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Beleidswijzigingen Harris infographic
Graphic shows four of Kamala Harris’ policy reversals: the death penalty, fracking, gun control and marijuana.
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POLITIEK

Harris krabbelt terug op cruciale beleidszaken

By Duncan Mil

August 19, 2024 - Vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has made several policy reversals, which have opened her to attacks by Republicans and tested her pitch to voters as a truth-teller.

During two decades in elected office and now seeking the presidency for the second time, Harris has not hesitated to stake out expedient and contrasting positions.

On matters that she has framed as moral issues -- the death penalty, fracking, gun control and marijuana -- Harris has made policy shifts.

“She is vulnerable to the charge of flip-flopping, no question about that,” said John Pitney, a professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College in California, who worked as a GOP congressional and political aide in the 1980s.

During a 2004 inauguration speech after she was elected San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris vowed to “never charge the death penalty.”

Four years later, after launching her campaign for California attorney general, Harris said she would ”enforce the death penalty as the law dictates.”

Harris also changed positions on marijuana and gun control.

In 2010, when she was running to become California’s top law enforcement official, she opposed allowing marijuana sales for recreational use. But in 2019, when she was running for president, she joked about having smoked the drug. “I did inhale,” she quipped during a radio interview.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 19/08/2024; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Getty Images, Primary Arms
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