On Thursday’s “CNN News Central,” CNN Political Commentator and Democratic strategist Paul Begala said that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris changed her view on banning fracking from when she ran for president the last time because “you represent the Bay Area, there’s not a lot of fracking in the Bay Area, but then you start to learn about Texas, Oklahoma, eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania.”
Co-host John Berman asked, “Paul, I just had Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) on, and I was asking him about some of the position changes that the Vice President has on fracking, for instance, and he said, he feels — he says, I just learned more about fracking, I think it’s safe now, so, my position has shifted. Maybe that’s what Harris will say. How useful do you think a response like that would be?”
Begala answered, “I think very useful. I think it’s what happens. Look, you represent the Bay Area, there’s not a lot of fracking in the Bay Area, but then you start to learn about Texas, Oklahoma, eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania. Again, come back to Henny Youngman, Madam Vice President, here’s free advice…here’s what you need to do: compared to what? So, yeah, I support fracking, but compared to Donald Trump, who offered big oil to suspend every environmental protection if they gave him a billion dollars in campaign contributions. So, it’s not just — this is not ‘Jeopardy!’ tonight, Madam Vice President. This is, compared to what?”
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