Change vs Hypocrisy

The Interview Answer I Wish Kamala Had Given

“Dana, you have correctly pointed out a few occasions in which I have modified my positions and for my running mate, Tim Walz, times when he felt compelled to correct imprecise wording. In doing so, you have identified one of the greatest strengths of our candidacy and future administration – our ability to recognize how we need to improve and thus learn from experience, something our opponents have shown themselves unable to do.

For some politicians, old age does not grant wisdom but renders them brittle, inflexible, and unable to change. If they are also fragile, thin-skinned narcissists, they can’t even acknowledge having made a mistake. True leadership requires the humility to change course and seek the guidance of experts. That is another area where Mr. Trump’s arrogance makes him unfit to govern. He cannot admit that his knowledge is incomplete. As we have all witnessed, if generals, meteorologists, or infectious disease experts challenge his misinformation, he rages, doubles down on his ignorance, and threatens to fire or prosecute them for disloyalty.

Because my policy positions are driven by the values that have always been my moral compass, they sometimes must be reevaluated to ensure they still serve those values. If a policy fails to enhance freedom, economic well-being, national security, or environmental protection, I will always change it to achieve those ends.

My opponent also changes his positions, sometimes at a dizzying pace, as he is doing now on abortion and IVF. However, his moral compass, if you can call it that, always points in one direction: his self-interest, which is whatever maximizes his power, wealth, and ability to exact vengeance. At one moment, he boasts about his role in appointing Supreme Court justices who overturned women’s reproductive freedom. At another, when state-mandated pregnancy for rape victims looks like it could be a political problem, he backs away from that.  When anti-choice fundamentalists express anger at his unprincipled wobbling, he goes back to proclaiming that a woman’s uterus is indeed government property.

So, thank you, Dana, for allowing me to sharpen the distinction between the values that motivate our policy positions and the self-serving, amoral drivers behind our opponents’ changing decisions.”