Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro heavily criticized Vice President Kamala Harris following her “trainwreck” interview on CNN last week, as well as her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Pirro joined fellow Fox host Sean Hannity, and the two picked apart the interview and noted several policy “flip flops” by the vice president, which they speculated were due to her desire to appear less radical left and more moderate to be electable.
“Here’s what she told the network about how her position on fracking has changed,’” Hannity began before playing the CNN segment where Harris was asked about the issue after previously stating for years that she was against “hydraulic fracturing,” a technique used to extract oil from shale rock pioneered in the United States.
CNN’s Dana Bash asked: “In 2019, you said, ‘There is no question I am in favor of banning fracking,’ as you know, a pretty big issue, particularly in your must-win state of Pennsylvania. Do you still want to ban fracking?”
Harris responded: “No, I made that clear on the debate stage in 2020 that I would not abandon fracking as vice president. I do not abandon fracking; as president, I will not ban fracking.”
Bash followed up by asking: “In 2019, I believe in a town hall you said you were asked, ‘would you commit to implementing a federal ban on fracking your first day of office,’ and you said no question in favor, so yes, so it changed in that campaign?
“In 2020, I made it clear where I stand. We are in 2024, and I have not changed that, nor will I going forward,” Harris responded.
CNN later fact-checked that claim, noting that Harris never once mentioned support for fracking during her campaign for president in the 2020 cycle.
In any event, both Hannity and Pirro slammed Harris for the remark.
“Harris was also asked about a flip-flop on an issue, including the border. She said she suddenly believes that people should be prosecuted for illegally crossing the border. She said she and Biden did good work on the economy and she is proud of her record, even claiming that Joe Biden was very clear from the beginning he would endorse her after dropping out,” said Hannity, also noting that Walz claimed his lie about being in combat was attributed to poor grammar.
Pirro responded: “I am not well! First of all, she said that she wanted to ban fracking, and she was asked to follow up by Dana Bash. ‘While I made clear on the debate stage that I was against fracking, I have not done anything since 2020.’ Didn’t she… What is she talking about, Joe? She is lying, no question. We think we found a reason why.”
WATCH:
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale called out Harris for her false fracking claim. Following the interview, Dale spoke with host Abby Phillip to tell her that the claim was incorrect.
“The fact check bottom line is that she did not actually make clear at a 2020 debate that she had changed her previous support for a fracking ban. So let me take you through this kind of saga so here’s what she said at a CNN climate town hall in 2019 on the subject of a fracking ban,” Dale said.
WATCH:
Dale and CNN then aired a clip of Harris from 2019, where she said “there was no question” she was “in favor of banning fracking.”
Dale added: “So, she ended her 2020 presidential run in December 2019. The only debate she participated in in 2020 was the general election debate with then-Vice President Mike Pence. And I went over the transcript of that debate tonight. Nowhere in there does she make clear that she had abandoned her previous support for a fracking ban; rather, she repeated that Joe Biden, the head of the Democratic ticket at the time, would himself not ban fracking.
