On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Andrew Kaczynski, the Senior Editor of CNN’s KFile discussed his reporting and stated that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris has gone from threatening prosecutions of oil companies the last time she ran for president to now touting oil production and stated that “she has flip-flopped on a lot of issues related to energy.” Kaczynski also attributed these flips to polling that shows climate change ranks towards the bottom of issues that are important to voters and the fact that Pennsylvania is a crucial state in the election.
Host Erin Burnett began by stating that the campaign is touting oil and natural gas production and “this is a very sharp turn from where Harris once stood on this issue not so very long ago.”
She then said to Kaczynski, “So, Andrew, pounding the table for the U.S. oil industry and oil production, but not the way it always was. What did you find?”
Kaczynski responded, “Yeah, that’s right, Erin. And this really shows sort of just how far left Kamala Harris got in that 2019 Democratic primary when she was running with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), she was making this extremely bold promise that she was going to take the U.S. oil industry, possibly criminally prosecute them for their role in climate change. She compared it to big tobacco, saying they knew the effects of climate change, but they hid it from the public. Now, what we saw there, fast forward to 2024, what are her and Tim Walz doing? They are touting the record domestic oil production from those same oil companies during the Biden-Harris administration.”
Burnett then said, “Obviously, that is extremely different than what she is presenting right now. But this isn’t the only thing that she’s flipped on that you found, and you found a lot of other inconsistencies.”
Kaczynski responded, “Yeah, she has flip-flopped on a lot of issues related to energy. … She said she was going to ban plastic straws. She said she was going to ban fracking — we have heard a lot about that –, and she said she would eliminate the filibuster to pass the Green New Deal. … And now why is she doing this, Erin? Well, a recent poll that came out from Gallup actually shows that climate change ranks as the second least important issue to voters in that poll. And obviously, Pennsylvania, where we’re seeing a lot of the fracking stuff, is a very important state.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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