Just who is the "extremist" in this presidential election? The mainstream media keeps trying to cast Donald Trump in that role, but his policies are closer to the mainstream -- and polling shows that voters know it.

On the other hand, the policy positions of Kamala Harris -- at least those expressed by Harris herself, rather than by anonymous aides or plagiarized from Joe Biden -- sit far on the fringe of the American electorate. In a follow-up last night to the CNN K-Files exposé that John covered, host Erin Burnett called Harris' track record "incredible stuff" in talking with K-Files reporter Andrew Kaczynski.

Burnett seemed most shocked by Harris' pledge to provide "taxpayer-funded gender transitions" for illegal immigrants, but there's more, of course:

MUST WATCH: Comrade Kamala's record is so extreme, even Erin Burnett couldn't believe it.

"You would be hard to think you would come up with taxpayer-funding gender transitions for detained migrants." pic.twitter.com/6Z1fX4y0WT

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 10, 2024

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Yeah. And this was a questionnaire that she filled out for the ACLU, and this questionnaire is really an interesting snap shot in time of that 2019 Democratic primary. Kamala Harris was trying to get to the left of Bernie Sanders. She was trying to get to the left of Elizabeth Warren and you really see that in a lot of these answers. And I want to walk our viewers through a little bit of what she said. Let's just take immigration and look at what she said here.

She said on immigration, she made this open ended pledge the end immigrant detention. She said she supported taxpayer funded gender transition surgeries for detained migrants. She also said --

BURNETT: Taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained migrants, she actually said she supported that.

KACZYNSKI: She wrote -- both wrote and answered in the affirmative when she was asked this. And she said she also supported it for federal prisoners.

In another measure of extremism, Harris claimed in the same questionnaire to support drug legalization -- and not just for marijuana. Kaczynski spells out that Harris wanted to legalize all drugs for recreational purposes, at the federal level. That would include, as Kaczynski notes, "fentanyl, crack, cocaine," as well as heroin, meth, and other dangerous substances.

Doesn't that seem rather ... extreme?

It does to the campaign now, of course. Harris refused to answer any questions about this, but the campaign did respond ... sort of. They offered an anonymous statement on behalf of Harris that promised she had flip-flopped on just about everything she claimed to have ever believed:

BURNETT: Have they responded to you on her changes on these issues?

KACZYNSKI: So we did put this question to the Harris campaign about the entire ACLU questionnaire, and the Harris campaign didn't answer any questions from CNN. Instead, they just provided a statement from an unnamed Harris campaign adviser that just said, the vice president's positions have been shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden/Harris administration.

Now, they declined to CNN to elaborate on what those positions were. Then they also provided this statement which they attributed to his spokesperson saying, as president, she will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common sense solutions for the sake of progress. So where does she stand on this all, all this questioner today, we don't know and they won't say.

BURNETT: It's pretty incredible stuff and thank you very much, Andrew, KFILE for this reporting.

In other words, these are the extant positions that Harris herself has taken on these issues. She has not contradicted her statement nor explained how she changed her mind on these issues. Only her campaign has indicated otherwise, and none of them will put their own names to the claims of reversal. "We don't know and they won't say" is a perfect epigram for Kamala Harris as a candidate. And the fact that CNN is not just noticing this but also highlighting it cannot be good news for Team Kamala.