6 takeaways from Harris' interview on CNN

Vice President Harris sat for her first interview Thursday night since entering the presidential race five weeks ago. It was joint with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, but she did most of the talking.

The interview, conducted by CNN’s Dana Bash on the campaign trail in Georgia, was seen as an important step in what’s been a highly successful – and highly scripted – campaign to this point.

So how did she do? Here are six takeaways:

1. Harris passed the test of doing an unscripted interview

From a strictly performance standpoint, Harris was clear, calm and didn’t get rattled when pushed about changes to her positions on certain issues.

In some past interviews, she came across as defensive, but that wasn’t the case here. She seemed comfortable and in command, which is important for a presidential candidate who people are still getting to know.

She also continued to show a degree of relatability. For example, she talked about making pancakes and cooking bacon for her nieces when President Biden called to inform her of his decision to drop out of the race.

2. Democrats are likely breathing a sigh of relief about how Harris will do in a debate, but there’s some cleaning up to do

Debates are often about optics and not substance, which the first debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump showed. In this interview, when Bash pushed Harris on some position changes, Harris showed she’s mostly able to parry attacks adequately.

Harris and her team will probably want to clean up her response as to why she changed her position on fracking, though, and stick to something clearer. Simply saying, “My values have not changed,” likely won’t suffice. Politicians can change positions, but people expect to hear why in a