Vice President Kamala Harris continued her pivot to the middle during a highly anticipated CNN interview , one that risks alienating her from some progressive voters at election time.
Harris promised to include a Republican in her Cabinet and defended her pivots on issues including fracking and immigration. But she may have upset a particularly vocal group of voters with her remarks on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“No,” Harris said when asked if she would change policy regarding an arms embargo on Israel, a position hard-left Democrats have implored her to adopt. “We have to get a deal done. … When you look at the significance of this to the families, to the people who are living in that region, a deal is not only the right thing to do to end this war but will unlock so much of what must happen next.”
That comment could set off another round of conflict with pro-Palestinian groups which have protested at Democratic events since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel launched the conflict.
"The vice president’s statement was morally indefensible and politically shortsighted as the lack of American consequences for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s horrific assault on Palestinian civilians in Gaza has emboldened Israel to now invade the West Bank," Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, co-founders of Uncommitted, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. "Vice President Harris must align with the American majority that opposes sending weapons to Israel.”
Their dissatisfaction with Harris also flared up at the Democratic National Convention, when the Democratic National Committee chose not to have a Palestinian American address the convention. The pro-Palestinian group left the convention in frustration and protested outside instead.
The Uncommitted movement points to polling that supports its position, such as a CBS-YouGov survey from June that found 61% of respondents oppose the United States sending weapons and supplies to Israel.
Harris initially gave some hope to pro-Palestinian voters when she met with Netanyahu on July 25, just four days after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, and gave decidedly more skeptical remarks toward Israel than had her boss.
Harris pledged not to "look away in the face of these tragedies" and said "we cannot allow ourselves to be number to suffering, and I will not be silent."
The sentiment was clear, even if the policy details were not. In her DNC speech on Aug. 22, Harris again teased a more hard-line stance on Israel.
“I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on Oct. 7, including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival,” Harris said that night. “At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking.”
That rhetoric apparently will not translate into new policy, however, which risks turning off the sizable "Uncommitted" movement that claimed 30 delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
There is political danger for the fledgling candidate either way. If Harris pivoted to the left she would risk alienating the party's considerable pro-Israel contingent, including many Jewish voters. Another question is whether or not Harris could order an arms embargo even if elected.
When reports surfaced in early May that Biden had paused an arms shipment to Israel, Republicans and centrist Democrats in Congress exploded, with some even threatening impeachment by likening the situation to former President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial.
At issue was the fact that the shipment had been approved by Congress, and therefore Biden was seen as overstepping his constitutional authority in acting alone. Harris would face a similar revolt if she tried an embargo on her own. She could try to enact one by persuading Congress to go along with her wishes next year, but that would likely be an uphill climb.
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For now, Harris may have to continue trying to triangulate between the pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian factions of her party, stressing her sympathies with both sides as she tries to defeat Trump in November.
“I remain committed, since I’ve been on Oct. 8, to what we must do to work toward a two-state solution," Harris said on Thursday, "where Israel is secure and, in equal measure, the Palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity."
Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.
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