CNN's Brooke Baldwin led a discussion with two political commentators Tuesday criticizing presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., for dodging questions by saying we need a “conversation” instead of giving specific policy positions.

“How many more times can a default answer be ‘we should have that conversation’? How many more times will that be sufficient?” Baldwin asked CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston and Bloomberg senior national correspondent Josh Green after playing clips of Harris dodging questions at her CNN town hall.

“[T]hat is what I call her ‘graceful dodge.’ She does this all of the time on the campaign trail when voters asked her questions where she’s not quite sure what position she will stake out yet, but she wants to kind of convey the idea that she might be on your side,” Reston said in response to Baldwin.

CNN highlighted four times that Harris said in her Monday night town hall that there needs to be a “conversation” on particular issues. On the topics of lowering the voting age to 16, financial reparations for African Americans, forgiving college student loan debt, and whether people in prison like the Boston Marathon bomber should be able to vote, Kamala said there needed to be a “conversation” rather than offering a specific policy position.


Harris, who is considered one of the front-runners in the Democratic presidential primary race, is polling at 8% behind South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and former Vice President Joe Biden.

[Read more: Kamala Harris will give Congress 100 days to act on gun control before taking executive action if president]