CNN host Erin Burnett appeared surprised that Vice President Kamala Harris had at one point indicated that she supported “taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained illegal migrants” — a far cry from her more centrist positions that she has staked out during the current presidential campaign.
“She actually said she supported that?” Burnett asked CNN colleague Andrew Kaczynski during a segment on her nightly show on Monday.
Kaczynski had reported on Monday that Harris supported avowedly liberal positions when she filled out a questionnaire distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2019, when she was a US senator representing California.
According to CNN, Harris backed taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for undocumented migrants and federal prisoners as well as decriminalizing federal drug possession for personal use.
“It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition,” Harris wrote in the questionnaire.
She touted her record as California state attorney general, when she “pushed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide gender transition surgery to state inmates.”
“Transition treatment is a medical necessity, and I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment,” she added.
Harris also wrote in the questionnaire that she favored drastic funding cuts for Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that is tasked with rounding up and deporting undocumented migrants.
In the ACLU form, Harris also indicated that she backed an “end” to immigrant detention centers.
“Our immigrant detention system is out of control, and I believe we must end the unfair incarceration of thousands of individuals, families and children,” Harris wrote in the questionnaire.
She pledged that “as president, I will focus enforcement on increasing public safety, not tearing apart immigrant families.”
“I was one of the first Senators after President Trump was elected to advocate for a decrease in funding to ICE.”
“This includes requiring ICE to obtain a warrant where probable cause exists as to end the use of detainers.”
The ACLU sent the questionnaire to all Democratic and Republican candidates who ran for the presidency in 2020.
Harris that year sought the Democratic nomination for president, but she bowed out of the race before voting began in primaries and caucuses.
Joe Biden eventually won the nomination and went on to defeat then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Harris has only granted one interview since it was announced that Biden would not seek a second term — effectively handing her the nomination.
She has been criticized for reversing her policy positions from years prior as well as declining to answer questions as to what her positions are in the present day.
The Harris campaign declined to say whether the vice president holds the same positions today as she did in 2019.
A Harris campaign advisor told CNN that “the vice president’s positions have been shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris administration.”
The campaign declined to elaborate.
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