Harris says she could put a Republican in her Cabinet

Kamala Harris has suggested she could appoint a Republican to her Cabinet if elected president, during her first sit down interview since launching her campaign.

“I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences,” she told CNN.

“And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican,” she added.

Harris, joined by her vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, also defended some personal shifts in policy.

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is, my values have not changed,” she told CNN anchor Dana Bash in an early excerpt from the interview.

Harris has moved more toward the centre on some issues from the time she ran for president in 2020 until she took over from President Joe Biden as the Democrats’ choice to face Donald Trump in the 5 November election.

She has toughened her position on migration along the southern US border with Mexico, and no longer wants a ban on fracking which employs many people in the swing state of Pennsylvania.

“My value around what we need to do to secure our border – that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the attorney general of California prosecuting trans-national criminal organisations, violations of American laws, regarding the illegal passage of guns, drugs and human beings across our border. My values have not changed,” she said.

The US vice president has avoided formal interviews and press conferences during her rapid rise to the top of the Democratic ticket, and until Thursday, had not done a one-on-one interview with a major network or print journalist since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign.

Her lack of interviews has sparked criticism from opponents, and some concern among supporters, that she is less sharp in spontaneous settings than at rallies or speeches where she can use prepared remarks and a Teleprompter.

Meanwhile Trump used a rally in Michigan to declare that he would make IVF treatment for women free, without detailing how he would fund it.

“I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said, adding: “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.”

IVF treatments are very expensive, costing up to tens of thousands of dollars for a single round. Many women require multiple rounds and there is no guarantee of success.

The announcement comes as Trump has been under intense criticism from Democrats for his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion in the country.

The decision has led to a wave of restrictions across Republican-led states, including proposals that have threatened access to IVF by trying to define life as beginning at conception.

Abortion is expected to be a major motivator for Democrats and women this November, and was a dominant theme of the party’s national convention last week, including Harris’s speech as she accepted her party’s nomination.

In response, Trump has been trying to present himself as more moderate on the issue, going as far as to declare himself “very strong on women’s reproductive rights.”

With agencies