Kamala changes policy: ban plastic straws

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris reversed the new policy by banning plastic straws.

The Harris campaign has abandoned a position taken by the vice president during the 2020 Democratic primary, in which she said plastic straws should be banned due to environmental concerns.

“She does not support banning plastic straws,” a campaign official told Axios on Wednesday.

Kamala Harris says she supports banning plastic straws during CNN climate change marathon

During a 2019 CNN town hall marathon, Harris was asked whether she would support a ban on “single-use plastics,” specifically banning plastic straws.

“I think we should,” Harris replied.

“To be honest, drinking from a paper straw is really hard,” she joked, “so I have to perfect it a bit more.”

The campaign stressed that the policy change does not mean that the vice president's environmental reform will be made a less important priority.

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“She voted in the runoffs on the most significant bill in history to fight climate change and create clean energy jobs, and as president she will be focused on expanding that progress,” the campaign told Axios.

This is the latest in a series of shifts by Harris's campaign as she seeks to succeed President Biden in the November election.

A Washington, D.C. cafeteria has plastic straws and forks wrapped in paper. Harris said during the 2020 Democratic primary that she supported a federal ban on plastic straws, but her campaign walked back that position in a statement to Axios this week. (Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images)

Harris has been criticized by voters, political commentators and the Trump campaign for reversing key policies since emerging as the Democratic nominee after President Biden dropped out of the race last month.

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On fracking, for example, Harris' campaign announced last month that the vice president would not support a ban on the oil-drilling technique, which has widespread support in battleground states like Pennsylvania.

But this position is in stark contrast to what Harris said as a primary candidate at a CNN town hall event in 2019, when she said, “There's no question that I'm in favor of banning fracking.”

Harris also publicly touted “Medicare for All” and a semi-automatic rifle buyback program during her unsuccessful 2020 primary campaign, but has since distanced herself from those programs.

Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this report.