Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who is a top contender to be Vice President Kamala Harris‘ running mate in the 2024 election, dodged several questions about recent policy reversals by the Democratic presidential nominee.
When the senator was confronted with several of Harris’ past stances, including her support for Medicare for migrants, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and banning fracking, he did not say whether he agreed with those ideas.
“So I’ve been working on this issue now for three and a half years,” Kelly told FOX Business on Thursday in response to questions on Harris’ previous immigration stances. “I am a border senator. I’ve got—I’m on the phone all the time with sheriffs, mayors—I work with them. I work with this administration.”
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Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., would not respond to questions about radical previous policy positions held by Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images)
“I mean, and my border mayors, many of them, really appreciate the steps that the administration has taken. What they don’t appreciate is the Republicans in the United States Senate doing the bidding of Donald Trump just for an election,” he added.
Pressed again on whether he supported Harris’ previously vocalized stances on Medicare for illegal immigrants, decriminalizing border crossings and abolishing ICE, Kelly refused to answer.
In 2019, during Harris’ failed bid for Democratic presidential nominee in 2020, she was asked if she would support Medicare for all, including those in the country illegally. “I’m opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education or public health, period,” Harris answered.
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A group of over 100 migrants attempting to enter the U.S. illegally rush a border wall in El Paso, Texas, on March 21. (James Breeden for New York Post / Mega)
She also told the hosts of “The View” during her primary campaign, “I am in favor of saying that we are not going to treat people who are undocumented and cross the border as criminals.”
Further, when Harris was pressed on calls to abolish ICE in her party in 2019, she said, “I think there is no question that we’ve got to critically reexamine ICE and its role and the way it is being administered and the work it is doing.”
“We need to probably even think about starting from scratch,” she added.
Harris has since reneged on her support for Medicare for all and has appeared to embrace a more moderate Democratic stance on ICE, border security and the criminalization of border crossers during her time in the Biden administration. She expressed support for the bipartisan negotiated border security bill, ultimately opposed by Republicans, and her campaign said that recent executive actions related to limiting asylum would continue in her administration.
According to Kelly, he “absolutely” approves of Harris’ handling of the border in her capacity as vice president.
“And on the border with the executive actions that we now have. Absolutely,” he said.
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Harris was tasked early on in the Biden administration with addressing the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America. (Reuters/Kevin Mohatt/Pool)
When asked for his response to Harris backtracking on her past support for a ban on fracking, Kelly refused to respond to Fox News Digital.
The Harris campaign recently claimed she no longer supports a ban on fracking, with a spokesperson stating, “Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class.”
Kelly is one of many candidates being vetted to be Harris’ vice presidential running mate. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“This Administration created 300,000 energy jobs, while Trump lost nearly a million and his Project 2025 would undo the enormous progress we’ve made the past four years,” they added.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, accounts for two-thirds of marketed natural gas production and roughly half of crude oil production in the U.S., according to the American Petroleum Institute.
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“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said in 2019 during her bid to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020.
Neither Kelly’s office nor the Harris campaign provided comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication.
Harris is expected to announce her chosen running mate by Tuesday, when she will begin a four-day battleground state tour beginning in Philadelphia.