US presidential contender Kamala Harris has delivered a cutting response to comments from rival Donald Trump about her race.

In her first interview with a mainstream news organisation since the Democrats nominated her for US president, Harris sat down on Thursday (US time) with CNN Inside Politics anchor Dana Bash.

Among the questions, Bash noted that Harris was yet to interact directly with Trump – and has never met him face to face. Then she asked about his recent suggestion that Harris – who is of mixed black and Indian heritage – had “turned black” in recent years.

“Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” Harris said.

“That’s it?” Bash said.

Harris: “That’s it.”

Elsewhere, Harris revealed she learned in a Sunday phone call that President Joe Biden was going to withdraw from the election contest and endorse her to replace him. She said she’d just finished eating pancakes with her young nieces and other family, who were visiting her in Washington, when Biden rang.

“I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ And he said, ‘Yes’,” she said in the interview recorded during a campaign stop with her vice-presidential running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, at a diner in Savannah, Georgia.

She also defended some personal shifts in policy toward the centre and said she might name a Republican to her cabinet if elected.

“The most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is, my values have not changed,” Harris said.

Harris has moved more toward the centre on some issues from the time she ran for president in 2020 until she took over from Biden as the Democrats’ choice to face Republican challenger Trump in the November 5 election.

She has toughened her position on migration along the southern US border with Mexico. She also no longer wants a ban on fracking, an energy production method that employs many people in Pennsylvania; it is one of a handful of swing states that could decide the election.

“My value around what we need to do to secure our border – that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the attorney-general of California prosecuting trans-national criminal organisations, violations of American laws, regarding the illegal passage of guns, drugs and human beings across our border. My values have not changed,” she said.

Harris’ conversation was aimed at showing her in command of the issues. Some critics have suggested she may be less polished in unscripted settings after she led Democrats’ turnaround with a series of forceful campaign speeches.

Harris, also discussed the possibility of adding a Republican to her potential cabinet, saying she wanted a diversity of opinion.

“It’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican,” she said.

Harris has eschewed formal interviews and press conferences during her rapid rise to the top of the Democratic ticket.

Though she has taken questions from journalists on the campaign trail and been interviewed on TikTok in recent days, she had, until Thursday, not done a one-on-one interview with a major network or print journalist since Biden ended his re-election campaign on July 21.

Harris’ lack of interviews has sparked criticism from opponents, and some concern among supporters, that she is less sharp in spontaneous settings than she is at rallies or speeches where prepared remarks and a Teleprompter are at her disposal.

Trump frequently holds press conferences and offers interviews to conservative news outlets. He often uses them to criticise Harris and Biden rather than discuss his own policy aims in detail.

-with AAP