Questions for Kamala Harris

...if she were to sit for an interview with me

Kamala Harris has declined my interview requests, as Joe Biden did for years. Both of them would have received a thorough interview with plenty of opportunities to fully address questions and express their ideas, as I gave to Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Junior, and other Democrats and Republicans who did agree to interviews.

Since Harris will not be doing an interview with me before the election, below are some of the questions I would like to have asked, in addition to news-of-the-day questions. One of my goals is to ask a mix of questions reflecting on current events, as well as some questions the candidate hasn’t been asked by other reporters.

Realistically, when interviewing a candidate for the limited time they allow, a reporter only has the opportunity to ask a handful of questions, so there is no way I would have been able to ask more than a couple of these, but I thought it might be interesting to publish them.

Read on for details.

Questions for Kamala Harris

• You have implied Biden is and was always up to the job, mentally. If that’s the case, why did you support him being removed as a candidate?

• If, in four years, you win the Democratic primary, but Democrat party leaders later decide there is a stronger or better candidate, and replace you with someone who didn’t go through the process or get any votes, will you support your removal? If not, why did you support Biden’s removal?

• You have publicly changed your positions on a number of issues. How can voters know whether you aren’t just doing that to get elected and wouldn’t change back to your former positions, if elected?

• You said you were the last person in the room regarding the disastrous and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan. What did you specifically do and say?

• You say you wouldn’t ban fracking. Does that mean you support fracking? If not, why wouldn’t you ban it? Would you support any restrictions on fracking?

• How would you define or explain what fracking is, in simple terms?

Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and other candidates spoke to specific questions about their mental health, and drug and alcohol use. For you:

Have you ever had a mental health evaluation? If so, what is the context and what were the results?

What illegal drugs have you used, if any, and how often, from the time you became a US senator through today? When was the last time you used an illegal drug, including marijuana, and what were the circumstances?

What prescription drugs have you taken in the past four years and how often?

Many have circulated videos of your interviews and speeches where observers note you sound slurry and possibly inebriated. As vice president, how often have you drank alcohol, how much, and what kind (if any)?

Have you ever used or taken drugs prior to a speech or interview? If so, details?

What are some of the names of people currently inside the Biden administration on whom you would rely for advice and appoint to key positions?

What are some of the names of people not currently inside the Biden administration on whom you would rely for advice and appoint to key positions?

You said nothing comes to mind that you would change from your Biden administration experience. This seems to imply that you do not conduct crucial lessons learned analyses, which could be worriesome. Or else, you have analyzed lessons learned but felt there were no lessons to be learned. Is that the case?

Specifically:

• The Biden administration lifted Trump-placed sanctions on an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was leading the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. Many experts say this ultimately put Putin on a path to invading Ukraine. Since you say you wouldn’t do anything differently, why would you still lift the sanctions, if you could do it all over again?

• Under our constitution, speech is protected whether it’s true, false, or an opinion, so that the government isn’t able to weaponize its authority to control dissenting voices. The Twitter files revealed that the Biden administration conspired with Big Tech to censor true information regarding Covid, Covid vaccines, and more. Since you say you wouldn’t do anything differently, why would you support censorship of true information, again? Will you continue or expand this behavior in the future?

• President Biden and other officials wrongly stated that Covid is a pandemic of the vaccinated, and that vaccines prevent illness; and they forwarded a great deal of other false information. Additionally, experts have widely concluded the shutdowns were extremely harmful to our economy, society, and educational system. Since you say you wouldn’t do anything differently, why would you repeat the same mistakes? Or do you consider those successes?

• With the benefit of hindsight, what other paths did you consider (and apparently reject) to try to avoid over 100 murders during the US withdrawal of Afghanistan? Many experts concluded the US military shouldn’t have been removed before US citizens were evacuated. But apparently you would handle it the same way again. Can you walk us through that thought process?

• Many analysts predicted that, after the US returned money to Iran—the top state sponsor of terrorism in the world—Iran would increasingly use the money to fund terrorist attacks. Indeed, since we have returned billions, Iran has stepped up its funding of terrorism and created war and instability in the Mideast. What is your consideration as to why you wouldn’t change that?

• Air, rail, and supply chain disasters grew while Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took an unannounced paternity leave shortly after his appointment. Why would you have handled that the same way, from a managerial perspective?

• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other Biden administration officials wrongly stated that the post-pandemic inflation was temporary. In hindsight, why wouldn’t you want to correct that misconception, and address inflation that we now know wasn’t transitory?

• Looking back at the border disaster, with the benefit of hindsight, what paths did you consider (and apparently reject) to keep terrorists and criminals from entering and murdering, attacking, and raping?

• Same question for the thousands of children who crossed illegally and then were “lost” in the system. Why would you have not changed anything in order to be able to track and protect them?

• Five days before the Islamic extremist attack on Israel in 2023, National Security adviser Jake Sullivan claimed the Mideast “is quieter than it has been for decades” and that “we have de-escalated crises in Gaza.” Even the left leaning NYT said the US “misread an explosive situation in the Middle East.” How can it be that you would not, in hindsight, try to fix this and avoid many thousands of deaths?

• Since there is nothing different you would do to try to head off Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that happened on your watch, can you take us through all the paths you considered and rejected?