Work, one senses, is a happy word for Harris: What at first seem lucky breaks in her life tend on examination to reveal themselves as outcomes of strategic effort. The hurricanes that barreled into Florida in recent days and brought heavy destruction as far as inland North Carolina have required rescue and recovery from officials and ordinary Americans, and Harris has moved quickly on the ground to show them her support. But work can’t resolve every crisis. In recent weeks, the violence in the Middle East has grown, first with Israeli movement into Lebanon and more recently with a missile attack on Israel by Iran. I ask what “new element” voters can expect from a Harris administration in balancing the United States’ commitments in the region with attempts—so far unsuccessful—to de-escalate the conflict.
“A lot of the work that needs to be done,” Harris says, “is a function of the circumstances at the moment. I can’t anticipate what the circumstances will be four months from now.” She says she sees the role of the United States to create “incentives” for de-escalation and a “pathway” for stability, “including specifically as it relates to what’s happening in Gaza, as opposed to Lebanon.” Throughout her public campaign, Harris has nodded to two hard-to-square points of view on Gaza, affirming “Israel’s right to defend itself” against Hamas and Palestinians’ “right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination.” “A Harris administration—to speak of myself in the third person, which makes me quite uncomfortable—would be about articulating those points and hopefully bringing some language that is reflective of the complexity and the nuance of what’s happening in the region,” she says. Complexity and nuance, meaning what? I ask. Harris starts a couple of sentences, abandons them, and starts again.
R&I – TP
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Article URL : https://www.vogue.com/article/kamala-harris-digital-cover-october-2024-interview