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The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House
Kamala Harris said she could not think of anything she would have done differently from Joe Biden on Tuesday, as she struggled to differentiate herself from the president and his policies during a blitz of interviews ahead of the November election.
The Democratic presidential candidate told The View, a daytime talk show, that she and Biden “were different people” who had “a lot of shared life experiences”.
But when asked what she would have changed compared to Biden over the past four years, Harris said: “There is not a thing that comes to mind . . . and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.”
Harris’s comments risk undercutting some of her recent success in casting herself as a candidate of change in comparison to Trump, the 78-year old former Republican president who is running for a second term in the White House.
Later in the programme, Harris changed her answer to say she would bring in a member of the opposing party into the top ranks of her government, which Biden never did.
“You asked me what’s the difference between Joe Biden and me, that will be one of the differences — I am going to have a Republican in my cabinet. I don’t feel burdened by letting pride get in the way of a good idea,” she said.
Harris had hoped to use her appearance on The View to unveil a new proposal to expand the social safety net to include home-care services for older people, an effort to outflank Trump on the economy and healthcare.
“While people may experience declining skills to some extent . . . they want to stay in their homes; they don’t want to go elsewhere,” Harris said. “For families, sending a loved one to a residential care facility or hiring someone can be prohibitively expensive.”
The plan is intended to appeal to 105mn Americans who, according to a campaign official, are caring for both children and ageing parents. It comes as Harris and her Republican rival Trump are locked in a fierce battle to win the backing of middle-aged and older undecided voters.
In the 2020 election, Trump narrowly defeated Biden with voters over 45, according to CNN exit polls, but this year the picture is different. An NPR/Marist poll released this month found Harris was narrowly beating Trump with “baby boomers” — born roughly between 1946 and 1964 — and older voters, but is trailing with Gen X voters born between 1965 and 1980.
At present, long-term healthcare needs for seniors are often covered through costly private insurance schemes.
In recent years, healthcare has been a winning issue for Democrats as they have fought Republican efforts to undo then-president Barack Obama’s expansion of affordable healthcare coverage, and enacted measures to limit the cost of certain drugs such as insulin.
The senior Harris campaign adviser did not say how much the new home care benefit would be worth but added that the cost would be covered by savings resulting from government deals with pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug prices.
