US Vice-President Kamala Harris defended how her policy positions have shifted since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee in her first interview since taking on the party mantle.

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” she said.

In an early clip of the interview – which was pre-recorded in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday – CNN’s Dana Bash had asked why Ms Harris’s positions from her earlier political career had moderated on issues like immigration and fracking.

The full interview of Ms Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will air on CNN at 21:00 ET on Thursday (02:00 BST Friday).

In that preview clip, Ms Harris pushed back against the assertion that her policy positions had undergone “changes”, and – in a second clip – she reaffirmed her belief that she would be a president “for all Americans”.

Ms Harris referred to her effort to address climate change and support of the Green New Deal, a Democratic proposal to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, as something that remains a steadfast value.

“I have always believed, and I’ve worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter,” she said.

The vice-president pointed to the Biden administration’s work on the Inflation Reduction Act, which funnelled hundreds of billions of dollars to renewable energy and electric vehicle tax credit and rebate programs.

“We have set goals for the United States of America, and by extension the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”

But, in the clips released so far, Ms Harris did not explain her reversal on banning fracking – a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock used by an industry that is particularly strong in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Ms Harris had said that “there is no question I’m in favour of banning fracking” during a CNN town hall in 2019. But she has backpedaled on that view since becoming vice-president – even casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate on new fracking leases.

Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesperson, said on social media that the Biden administration’s “clean energy investments have proven the ability to make progress on climate without those past stances”.

On the subject of “securing our border” Ms Harris again said “my values have not changed” and referenced her time “prosecuting transnational, criminal organisations” as California attorney general.

But Ms Harris once held more progressive immigration views as a senator and in her campaign for president in 2020. She had previously advocated for the closure of immigration detention centres and the decriminalisation of illegal crossings.

To explain her moderated immigration view, the Democratic nominee told CNN that her travels across the country as vice-president had made her “believe it is important to build consensus, and it is important to find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems”.

Along those lines, Ms Harris committed in a separate clip to include someone “who was a Republican” in her presidential cabinet. She said it would fulfill her promise to be a president “for all Americans”.

“I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views.”

Ms Harris has faced criticism from Republicans and some pundits for refusing to hold a press conference or an on-the-record, in-depth interview until now. Her critics argued that she was avoiding having her record challenged.

Her appearance on CNN marks her first substantive interview since President Joe Biden exited the presidential race on 21 July. Ms Harris had promised nearly three weeks ago to schedule an interview before the end of August.

Former President Donald Trump, her Republican opponent, dismissed the CNN interview in a conversation with the Daily Mail on Thursday.

“Why isn’t it live?” he said. “It’s not a live interview. It’s an interview that’s going to be taped and then edited and then put out. So that’s not even an interview. Then she’s doing it with her vice president (nominee) sitting there.”

Ms Bash, the CNN journalist who conducted the interview of Ms Harris and Mr Walz, moderated a Republican primary debate between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis in January. She was also one of the moderators of the 27 June debate between Mr Biden and Trump.

Mr Biden’s performance in that debate was widely seen as what sparked the effort for the president to withdraw from the race. Ms Harris’s last sit-down TV interview was with CNN’s Anderson Cooper shortly after the June debate.

The Harris-Walz campaign is following the interview with a bus tour of Georgia, a key southern state where Mr Biden narrowly edged out Trump in 2020 – the first time a Democrat won the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.

Polling suggests that the presidential race is tightening again in Georgia – a state that Democrats thought had slipped away during Mr Biden’s reelection campaign.

On Thursday, Ms Harris is visiting the city of Savannah where she is holding a campaign rally at the state’s oldest historically black college.

The event coincides with a major outreach effort that is targeting young voters. The campaign plans to hold events at university campuses in major battleground states such as Georgia to encourage young Americans to cast their ballots in November.

Trump and Ms Harris are scheduled to face off in a debate aired on ABC News on 10 September, though the presidential candidates are still working to resolve a dispute over whether microphones will be unmuted throughout.

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