Vice President Kamala Harris held her first sit-down interview this week since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, and while it wasn't necessarily a complete disaster for her campaign, it also didn't go particularly well and provided easy fodder for her critics and political opponents.

There was one comment in particular from Harris that should disqualify her from the presidency in the minds of many voters -- her repeated insistence that her "values have not changed" over the years, according to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram op-ed from local conservative AM talk radio host Mark Davis.

That remark strongly implies that voters can ignore the relatively moderate policy proposals put forward by her current campaign and trust that Harris will continue to pursue the same progressive leftist ideas she touted during her failed 2020 campaign and during her time as the U.S. Senate's most liberal member.

"My values have not changed"

During her Thursday interview with CNN's Dana Bash, VP Harris was asked about her shifted stance on certain policies, such as backtracking on her 2019 demand to ban fracking, and why those positions had changed over the past five years.

"Well, let’s be clear. My values have not changed," Harris replied. To her credit, Bash pressed the matter and asked Harris about the different stances she has taken on border security and illegal immigration, among other things, and why voters should trust her now, but the Democratic nominee's response was the same.

Indeed, Harris went on to utter variations of the phrase "my values have not changed" at least four more times while referencing climate change, border security, and prosecuting cross-border trafficking.

Harris' "missed opportunity" to quell voter concerns

In his op-ed for the Star-Telegram, Davis noted that VP Harris' "my values have not changed" comment was just about the only believable thing that she said throughout the entire CNN interview.

Davis wrote, "If there is anyone who strikes me as driven by a guiding set of principles, it is this vice president who seeks to be president. Her entire ascendancy and her record in public life point to a devotion to the issues she has supported vocally for years along that path."

To be sure, he acknowledged that Harris' less-than-stellar performance in the interview wasn't exactly a game changer, as those mocking or criticizing her likely weren't going to support her anyway, and those who support her true leftist positions will likely continue to back her candidacy for the White House.

That said, in Davis' estimation, the interview was a "missed opportunity" for Harris and Democrats to assuage the concerns of moderate and centrist voters who may consider voting for her over former President Donald Trump but are put off by some of her far-left progressive proposals.

Brutal retort from the Trump campaign

Yet, the VP Harris interview was by no means a "missed opportunity" for the Trump campaign, which immediately seized upon her "values have not changed" remark to remind voters of the dozens of extreme and radical leftist policy positions she has publicly espoused throughout her political career.

It's true.

Kamala’s values haven’t changed. pic.twitter.com/N94HQTOvMR

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 29, 2024

In a Trump campaign news release that followed the CNN interview, Deputy Director of Communications Dylan Johnson said, "Kamala says her values haven't changed. She's not wrong."

"She still believes in mass amnesty for millions of unvetted illegals, ending cash bail, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, raising money to bail violent criminals out of jail, banning fracking, abolishing private health insurance, and banning gas-powered vehicles," he added. "Kamala isn't changing her values -- she's just lying about them."