Kamala Harris sat down for her first interview as the Democratic presidential candidate on CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday, along with her running mate, Tim Walz, and defended her changes in certain policy areas over the years and her support for Joe Biden.

In the interview, recorded earlier Thursday in Savannah, Georgia, the vice president said her top priority upon taking office would be to “support and strengthen the middle class” through policies including increasing child benefits, curbing overpriced items for everyday goods and improving access to affordable housing — all policies she has announced since she began campaigning for the presidency.

Harris also recounted how the president told her he would no longer seek reelection, the first public retelling of the moment. She said she was making breakfast with her family, including her nieces, and was just doing a puzzle when the phone rang, she said.

“I asked him, are you sure? And he said yes. And that’s how I found out.” As for whether she asked for his support or whether he offered it, she said, “He was very clear that he would support me.”

“My first thought wasn’t about me, to be honest with you, my first thought was about him,” she said, adding that history will remember Biden’s presidency as transformative.

Harris defended Biden, saying she had no regrets about supporting his re-election before he decided to leave the race, despite concerns about his age and sharpness. She said serving as Biden’s vice president was “one of the greatest honors” of her career and that Biden has the “intelligence, dedication, judgment and spirit that the American people deserve in their president,” adding that former President Donald Trump “has none of that.”

She also praised the Biden administration’s work to restore the economy after the pandemic, pointing to capped insulin costs, current inflation of less than 3% and growth in U.S. manufacturing jobs. “I will say that’s good work,” she said. “There’s more to do, but that’s good work.”

Harris explained her shift in positions on issues like fracking and immigration by saying that her “values ​​haven’t changed.” On fracking, she said she made it clear in the 2020 debate that she no longer supports a ban and that she would not ban fracking as president. She added that she takes the climate crisis seriously but believes “we can foster a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”

On immigration, Bash pointed to a moment when Harris raised her hand to indicate that she believed the border should be decriminalized, and asked if she still believes that. Harris said she believes immigration laws should be followed and enforced, and noted that she is the only candidate in the race who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations.

She also said she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet if she won, though she didn’t have a specific Republican or position in mind.

“I’ve spent my career inviting diversity of opinion,” she said. “I think it’s important to have people at the table when important decisions are being made who have different perspectives and experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was Republican.”

She quickly brushed aside a question about Trump’s comments that she had “accidentally gone black” in recent years: “Same old, tired script,” she said. “Next question, please.”

The interview narrowly missed Harris’ self-imposed timeline for a sit-down interview, which she promised would take place in late August. It comes less than two weeks before the first scheduled debate between Harris and Trump, set for Sept. 10 on ABC.

Harris and Walz conducted the interview during a bus tour of Savannah, Georgia, part of a lightning visit to the United States since taking over the Democratic Party.

Harris has been criticized across the political spectrum for not doing an official interview with the media since she announced her candidacy. After the CNN interview was recorded, Republicans also criticized the joint interview with Walz and that the interview was pre-recorded and not live.

Before the interview, Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance posted the following on Twitter/X: “BREAKING: I got my hands on the full CNN interview with Kamala Harris” alongside a clip from the 2007 Miss Teen America pageant in which a contestant gave an ambiguous answer about Americans not knowing geography, going on and on about “like South Africa — and Iraq, like everywhere.”

Walz answered a few questions during the joint interview, though Harris largely led the campaign’s responses.

Walz has come under fire for misstatements and exaggerations he has made about his time in the National Guard and about specific fertility treatments his wife used. He did not elaborate on why he made the comments, but instead said he speaks candidly and passionately. In one comment, he claimed to have carried weapons in combat, which he did not (he was not deployed to a war zone). He said the comment came after a school shooting and that his grammar was incorrect. “I think people know me. They know who I am. They know where my heart is,” he said.

“If it’s not, then it’s an attack on my children for showing love to me, or it’s an attack on my dog,” he said, referring to recent Republican attacks on him. “The one thing I will never do is I will never disparage another service member in any way. I never have and I never will.”

Bash cited two key moments from the Democratic convention: Walz’s teenage son, Gus, crying and saying “that’s my dad” as his father took the stage, and a photo of one of Harris’s great-nieces watching as Harris gave her acceptance speech.

Walz said his son’s reaction was “such an intensely emotional moment” that he was grateful to be able to experience it.

Harris, who has not spoken much about how her win might break glass ceilings, said she was “deeply moved” by the photo and found it “deeply humbling,” saying, “I’m running because I believe I’m the best person at this time to do this job for all Americans, regardless of race and gender.”

It’s unclear whether Harris will do more media interviews as she continues her campaign trail. As some CNN commentators noted before Thursday’s interview aired, increasing the frequency of interviews makes it less likely that each interview will become the subject of intense scrutiny and fixation that the CNN event was.

Trump responded to the interview on Truth Social by simply saying, “BORING!!!”