Sawt Falasteen - Harris says in first interview US ready to move on from Trump

Harris, 59, aimed to stake out a centrist position on CNN, insisting that she will be tough on illegal immigration and support controversial oil and gas fracking -- but not abandon her longtime liberal values.

The first female and Black and South Asian vice president described Trump as "pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans, really dividing our nation."

"I think people are ready to turn the page on that," she said. "People are ready for a new way forward."

The Democrat also said that she would name a Republican to her cabinet if she wins November's election, in her joint CNN sit-down with her running mate Tim Walz.

Trump meanwhile branded Harris the "greatest flip-flopper" as he addressed a rally in the swing state of Michigan, before mocking her appearance in the interview.

"She didn't look like a leader to me," the Republican said.

Harris rejected criticism that she has shifted positions on politically sensitive issues including fracking, which she once opposed but now supports, and illegal migration over the Mexican border, where she has taken a harder line.

"As president I will not ban fracking," she said -- clearly aiming to settle the controversy in fossil-fuel-rich Pennsylvania, one of the vital battleground states in what's expected to be a tight election.

Addressing criticism that she had been too soft on immigration -- a core part of Trump's message -- Harris said that as president she would sign tough legislation.

Harris is reaching for centrist voters worried by immigration and fuel costs. But in a nod to her left-leaning supporters, she insisted that she had not fundamentally shifted.

"My values have not changed," Harris said.

On another hot-button topic on the US political landscape, Harris urged a ceasefire in Gaza, but told CNN that she would not change President Joe Biden's policies for key US ally Israel, including deliveries of weaponry.

- Honeymoon period? -

Republicans had criticized Harris for not giving any interviews since Biden abruptly dropped out of the White House race nearly six weeks ago, following mounting concerns over his health and age at 81.

Harris has enjoyed a honeymoon period with surging polls and record fundraising, but has also faced scrutiny for keeping many of her policies vague as she pulls her campaign together.

Harris gave the interview while on a campaign bus tour of Georgia, one of the seven battleground states that are expected to decide the November 5 election.

A number of polls out Thursday showed Harris ahead of Trump, if only marginally, with several of them finding increased support for Harris in battleground states.

A Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll found Harris leading in six out of the seven swing states while a Fox poll also showed increasing support in the battlegrounds.

At a rally in Savannah at the end of the two-day swing in Georgia, which Democrats flipped from Trump in 2020, she admitted it was "going to be a tight race until the very end."

Trump has himself been hitting the campaign trail hard in recent days, after a period where the 78-year-old former president appeared to struggle to find his footing against a new, younger, female candidate.

Speaking at an event in Potterville, Michigan on Thursday, Trump targeted Harris on her immigration policy shifts: "Now she's saying, 'Oh we want to build a strong border."

"Where has she been for three and a half years?"

Harris and Trump are set to face off in their pivotal first debate on September 10 in Philadelphia.

J.AbuHassan--SF-PST