The 5 policy plans Kamala Harris could address in her interview

Vice President Kamala Harris faces big questions ahead of her first interview since she rose to the top of the Democratic ticket more than a month ago.

Beyond how she handles herself in her interview Thursday night at 9 p.m., there are many lingering questions over how she will campaign over the remaining few months of the 2024 campaign, how she would lead the country if elected and especially what policies she’d implement.

On the policy front, Harris has proposed her economic plan but she still hasn’t addressed a host of questions on how she’d address fracking, 'Medicare for All' or the role of technology in American’s lives.

Here are five policy questions Harris could address during the interview or ahead of November.

Price gouging

Harris pledged to combat grocery price gouging as part of her first big economic policy speech in mid-August. But her proposal is light on details. And it has become a target of Republicans, who claim she’s pushing “communist price controls,” while alarming some food industry officials and even some left-of-center economists , who’ve warned such policies can hurt more than they help.

In response to the pushback, Harris’ campaign has clarified that the goal is simply to target a small cohort of potential “bad actors,” rather than generate the kind of sweeping overhaul suggested by the plan’s initial rollout.

Brian Nelson, a top Harris economic adviser, told reporters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that the plan simply aimed to match up federal standards with so-called price gouging guardrails that already exist in 37 states — many of them Republican-led . Harris allies note in some of those states, it’s Republican officials who are the enforcers.

But those restrictions would only apply during emergencies, like the Covid pandemic, and largely just empower agencies to more aggressively go after pricing behavior far outside the norm.

“She’s going to work with Congress to ensure that it is directed at bad actors, bad activity,” Nelson said. “It’s not meant to set prices or price levels or anything like that. And that is not the way current state laws around price gouging are.”

Democratic lawmakers have also cautioned, in private, that price gouging legislation has no chance of passing Congress anytime soon, even if Democrats win the White House and Congress this November.

— Meredith Lee Hill

Fracking flip

Republicans have hammered Harris over her 2019 campaign promise to ban fracking, the technology that unlocked the gusher of oil production that has made the United States the world’s largest crude producer .

Harris has since flipped on that promise . But she still hasn’t explained what’s caused her to change her mind, whether it was an acknowledgement that she’ll likely need to win votes in gas-rich Pennsylvania to gain the White House or that the federal government is in fact mostly powerless to ban fracking because it generally takes place on private land.

Meanwhile, the campaign still hasn’t laid out how Harris’ energy policy would, if at all, contrast with Biden’s. The Biden administration has warred with the oil industry even as it has occasionally called on it to produce more to bring down gasoline prices. It has also paused new export permits for natural gas projects while boasting how existing exports helped Europe weather its own energy problems amid Russia’s war with Ukraine.

And the administration has highlighted the clean energy jobs created by Democrats’ signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, even as Republicans debate whether to put at least some of that legislation on the chopping block. Harris hasn’t talked about how she would navigate these challenges.

— Ben Lefebvre

What happened to ‘Medicare for All’?

Harris co-sponsored Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 'Medicare for All' legislation when she was a California senator and offered a modified plan as the centerpiece of her short-lived 2020 presidential bid. But her campaign says it’s no longer on her agenda.

Harris spokesperson Seth Schuster declined to comment on the 'Medicare for All' shift but told POLITICO Harris would take the “same pragmatic approach,” as the Biden administration has on policy, “focusing on common-sense solutions for the sake of progress."

On the trail, Harris has promoted accomplishments she shares with Biden, such as expanding access to the private insurance plans that serve Obamacare patients and negotiating Medicare drug prices.

The White House’s role in AI, China

One big tech and business issue facing the next administration will be whether to accelerate the development of powerful artificial intelligence systems, rein them in — or, somehow, both.

Harris's existing positions seem to put her in the "both" camp, raising questions of how she'll actually use the White House's bully pulpit and regulatory powers here.

As the Biden administration's sometimes-point person on the issue, she has publicly called for regulation to mitigate the near-term harms of AI. And she convened civil rights groups, union leaders and consumer protection advocates last July to discuss, among other things, AI's potential to embed bias in people-facing systems. That suggests moving with caution. But she also used her Democratic National Convention address to cheerlead for a homegrown industry, pledging that the U.S. will “lead the world” in AI, and she'll see that the country “wins the competition” for the 21st century against China.

Any indications in her speech about how she is attempting to balance the two will help define her position. AI industry insiders will be listening for how much input the White House wants to have in the development of powerful AI models; her appetite for export controls that affect how AI companies do business in China (and even some allies with Chinese ties); as well as what baseline regulation Harris would be willing to sign to rein in the worst excesses of the technology, including deepfakes.

— Mohar Chatterjee

The new antitrust crusade

Companies across the economy are worrying whether and how Harris will pick up the antitrust mantle from Biden.

Early in his presidency, Biden put CEOs and investors on edge with a forceful approach to blocking mergers and cracking down on other anticompetitive conduct. Harris has spoken out generally against price gouging and corporate greed but has so far offered few specifics.

Corporate America is hoping for a lighter touch, while populists on both sides are pushing to keep the tough enforcement regime going.

Things to watch for include any articulation of her stance on corporate consolidation, or any favorable references to Biden’s 2021 executive order on competition policy . The most important question — if least likely for her to answer concretely — would be whether she intends to keep antitrust hawk Lina Khan as chair of the Federal Trade Commission.

— Josh Sisco