she said before blaming Trump for scuttling a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year.
The Senate bill would have put more border agents on the border, stemmed the flow of fentanyl, and increased the standards for migrants looking for asylum in the U.S.
“Donald Trump got word of the bill, realized it was going to fix a problem he wanted to run on, and told him to kill the bill. Don’t put it up for a vote,” said Harris. “My pledge is that when elected president, if the American people will have me. I will bring that bill back, and I will sign it into law.”
Meanwhile, Trump and other Republicans have blamed Harris for the record number of crossings since President Joe Biden took office, calling her the “border czar” due to the role she played in investigating the root causes of illegal immigration.
Trump made his own trip to the border in August.
Harris says women can ‘trust’ her
Recently, Trump claimed that he would “protect” women in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
But Harris used the interview to remind viewers that Trump appointed the three conservative justices that helped strike down Roe, which guaranteed a federal right to an abortion.
“Donald Trump is also the person who said women should be punished for exercising a decision that they rightly should be able to make about their own body and their future,” said Harris.
“And now in state after state, you see laws being passed that do punish women,” she continued, pointing to a ProPublica article detailing the death of Amber Nicole Thurman, a woman in Georgia who died after doctors waited to perform a dilation and curettage procedure, fearing prosecution under the state’s restrictive abortion laws.
“The thing about Donald Trump is that, you know, I don’t think the women of America need him to say he’s going to protect them. The women of America need him to trust them,” said Harris.
When Ruhle asked if women can trust Harris, she responded, “Yes, I am not perfect. But I will tell you I’m always going to put the needs of the people first.”
The Trump campaign’s war room account on X felt differently. “No we can’t. She is weak, failed, and dangerously liberal,” the account responded. Trump, who has committed not to pass a federal abortion ban, has repeatedly embraced the role he played in Roe being overturned, arguing voters in each state should decide the limits they impose on the procedure.
Harris shows caution with MSNBC interview
The Trump campaign began slamming the Ruhle interview as an another example of Harris dodging tough questioning from the national media.
Harris has limited the number of national media interviews she is willing to engage in since replacing Biden as the nominee.
Of the few interviews Harris has down with before a national audience, most have been with friendly allies including Ruhle.
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She sat down with former talk show host Oprah Winfrey last week for a “Unite for America” rally in Michigan a month after Winfrey endorsed Harris at the Democratic National Convention.
In less friendly interviews, Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) sat down for a joint interview with CNN’s Dana Bash in August. Harris also faced a moderated panel of journalists with the National Association of Black Journalists this month.
