Buttigieg: ‘It Makes Sense’ for Harris to Flip on Positions, There’s a Lot of ‘Change’ in World, Administration

On Tuesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who appeared in his personal capacity, responded to 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris abandoning multiple positions from her previous presidential run like her support for Medicare for All and a ban on fracking by saying that “your time in government and just the evolution of the situation around you means it makes sense to continue developing your policies.” And there’s been a lot of “change and dynamism…not just in the administration, but just in the world around us right now.”

Co-host Steve Inskeep asked, [relevant exchange begins around 4:40] “Here’s something that I think Harris has not directly addressed: She has changed some of her positions since she ran for president in 2020 — or leading up to 2020. She was for Medicare for All, isn’t anymore. She was against fracking, is now in favor of it. As someone who has worked with Vice President Harris, how do you think about her change, or evolution, if that’s the word?”

Buttigieg responded, “Well, I think your time in government and just the evolution of the situation around you means it makes sense to continue developing your policies. I don’t think any of us locks in amber or freezes what we would have said or thought years earlier, especially given how much change and dynamism there is, not just in the administration, but just in the world around us right now. But she’s very clear about her plans, clear about what she’ll do. And this isn’t just theoretical, because she has been such a key leader in the Biden-Harris administration, delivering a very clear, and, I would argue, very consistent policy approach.”

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