Vice President Kamala Harris no longer wants to ban plastic straws, according to her campaign. Axios reports Harris’ latest evolution of her previous political views, noting that an anonymous campaign aide confirmed she no longer supported the idea.
Harris first endorsed banning plastic straws during her failed presidential campaign during a climate change town hall with CNN in September 2019. ‘I think we should, yes,’ Harris said when asked if she supported the idea.
She laughed and added that it was ‘difficult’ to drink out of a paper straw, suggesting the replacement needed more innovation. ‘We gotta kind of perfect that one a little bit more,’ she added.
At the time, the Trump campaign pointedly featured Harris’ proposal as the latest attempt by the left to restrict American freedom and began selling Trump-branded plastic straws. ‘Making Straws Great Again,’ wrote then Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale.
‘Liberal paper straws don’t work. STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP and buy your pack of recyclable straws today,’ Trump’s website read at the time. Harris’ position on banning plastic straws continues to haunt her as she launches her own presidential campaign in 2024.
Fox News hosts recently resurfaced Harris’ position on straws as an example of her instinctual left-wing response to common issues. ‘I love my plastic straw, I hate those paper straws,’ Fox News host Sean Hannity said recently. Fox News anchor Steve Doocy also called it a ‘major liability’ to her campaign.
In July, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio slammed Harris’ position during a campaign rally for Trump in his state. ‘I saw a clip the other day where she wants to ban plastic straws,’ he said. ‘Those paper straws suck. We don’t want paper straws in America.’
Harris’ decision to walk back her controversial position on straws is the latest effort by the campaign to make her seem more practical on a host of issues she supported as she was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Campaign aids have also walked back Harris’ views on mandating electric cars, gun buybacks, Medicare-for-all, banning fracking, and whether or not to build a wall on the Southern border.
Trump commented on Harris’ policy shifts on Thursday, accusing her of copying his campaign. ‘We’re going to send her a MAGA hat, sometime in the next week. We’re having a special one made,’ he said.
