Latest / The Breakfast Club / A Charlamagne Tha God Conversation with Former VP Kamala Harris Pt. 2

Transcript

A Charlamagne Tha God Conversation with Former VP Kamala Harris Pt. 2 · The Breakfast Club

0:01
Speaker 1: Birmingham.
0:01
Speaker 2: Get about your seats. Come on, get about your seats.
0:05
Speaker 2: It makes some noise for our father. Vice President Ms
0:08
Speaker 2: Connell had.
0:12
Speaker 3: Good evening. Good evening everyone, Charlomagne.
0:17
Speaker 1: How are you here? We go again? Okay, we are here.
0:21
Speaker 1: How many people have read the book? One hundred and
0:22
Speaker 1: seven days?
0:26
Speaker 2: Fantastic greed? Fantastic greed. What's what's the part of those
0:29
Speaker 2: one hundred and seven days? You you still can't talk
0:32
Speaker 2: about even now, cause there's two days missing from the book.
0:36
Speaker 1: I think it's the eleven from the twelve of October.
0:39
Speaker 3: Oh, that's interesting. You counted in all seriousness. Probably the
0:46
Speaker 3: most difficult, in fact, the most difficult chapter to write
0:51
Speaker 3: was about election night. So the night before the election,
1:01
Speaker 3: Doug and I and the kids and my grandnieces and
1:05
Speaker 3: we all we were in Philly and did a big
1:10
Speaker 3: rally there like thirty thousand people. We were on the
1:14
Speaker 3: Rocky steps, and then we flew back to d C.
1:19
Speaker 3: Got there past midnight on election day, and then the
1:25
Speaker 3: next morning Doug and my brother in law Tony went
1:30
Speaker 3: to go campaign in Michigan, and I did a bunch
1:34
Speaker 3: of stuff in DC. And it was not until I
1:40
Speaker 3: was writing the book that Doug told me about what
1:46
Speaker 3: he experienced on election day and night, because you know,
1:50
Speaker 3: in writing the book, I'm recreating and just remembering one
1:54
Speaker 3: hundred and seven days, and I would from time to
1:56
Speaker 3: time in writing the book check in, right, so this
1:59
Speaker 3: is what I experience on that day. What did you experience?
2:03
Speaker 3: And so when I sat down and write that chapter,
2:05
Speaker 3: Doug and I sat down and it was Charlemagne. It
2:08
Speaker 3: was the first time he and I had talked about
2:10
Speaker 3: election night. Wow. You know, there are moments where you
2:15
Speaker 3: experienced something that's so heavy and traumatic that it takes
2:21
Speaker 3: a minute to be able to talk about it, and
2:25
Speaker 3: so we hadn't. And so it wasn't until the writing
2:29
Speaker 3: of the book that I learned what happened during Doug's
2:32
Speaker 3: day on election Day, which is he and Tony, my
2:36
Speaker 3: brother in law, went to Michigan. It felt good on
2:38
Speaker 3: the ground. People on the ground were like, this is good.
2:41
Speaker 3: Were winning. And then on their way back to DC,
2:46
Speaker 3: they got a call from a friend of ours who's
2:48
Speaker 3: a Democrat who speaks on Fox News. And this friend
2:54
Speaker 3: called to say he was in the war room, in
2:57
Speaker 3: the boil room at Fox News and said to them,
3:00
Speaker 3: what are you all hearing because I'm concerned about what
3:02
Speaker 3: I'm hearing, and that caused, as you can imagine, Doug
3:07
Speaker 3: and Tony to be very concerned. So when Doug came
3:11
Speaker 3: back to the house in d C. And the house
3:13
Speaker 3: was at that point full of family because every election
3:16
Speaker 3: that I've run, on election night, we do a friends
3:18
Speaker 3: and family small dinner before we go to the election
3:22
Speaker 3: campaign headquarters. So I was busy doing all that. I
3:26
Speaker 3: could tell something was a little off, but I was preoccupied.
3:30
Speaker 3: What I learned in writing the book is Doug went
3:32
Speaker 3: straight up the stairs, went to the shower and prayed.
3:38
Speaker 3: And it was really interesting because then we talked about
3:42
Speaker 3: the night and I said, Honey, you remember when I
3:45
Speaker 3: stood up and gave a toast to our family to
3:47
Speaker 3: thank them for all they gave and sacrificed. And He's like, you,
3:52
Speaker 3: you didn't stand up and give it to He didn't.
3:54
Speaker 3: He was so that evening overwhelmed almost by what he
4:00
Speaker 3: had heard, that that was the only thing on his mind.
4:04
Speaker 3: But he didn't want to tell me for because he
4:08
Speaker 3: really just prayed it it wouldn't be right and true.
4:11
Speaker 3: And so then we learned about the outcome of the
4:13
Speaker 3: election and I will tell you the only thing I
4:18
Speaker 3: could say over and over again, had no other words,
4:22
Speaker 3: was my God, My God, My God. And that night
4:27
Speaker 3: I and for quite some time, I had not felt
4:31
Speaker 3: an emotion like I felt since my mother died. And
4:36
Speaker 3: it was I was grieving for our country because I
4:40
Speaker 3: knew what was going to happen. I knew what was
4:42
Speaker 3: going to happen. And to write that chapter resurfaced all
4:52
Speaker 3: of those feelings and memories in a way that was
4:56
Speaker 3: very difficult. But it was important to.
4:59
Speaker 1: Tell how did you get over that grief? I mean,
5:01
Speaker 1: haven't even been a year yet.
5:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was well. Writing the book was part of
5:05
Speaker 3: the process of reflection. And you know, I mean even
5:10
Speaker 3: the day after the election. So we had planned that
5:14
Speaker 3: on election night we would be giving a victory speech
5:17
Speaker 3: at alma mater at Howard University, and you know, and
5:27
Speaker 3: and of course that was not to be, and so
5:32
Speaker 3: we asked people that night to come back the following day,
5:36
Speaker 3: and I went back the following day to give a
5:38
Speaker 3: speech that was my concession speech. And in writing the speech,
5:44
Speaker 3: I was trying to figure out how to reconcile that
5:49
Speaker 3: at almost every rally I would end the rally by
5:52
Speaker 3: saying when we fight, we win, because that is what
5:56
Speaker 3: I believe and know to be true. It is a
5:58
Speaker 3: lived experience. But I needed to figure out how to
6:02
Speaker 3: reconcile that with the outcome of that election, and to
6:06
Speaker 3: hopefully give the thousands of people who turned up the
6:10
Speaker 3: next day something that would not allow them to feel defeated.
6:15
Speaker 3: And it wasn't. It was actually in the car on
6:17
Speaker 3: the way to Howard that I then wrote into this
6:20
Speaker 3: speech to reconcile that because it wasn't as simple as oh,
6:24
Speaker 3: you win some, you lose some, right, And so that's
6:28
Speaker 3: when I wrote in the speech that sometimes the fight
6:32
Speaker 3: takes a while. Sometimes the fight takes a while, and
6:38
Speaker 3: to leave people with that sense of it. And that's
6:41
Speaker 3: how I felt after the election. Part of it in
6:45
Speaker 3: dealing with my grief was, look, we got it. It's
6:49
Speaker 3: not just about one moment. It's that the fight is
6:54
Speaker 3: in an ongoing fight. You know. I used to always
6:57
Speaker 3: quote Kretit Scott King, who would say the fight for
6:59
Speaker 3: civil rights must be fought in one with each generation.
7:03
Speaker 3: This is the nature of it. And after we left
7:07
Speaker 3: DC after the inauguration on January twentieth, we went back
7:12
Speaker 3: to La and I literally and figuratively unpacked boxes and
7:19
Speaker 3: went through a lot of reflection in a way I
7:22
Speaker 3: hadn't allowed myself in those hundred and seven days. I'm
7:24
Speaker 3: very task oriented, but I allowed myself to reflection. And
7:28
Speaker 3: you know, sometimes for anyone who has dealt with well,
7:32
Speaker 3: we're all dealing with it, aren't we. I mean, how
7:37
Speaker 3: you doing.
7:45
Speaker 1: Right?
7:46
Speaker 3: Right? Right? You know? So we in many different ways,
7:52
Speaker 3: we've all been processing it right. And I and part.
7:56
Speaker 1: Of the reason I wrote, yes, you're still processing it.
8:00
Speaker 3: No, but that's but part of but part of the reason,
8:04
Speaker 3: one of the reasons I wrote the book also is
8:06
Speaker 3: to remind us of what we felt during those hundred
8:10
Speaker 3: and seven days, because there was an incredible optimism and
8:16
Speaker 3: a feeling about the potential of our country. And dare
8:19
Speaker 3: I say joy? Dare I say joy? Right?
8:26
Speaker 1: That? Because you don't?
8:27
Speaker 3: But no, it's it was because of you.
8:30
Speaker 1: That campaign was dead before you.
8:32
Speaker 3: Okay, But here's the thing. Here's the thing, the joy
8:39
Speaker 3: and the feelings that people had, it was it's inside
8:43
Speaker 3: of you. It's inside of you. And part of the
8:47
Speaker 3: reason that I wrote the book is to hopefully remind
8:51
Speaker 3: us that that is inside of us. And We cannot
8:56
Speaker 3: let anyone election, or individual or circumstance etish that light.
9:02
Speaker 3: We have that light, right and we have to see
9:07
Speaker 3: it in each other, and in particular in moments of darkness.
9:12
Speaker 3: It is that light and shining the light then on
9:15
Speaker 3: the path in a moment of darkness toward what we
9:19
Speaker 3: know is right and just and hopefully you know, we've
9:23
Speaker 3: all had some time, however, we needed to take it
9:29
Speaker 3: to process, to grieve, to feel the anger, the righteous anger,
9:35
Speaker 3: the sadness, the depression, all of that. But we cannot
9:41
Speaker 3: allow that individual in the White House, or the people
9:45
Speaker 3: around him, or this circumstance in any way dampen our
9:51
Speaker 3: sense of what is possible and what we believe in
9:57
Speaker 3: our country. Our spirit can can not be defeated if
10:01
Speaker 3: we don't let them so.
10:06
Speaker 2: Right, what's the biggest misconception about you that you stopped.
10:10
Speaker 1: Trying to correct?
10:12
Speaker 3: I don't know. Tell me.
10:17
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's a lot of misconceptions.
10:19
Speaker 2: Just because you know, and you've spoken about this, people
10:21
Speaker 2: didn't really know you, right, and one hundred and seven
10:24
Speaker 2: days isn't enough time to really get.
10:25
Speaker 1: To know it for you at that time.
10:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think people are getting to know you more
10:28
Speaker 2: now on these book tours than they did.
10:31
Speaker 1: You know why you was campaigning.
10:33
Speaker 3: I think we definitely needed more time, There's no question
10:37
Speaker 3: about that. I mean for a number of reasons, including
10:40
Speaker 3: one of the one of the things that the issues
10:44
Speaker 3: that I think was probably the most important issue for
10:48
Speaker 3: people who voted in the election was bringing down prices.
10:53
Speaker 3: And I really had and ran on exactly that point.
10:59
Speaker 3: But didn't you know the people in marketing say, you
11:03
Speaker 3: need to hear the same thing three times for it
11:05
Speaker 3: really to sink in. And that's about time, right and
11:09
Speaker 3: having the ability to do that. And for example, one
11:13
Speaker 3: of the things that we started to see was really
11:16
Speaker 3: people were starting to hear and know about my priorities.
11:20
Speaker 3: An example was what I intended to do, which is
11:23
Speaker 3: to have Medicare cover home health care, which is a
11:27
Speaker 3: big issue for so many people, and it's an issue
11:32
Speaker 3: that was personal to me. I took care of my
11:34
Speaker 3: mother when she was sick, when she was dying of cancer.
11:37
Speaker 3: And there are so many people, especially in the Sandwich
11:40
Speaker 3: generation right now, as we call it, people who are
11:43
Speaker 3: right in the middle who are raising their young children
11:46
Speaker 3: and taking care of their elderly parents and relatives. Who
11:49
Speaker 3: are just trying to make it all work and having
11:52
Speaker 3: Medicare cover home health care so they don't have to
11:55
Speaker 3: go bankrupt or quit their job and not be able
11:58
Speaker 3: to have the dig that everyone in that household deserves. Well,
12:05
Speaker 3: it was starting to take hold, but we didn't really
12:09
Speaker 3: have enough time for enough people to know. That's part
12:12
Speaker 3: of what I stand for. The issue of affordable housing
12:18
Speaker 3: is one of the biggest challenges in our country and
12:21
Speaker 3: has been for a long time, including one going after
12:26
Speaker 3: corporate landlords, which is part of my agenda. A twenty
12:31
Speaker 3: five thousand dollars down payment assistance for first time home
12:35
Speaker 3: buyers was part of the agenda. Taking on price gouging
12:40
Speaker 3: was part of the agenda, right, but it took time.
12:46
Speaker 3: And that's just a reality of the challenges of this
12:52
Speaker 3: which is it was unprecedented in so many ways that election,
12:57
Speaker 3: because think about it, the President of the United States
13:01
Speaker 3: is running for re election. Three and a half months
13:05
Speaker 3: before the election, decides not to run, The sitting vice
13:08
Speaker 3: president takes up the mantle against the former president of
13:12
Speaker 3: the United States who had been running for ten years,
13:19
Speaker 3: with one hundred and seven days to come.
13:21
Speaker 1: Lord have mercy.
13:23
Speaker 3: But the other point that must be made just for
13:27
Speaker 3: the point of clarity for this person in the White House.
13:31
Speaker 3: It was the closest presidential election in the twenty first session.
13:38
Speaker 3: He does not have a mandate. He does not have
13:41
Speaker 3: a mandate.
13:43
Speaker 1: He keeps disputing that.
13:44
Speaker 2: By the way, every time you say that, he says
13:46
Speaker 2: that's not true. I don't know why he hell been.
13:49
Speaker 3: On perpetuating lines. And I mean, it's a fact. It's
13:57
Speaker 3: just a fact.
13:58
Speaker 2: I want to stick to the money of it all,
13:59
Speaker 2: you know, and we talk about this every time we're together.
14:02
Speaker 2: But it's true, and I want people to understand this.
14:05
Speaker 2: The economy does better when they're the Democrat in the
14:07
Speaker 2: White House.
14:08
Speaker 1: That's right, Like that is just that's right, a statistical fact.
14:11
Speaker 3: That's right, you know.
14:13
Speaker 1: I mean he's been in eight months and people is
14:15
Speaker 1: broke right now.
14:16
Speaker 3: That's right.
14:17
Speaker 2: But why doesn't that stick. Why don't Democrats? Why aren't
14:19
Speaker 2: they known as the party that gets the economy?
14:21
Speaker 3: Boomb I think that we need to keep working on
14:25
Speaker 3: making sure that people understand we prioritize their immediate needs.
14:31
Speaker 3: And that is an ongoing challenge, and it is about
14:36
Speaker 3: the fact that we stand for. I mean everything that
14:39
Speaker 3: I ran on we stand for extension of the child
14:43
Speaker 3: tax credit, we stand for affordable childcare, for paid leave,
14:48
Speaker 3: and these are the issues that are the immediate issues
14:51
Speaker 3: that people need to have addressed. I have talked about
14:54
Speaker 3: the fact that, you know, one of the reasons that
14:56
Speaker 3: I ran on those issues and it was a priority
14:59
Speaker 3: for me, is because I realized that over the four
15:04
Speaker 3: years that we were in the White House, I think
15:07
Speaker 3: we really should have considered putting those issues before infrastructure
15:11
Speaker 3: and the Chips Act, And those are both important things.
15:16
Speaker 3: We need to upgrade America's infrastructure. It created jobs, Chips Act,
15:22
Speaker 3: the America needs to be a leader on this technology
15:25
Speaker 3: and now outsourcing it to our adversaries. But dealing with
15:31
Speaker 3: the immediate needs of the people has to be our
15:36
Speaker 3: first priority, because folks in our country right now are
15:39
Speaker 3: trying to get through the week much less than month,
15:42
Speaker 3: and I feel strongly that we have to really be
15:48
Speaker 3: grounded in that while we also see what's coming.
15:51
Speaker 2: You talk in the book a lot about how perception
15:53
Speaker 2: can eclipse truth. Right, do you think we'll ever get
15:56
Speaker 2: back to where truth will solely better?
16:00
Speaker 3: Truth matters? But one of the issues that has kept
16:05
Speaker 3: me up at night for a long time and before
16:07
Speaker 3: the election, during the election, and now is the rampant
16:11
Speaker 3: amount of miss and disinformation? And I will tell you
16:17
Speaker 3: it is. You know, when I was in the United
16:19
Speaker 3: States Senate, I was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
16:23
Speaker 3: and we investigated Russia's interference in the twenty sixteen election,
16:28
Speaker 3: and we declassified a lot of that investigation to make
16:33
Speaker 3: it public. And one of the things that we saw
16:35
Speaker 3: in our investigation was that this adversarial nation targeted vulnerable
16:41
Speaker 3: communities with miss and disinformation, and particular targeted the black
16:44
Speaker 3: community and brown communities with an understanding that there are
16:49
Speaker 3: certain communities that have a learned experience and a history
16:52
Speaker 3: of distrusting the system and government and will be then
16:57
Speaker 3: a prime target for those who are trying to create
17:01
Speaker 3: discord and division and distrust. And the issue of missing
17:07
Speaker 3: disinformation is not new. It is centuries old. It maybe
17:12
Speaker 3: through flyers and other means, but it is centuries old.
17:16
Speaker 3: But normally to have an impact, it would have to
17:19
Speaker 3: be nation states engaged because of the resources required to
17:23
Speaker 3: have a lot of people hear the same thing over
17:25
Speaker 3: and over again. Because of technology, the bar to entry
17:32
Speaker 3: in terms of sending out information that hits a lot
17:35
Speaker 3: of people is much lower. The positive side of that
17:39
Speaker 3: is that there is also we've democratized information, right, anybody,
17:43
Speaker 3: if you have a good message, can get it out
17:46
Speaker 3: and you don't have to have it filled through some
17:48
Speaker 3: powerful source. And anybody who's got a bad message, if
17:54
Speaker 3: it's crafted the right way to tweak the right emotions,
17:59
Speaker 3: will get to a lot of people. And don't discount
18:02
Speaker 3: how foreign governments will then manipulate that, and how bad
18:06
Speaker 3: actors will manipulate that with bots to make it flow
18:10
Speaker 3: through a lot of people, to manipulate their perspective on
18:16
Speaker 3: reality and truth.
18:18
Speaker 2: How come democrats can't get a foreign government to help them.
18:21
Speaker 1: You've got to cheat back sometimes.
18:25
Speaker 3: Well, because we believe in the power of the American
18:29
Speaker 3: people to express their power and their vote and their voice,
18:35
Speaker 3: and I certainly do, and I believe that one of
18:41
Speaker 3: this one of our greatest challenges, is this issue of
18:44
Speaker 3: missing disinformation, and that it will be the power of
18:48
Speaker 3: the people as much as anything else that will have
18:52
Speaker 3: the capacity to counteract that. Because, let me just tell
18:56
Speaker 3: you to be very candid, I don't see, for example,
19:00
Speaker 3: the use of the abuse of technology being curbed by
19:05
Speaker 3: the technology industry itself. There are some actors within it
19:10
Speaker 3: that will do good work, but you know, you've seen
19:12
Speaker 3: how they're dismissing and getting rid of in their companies
19:17
Speaker 3: and corporations, the people who are supposed to be responsible
19:19
Speaker 3: for tracking this and disinformation. I do worry and I'm
19:27
Speaker 3: concerned that Congress right now for sure will not be
19:31
Speaker 3: the place that is going to put guardrails in to
19:34
Speaker 3: curb the aspects of technology that create harm. So then
19:40
Speaker 3: one has to ask, if it's not going to come
19:42
Speaker 3: from the industry, if it's not going to come from
19:46
Speaker 3: the legislators on high, where else could it come from.
19:51
Speaker 3: Here's what I posit to you, the people, because as
19:55
Speaker 3: much as anything else, we are also consumers, and the
20:01
Speaker 3: voice of the consumer to demand what they expect and
20:05
Speaker 3: want from an industry can be very powerful when we
20:09
Speaker 3: put it into play, powerful, and so part of that
20:16
Speaker 3: is about helping people understand how fact is being manipulated,
20:20
Speaker 3: so we know who to ask and what to ask,
20:23
Speaker 3: and not just ask, but demand better in terms of
20:27
Speaker 3: you know, these huge companies and corporations pushing through their
20:33
Speaker 3: their mechanisms so much that is just patently obviously not
20:39
Speaker 3: true or factual You've.
20:41
Speaker 1: Been in politics a long time.
20:42
Speaker 2: Why are these, you know, major corporations in these institutions
20:46
Speaker 2: just bend in the knee to the current president.
20:50
Speaker 3: So, as you and I have talked about before, I
20:53
Speaker 3: did predict almost everything that has happened fact, but I
21:00
Speaker 3: did not predict the capitulation titans of industry bending the
21:06
Speaker 3: knee at the foot of a tyrant feckless. I use
21:09
Speaker 3: the f word feckless. And here's as we have discussed.
21:18
Speaker 3: You know, I said it on the debate stage. The
21:20
Speaker 3: man in a white house, he loves flattery and favor.
21:29
Speaker 3: So for those titans of industry who want to have
21:36
Speaker 3: their merger approved, or avoid an investigation, or just be
21:40
Speaker 3: close to power, we are seeing whether it be saying
21:45
Speaker 3: that the man should get the Nobel Prize, Peace Prize,
21:51
Speaker 3: to just being silent. And part of the dynamic that
21:57
Speaker 3: is at play that we have to see is part
22:01
Speaker 3: of the game they're playing is to basically suggest, and
22:06
Speaker 3: it's about scapegoating and just gaslighting, to suggest to the
22:12
Speaker 3: American people that your predicament is because of the people
22:18
Speaker 3: who are relatively powerless, instead of to distract you from
22:24
Speaker 3: focusing on the people who are powerful. Right. They're essentially
22:28
Speaker 3: saying to people, you have less because of people who
22:33
Speaker 3: have even less than you. That's part of what's going
22:37
Speaker 3: on right now, and we have to see through it
22:41
Speaker 3: in a way that we understand where the real responsibility lays,
22:47
Speaker 3: whether it be among members of Congress. And I do
22:51
Speaker 3: not absolve elected Republicans from their responsibility. I served in
22:57
Speaker 3: the Senate, and I know that a lot of them
23:02
Speaker 3: know what this is and that it's wrong. I know
23:04
Speaker 3: they know it, and they're not saying anything because they
23:09
Speaker 3: want to be close to power or preserve their standing
23:13
Speaker 3: and preserve wearing that pin on their lapel and having
23:17
Speaker 3: a bunch of interns follow them around instead of speaking
23:23
Speaker 3: truth with clarity and conviction. And then you see the
23:28
Speaker 3: ones who have done it or are prepared to do it,
23:32
Speaker 3: are deciding not to run for reelection. So you know,
23:36
Speaker 3: there's a lot of there's a lot of cowardice that
23:42
Speaker 3: we are witnessing.
23:50
Speaker 2: How hard is it for you to not get on
23:53
Speaker 2: Twitter three times a week and just post I was
23:55
Speaker 2: right about everything.
23:59
Speaker 1: I think you should do it.
24:00
Speaker 2: You said no theory because you said it takes three
24:02
Speaker 2: times for messaging to connect with people. I think you
24:05
Speaker 2: need to keep telling people that over and over and
24:07
Speaker 2: over all.
24:08
Speaker 1: Right, at least I told you so that's less characters.
24:12
Speaker 3: It's just not my style. But I'm part of what
24:17
Speaker 3: I have reflected on, though, is that not only is
24:21
Speaker 3: it about what we predicted and so many of us did,
24:26
Speaker 3: about what this would be, but also let's reflect on
24:31
Speaker 3: the fact that this thing did not just happen overnight,
24:35
Speaker 3: and that this what we are witnessing, though it feels chaotic,
24:40
Speaker 3: is actually a high velocity event that is about the
24:43
Speaker 3: swift implementation of a plan that has been decades in
24:46
Speaker 3: the making. And so one I would recommend that you know,
24:53
Speaker 3: for those of us who are Democrats, that we not
24:56
Speaker 3: be so fixated on one individual that we lose sight
24:59
Speaker 3: of what is facilitated and surrounds that one individual. And
25:07
Speaker 3: two that we understand the Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation, this
25:13
Speaker 3: project twenty twenty five did not fall out of thin air.
25:17
Speaker 3: It was It is the culmination of decades of work
25:22
Speaker 3: going after the Department of Education and Public Education. Did
25:26
Speaker 3: not just happen overnight. That has been part of an
25:29
Speaker 3: agenda for a very long time. And then you know,
25:33
Speaker 3: if you look at how we got here in terms
25:35
Speaker 3: of the path toward encouraging somebody like the current president.
25:41
Speaker 3: You know, I just think about I see it as
25:45
Speaker 3: kind of a combination of the celebrity of Ronald Reagan,
25:52
Speaker 3: the base level of discourse from neuk Ingridge, the nativism
25:58
Speaker 3: from Pat Buchanan all into one. Right, This didn't just
26:04
Speaker 3: happen overnight. And part of what I hope in our
26:08
Speaker 3: reflection of the one hundred and seven days is to
26:12
Speaker 3: reflect on the years leading up to those days, so
26:17
Speaker 3: that we can have a clarity about where we are
26:19
Speaker 3: now and what the challenges are and what our mission
26:24
Speaker 3: must be.
26:25
Speaker 2: That's why I think one hundred and seven days is
26:27
Speaker 2: so important, you know, because you are questioning everything that
26:30
Speaker 2: you know went wrong over those one hundred and seven days,
26:32
Speaker 2: and I think it'll help Democrats in the future. But
26:35
Speaker 2: when I think about that, like what went wrong over
26:38
Speaker 2: these past decades that Republicans were even able to implement
26:41
Speaker 2: something like Project twenty twenty five and executed, well, look.
26:45
Speaker 3: I mean here right here in Alabama, we can look
26:48
Speaker 3: in this region of our country. The jerrymandering, the taking
26:53
Speaker 3: over of state houses. It's been it's been very methodical, right,
27:02
Speaker 3: which is start local, start statewide, and then guess who
27:06
Speaker 3: you're going to be sent into Congress. I mean, think
27:10
Speaker 3: about this that we all know this, three co equal
27:15
Speaker 3: branches of government. The Congress is supposed to be a
27:18
Speaker 3: stopgap on the excesses and abuses of the executive. So
27:23
Speaker 3: how about this example, the executive branch through this president
27:27
Speaker 3: and his Secretary of Education and others, trying to get
27:30
Speaker 3: rid of the Department of Education. Well, constitutionally not allowed
27:36
Speaker 3: to do that without Congress. But these feckless so and sos.
27:45
Speaker 1: You know, crazy, right, y'all don't know she talked. She
27:50
Speaker 1: talks crazy.
27:53
Speaker 3: I just know how to pronounce words correctly.
28:05
Speaker 1: I'm glad you have optimism. I have optimism as well.
28:08
Speaker 2: But you know, I was looking at like, if they're
28:10
Speaker 2: not so Supreme Court, you know, guts the voting rights ach.
28:14
Speaker 2: I was looking at what the redistricting map would look
28:17
Speaker 2: like for the South.
28:17
Speaker 1: It's like, how do you have optimism when they're doing
28:21
Speaker 1: things like that?
28:23
Speaker 3: It is The optimism is about knowing what we fight for.
28:28
Speaker 3: The optimism is about we cannot afford to give up.
28:32
Speaker 3: The optimism is about we cannot afford are nor will
28:36
Speaker 3: we be passive? Right, That is the optimism. The optimism
28:40
Speaker 3: is about our spirit will not be defeated. The optimism
28:45
Speaker 3: is about the powers with the people, and we are
28:48
Speaker 3: not allowing anyone to take our power from us.
28:53
Speaker 1: That is.
28:55
Speaker 3: That is where I derive my optimism, knowing that is
29:00
Speaker 3: part of the nature and our culture as Americans, that
29:04
Speaker 3: we are up for a good fight when the things
29:07
Speaker 3: that we hold dear are on the line. And back
29:10
Speaker 3: to your point about the South, it is here. I mean,
29:13
Speaker 3: you all in Birmingham are you are the standing in
29:19
Speaker 3: the legacy. You are the legacy of the people who
29:23
Speaker 3: fought for our nation to have a conscience around notions
29:29
Speaker 3: of equality and fairness and justice and civil rights which
29:36
Speaker 3: benefit everyone.
29:43
Speaker 1: Lord have Merton. I don't want to fight that hard,
29:47
Speaker 1: but I guess we ain't got no choke.
29:48
Speaker 3: We have to. We have to. It is Listen, there
29:54
Speaker 3: is nothing that you can take for granted if you
29:57
Speaker 3: are not vigilant. And look, we're here for real talk. Look,
30:01
Speaker 3: it may get worse before it gets better. Okay, it
30:05
Speaker 3: may get worse before it gets better. And I hope
30:08
Speaker 3: in these nine months, I pray that we have all
30:12
Speaker 3: found a way to the extent necessary to heal, to revive,
30:20
Speaker 3: to have a moment of rest, to have a moment
30:24
Speaker 3: of reflection, and then to get back out there. Tomorrow
30:28
Speaker 3: is no King's Day, right right, take it to the
30:36
Speaker 3: streets and peaceful protests. The midterms are coming up. We
30:40
Speaker 3: have elections. You know. People have asked me. I just
30:43
Speaker 3: did an interview earlier and the report asked me, well,
30:46
Speaker 3: do you what is your role? I said, well, I'm
30:48
Speaker 3: a leader of the Democratic Party. I am a leader
30:51
Speaker 3: and my intention. My intention is that we win. That
30:57
Speaker 3: we win, and it's about election. It's about winning in
31:01
Speaker 3: terms of fighting for the principles behind our constitution, the
31:06
Speaker 3: integrity of our nation and our values. Like we have
31:11
Speaker 3: to know we are winners and know that we fight
31:16
Speaker 3: like winners because we know what we stand for, so
31:20
Speaker 3: we know what to fight for. That's what this moment
31:23
Speaker 3: is right now.
31:25
Speaker 2: Are you going to take time to enjoy yourself on
31:28
Speaker 2: your upcoming birthday?
31:29
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, you know right about So if my birthday's
31:35
Speaker 3: coming up.
31:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, the dove knows that it's time, right and I
31:39
Speaker 2: know it In the book you kind of forgot last year.
31:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I tell a story about I love my
31:45
Speaker 3: husband so much. I love my husband so much. I
31:48
Speaker 3: love my Tugie so much. But yeah, that was not
31:52
Speaker 3: a good birthday.
31:56
Speaker 1: You got trigger just now just thinking about it.
31:59
Speaker 3: Okay, what happened was so what happened was this? So
32:07
Speaker 3: my birthday is is is just days before the My
32:11
Speaker 3: birthday is October twenty so so so thank you so so. Anyway,
32:17
Speaker 3: we were, as you can imagine, knee need deep in
32:20
Speaker 3: the campaign, and Doug and I, Doug, my husband and I,
32:24
Speaker 3: we had basically, you know, like so many of our families,
32:27
Speaker 3: we had you know, split up to everybody being somewhere
32:31
Speaker 3: that we needed to be, and our teams had conspired
32:35
Speaker 3: so lovingly that he and I would end up in
32:38
Speaker 3: the same place the night of my birthday. Yeah, so
32:50
Speaker 3: you're gonna ask me, did Doug plan a dinner?
32:53
Speaker 1: No? I read the book. I know he didn't.
32:54
Speaker 3: He didn't. So then it came time for the birthday gift.
33:03
Speaker 3: I opened the gift. I told you my birthday is
33:08
Speaker 3: October twentieth. The gift was a necklace that it was engraved.
33:16
Speaker 3: It was not October twentieth, it was the date of
33:21
Speaker 3: our anniversary. Because Doug had clearly thought he was going
33:26
Speaker 3: to get a two fur with that one gift.
33:33
Speaker 1: Need you to do better this year? Doug.
33:35
Speaker 3: Okay, fourthday hit and he was so and it was
33:40
Speaker 3: it was leading up to the World Series, and so
33:43
Speaker 3: we had had we had dinner and which I selected,
33:48
Speaker 3: and we had a little cupcake and I blew out
33:53
Speaker 3: the candle and I was done. And so I went
33:57
Speaker 3: to go take a bath because actually during the camp
34:00
Speaker 3: and I highly suggest it for anybody who has a
34:02
Speaker 3: bathtub that it is a really wonderful way to distressed
34:06
Speaker 3: at the end of the day. Yes, with epsom salt
34:10
Speaker 3: with EBB some salt. Right, So I went to go
34:13
Speaker 3: take a bath. Doug was watching the baseball game, and
34:16
Speaker 3: then I realized in this hotel and they had it
34:20
Speaker 3: was a nice little sweet they got us for that night,
34:22
Speaker 3: and the towels were on the other side of the bathroom.
34:27
Speaker 3: So of course I'm vice president running for president the
34:30
Speaker 3: United States. So I had my phone next to the bathtub,
34:34
Speaker 3: and but first I just called out to my husband,
34:39
Speaker 3: dougie nothing. Then I went to Doug calling him out,
34:47
Speaker 3: Doug nothing. And then it's real serious when I go Douglas.
34:56
Speaker 3: So I picked up the phone to call him. He
35:00
Speaker 3: didn't answer, so then I FaceTime audio him. Here's how
35:08
Speaker 3: he answered, what's up? And that was it, and so
35:20
Speaker 3: we got into it a little bit.
35:24
Speaker 1: Rightfully.
35:26
Speaker 3: But here's the thing about my husband and about that moment.
35:30
Speaker 3: We all, in our relationships, in whatever form you have,
35:35
Speaker 3: go through stressful moments and go through you know what
35:39
Speaker 3: life brings. There are joy and there is also stress.
35:43
Speaker 3: And my husband said to me at that moment, he
35:48
Speaker 3: looked at me and he just poured cold water on
35:51
Speaker 3: the heat of that moment, and he looked at me
35:53
Speaker 3: and he said, we cannot turn on each other. And
36:00
Speaker 3: it was so poignant. And you know, I tell a
36:04
Speaker 3: few stories like that about just what this was because Charlemagne.
36:08
Speaker 3: In many ways, I just wanted to write this book
36:11
Speaker 3: to also just lift the hood on what happens behind
36:16
Speaker 3: the scenes in every way. I think there's so much
36:19
Speaker 3: about I mean, obviously the office of president is and
36:24
Speaker 3: it affects the entire globe, but there's so much about
36:29
Speaker 3: the process that's very opaque that people unless you've been
36:32
Speaker 3: personally involved at a very close level, you don't really
36:35
Speaker 3: have a sense of And I wanted to help people
36:38
Speaker 3: have a sense of it in a way that I
36:40
Speaker 3: hope helps people see where they could fit in or
36:43
Speaker 3: be involved or a part of it, and feel a
36:46
Speaker 3: sense of understanding what it all involves so that we
36:51
Speaker 3: can all participate in an active way.
36:53
Speaker 2: It feels like this is the first time that you
36:56
Speaker 2: get to control your own narrative, because I feel like,
36:59
Speaker 2: you know, even when you first ran for president back
37:01
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty, from that time until now, it's people
37:04
Speaker 2: that have been trying to control your narrative. They've been
37:08
Speaker 2: trying to shape who Kamala Harris is to the people,
37:10
Speaker 2: as opposed to Kamala Harris letting the people know who
37:13
Speaker 2: she is.
37:15
Speaker 3: Well, Look, there are all always when you put yourself
37:18
Speaker 3: out there, and especially in this environment, be it just
37:23
Speaker 3: for any of us, whether you have a public persona
37:28
Speaker 3: or not, because of social media and so much else,
37:32
Speaker 3: putting yourself out there in any way leads to invariably
37:39
Speaker 3: that there will be people who misunderstand you on purpose
37:44
Speaker 3: and even dislike you. And it is an awful feeling
37:51
Speaker 3: to be misunderstood, much less dislike. But it's an awful
37:55
Speaker 3: feeling to be misunderstood, and it is sadly, you know,
38:02
Speaker 3: hopefully it is just a few. It is not everybody
38:05
Speaker 3: but it is sadly an aspect of putting yourself out there.
38:11
Speaker 3: And that's why I will always applaud anybody for putting
38:16
Speaker 3: themselves out there for any reason, be it a job
38:19
Speaker 3: or a promotion or applying for you know, school or
38:24
Speaker 3: or or whatever. There is always going to be a
38:28
Speaker 3: level of vulnerability associated with ambition. And I am in
38:38
Speaker 3: that way no different than anybody who puts themselves out there.
38:41
Speaker 3: That you are exposed to that and it is not
38:44
Speaker 3: enjoyable and it can be painful.
38:48
Speaker 1: But campaigns against.
38:50
Speaker 3: You, well yeah, I mean look when I when I
38:54
Speaker 3: from the big when I ran for Attorney general, the
38:57
Speaker 3: National Republicans put this was before I sitting since United
39:00
Speaker 3: when they put a million dollar hit piece against me
39:05
Speaker 3: when I ran for Attorney general in twenty ten, and
39:09
Speaker 3: I asked my campaign consultant what is going on? And
39:12
Speaker 3: he said, look, their theory is, you know, kill the
39:14
Speaker 3: baby in the crib. I am, yeah, But.
39:20
Speaker 1: They don't believe in abortion, and we don't believe in killing.
39:25
Speaker 3: Let's not go there, let's just not let's not do that.
39:29
Speaker 3: But I do believe that it is important for one
39:35
Speaker 3: to exercise their voice, and that's part of the reason
39:37
Speaker 3: I wrote the book, which is, look this, these one
39:41
Speaker 3: hundred and seven days are part of American history. It
39:44
Speaker 3: is part of American history, and I wasn't about to
39:48
Speaker 3: let history tell the story without my voice.
39:56
Speaker 2: So if there's one truth in one hundred and seven
40:01
Speaker 2: days that might make people uncomfortable, what do you think
40:03
Speaker 2: it is.
40:04
Speaker 3: Well, it depends on who you are, right, I don't.
40:10
Speaker 1: I don't.
40:10
Speaker 3: I think that there are a number of conversations that
40:15
Speaker 3: we need to have right now that are difficult conversations
40:21
Speaker 3: that will make people uncomfortable. But now is the time
40:25
Speaker 3: to have those conversations in a way that is not
40:28
Speaker 3: intended to be confrontational or you know, to bring attention
40:35
Speaker 3: to oneself, but just literally we've got some deep work
40:37
Speaker 3: to do as a country. We really do. There's among
40:42
Speaker 3: the things that is I think weighing on us and
40:46
Speaker 3: I and so many people are feeling on edge, is
40:52
Speaker 3: you know, we've always had a fair amount of cynicism
40:56
Speaker 3: based on you know, trust of the system and government, right,
40:59
Speaker 3: but I think it was really highlighted by the pandemic
41:02
Speaker 3: when the rug just got pulled out from so many people.
41:06
Speaker 3: So there is that trust around the individual and the
41:11
Speaker 3: government and systems. But what also we are experiencing right
41:16
Speaker 3: now that I think is so it's weighing us down,
41:21
Speaker 3: is the high level of distrust between the American people.
41:28
Speaker 3: And I don't mean just cannot leave my door unlocked,
41:33
Speaker 3: I mean can I trust you to not be a
41:37
Speaker 3: threat to my very existence? Right? And that's that's a
41:46
Speaker 3: real issue right now for us as a country. And
41:50
Speaker 3: this is where again I say the power is with
41:53
Speaker 3: the people, because it is also about what we do
41:56
Speaker 3: in our daily lives in the context of of whatever
42:00
Speaker 3: our world is, our neighbors, our friends, our relatives, are coworkers.
42:07
Speaker 3: But to really work on these conversations and also to
42:11
Speaker 3: understand that not everybody is working with the same information,
42:16
Speaker 3: and we should not assume that we know someone else's
42:20
Speaker 3: morals or principles or values on the assumption that we're
42:24
Speaker 3: working with the same information. And that gets back to
42:27
Speaker 3: the point of the rampant amount of miss and disinformation.
42:31
Speaker 3: And part of the antidote to that is really working
42:37
Speaker 3: on developing community and developing those relationships of trust, and
42:47
Speaker 3: that requires work. Relationships and trust require work. We know
42:49
Speaker 3: that we know that in our personal lives and our
42:51
Speaker 3: professional lives and right now we need to do a
42:55
Speaker 3: lot of work as a country on that.
43:01
Speaker 1: Do you think the media ever truly wanted to understand you?
43:05
Speaker 3: Yes? I do think they're Yes, I think. I mean, look,
43:09
Speaker 3: the media is a broad thing, right, Like, did Fox
43:12
Speaker 3: News want to understand me?
43:13
Speaker 1: No? No they didn't.
43:17
Speaker 3: They didn't.
43:18
Speaker 2: But that was one of your favorite, my favorite interviews
43:20
Speaker 2: of yours during the campaign though, when you went on
43:22
Speaker 2: a because I was like, you know, I like when
43:25
Speaker 2: you get at people, even when it's me.
43:27
Speaker 1: But I'm like, yeah, I like, I like that.
43:28
Speaker 3: But here's the thing, and I and I You're right.
43:31
Speaker 3: In the book, I do talk a lot about the media.
43:34
Speaker 3: And the thing that I was so disappointing about that
43:37
Speaker 3: interview and I write about it, is that I was
43:41
Speaker 3: told and believed that he would be tough.
43:46
Speaker 1: But fair on Fox News.
43:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I know that. But you know what, but listen,
43:52
Speaker 3: here's the thing. I was running to be president of
43:55
Speaker 3: all Americans, including people who watched Fox News, and and
44:01
Speaker 3: so I wasn't going to not give myself and them
44:05
Speaker 3: an opportunity to have that conversation. But the way he
44:11
Speaker 3: set up the interview was quite disingenuous, and I think
44:18
Speaker 3: right now, we are faced with a real challenge around
44:21
Speaker 3: media writ large. We are looking at a lot of
44:24
Speaker 3: corporate run media. I would urge everyone to really support
44:31
Speaker 3: independent media. You know, the climate is changing, so you know,
44:40
Speaker 3: in addition to trusted sources I mentioned earlier, like AP
44:44
Speaker 3: and you know New York Times. But really it's so
44:47
Speaker 3: diffuse now. I was talking with a group of young
44:50
Speaker 3: people earlier today here in Birmingham, and they were between
44:55
Speaker 3: about age of eighteen and twenty two, and I was
44:57
Speaker 3: asking him where do you get your news? And it's
45:02
Speaker 3: all online. They're not really reading their news, They're they're
45:08
Speaker 3: receiving it mostly through a video presentation, and it's through TikTok,
45:15
Speaker 3: it's through Twitter, it's through the shade room through And
45:23
Speaker 3: what they are yearning for, as they expressed to me
45:26
Speaker 3: without me asking, is we know how we are being
45:32
Speaker 3: treated like a commodity. They know it, our young leaders
45:37
Speaker 3: know it, and they are yearning to have those conversations
45:42
Speaker 3: where they can trust that fact and truth are being
45:46
Speaker 3: sent their way. So there we are.
45:51
Speaker 1: I thought you did a great job.
45:52
Speaker 2: I mean, even when you read one hundred and seven days,
45:54
Speaker 2: you did a great job of going to you know,
45:56
Speaker 2: the legacy media outlets like The View, the Code Bands,
45:58
Speaker 2: but then you still were doing the that's like that.
46:01
Speaker 2: I thought that was a great way to do it
46:02
Speaker 2: because you kind of got to meet everybody where they
46:05
Speaker 2: are nowadays.
46:06
Speaker 3: That's exactly right.
46:07
Speaker 1: I thought you did a good that's of course with
46:11
Speaker 1: with with the View. You know, you you had a
46:13
Speaker 1: lot of regret over that moment in the book.
46:16
Speaker 3: Yeah. There. I did an interview on The View shortly
46:21
Speaker 3: before the election, and I was asked about the difference
46:25
Speaker 3: between myself and Joe Biden, and it was in an
46:32
Speaker 3: environment where there had been so much being sent his
46:36
Speaker 3: way and I just wasn't about to pile on for
46:41
Speaker 3: better and worse. I am a loyal person, and I
46:48
Speaker 3: interpreted the question as requiring me to criticize him, and
46:52
Speaker 3: I wasn't going to do that. What thank you. But
47:01
Speaker 3: what I misinterpreted was that there was also a desire
47:08
Speaker 3: for me to distinguish myself from him. But I thought
47:17
Speaker 3: the differences were obvious, and you know, maybe I should not.
47:24
Speaker 3: Maybe I should have probably given more thought to how
47:27
Speaker 3: to point out you know, for example, I was focused
47:31
Speaker 3: on what we need to do around childcare and those
47:34
Speaker 3: kinds of things. So yeah, I do reflect on that
47:37
Speaker 3: interview in the book and talk about that, And you do.
47:39
Speaker 1: Talk about loyalty a lot in the book.
47:41
Speaker 2: You talk about your loyalty being tested, Like what's your
47:44
Speaker 2: definition of loyalty in politics versus loyalty in friendship.
47:49
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a great question. I mean, loyalty is about
47:54
Speaker 3: as much as anything, not being a fair weather friend.
47:59
Speaker 3: It's about standing with people when they're down and when
48:03
Speaker 3: they're up. It's about you know, not you know, not
48:09
Speaker 3: just fair weather. I'm with you when the times are good,
48:14
Speaker 3: and and it's about you know, I think there is
48:19
Speaker 3: loyalty is rooted and really caring about another person and
48:25
Speaker 3: their well being. Loyalty I think is about for me,
48:30
Speaker 3: you know, knowing life is long and I mean, look,
48:36
Speaker 3: my best friend from kindergarten is still one of my
48:38
Speaker 3: best friends, right, and that's just how I am.
48:43
Speaker 2: But even with that, like in the book, you know,
48:45
Speaker 2: your loyalty was being questioned even though you was, you know,
48:49
Speaker 2: loyal to the soil, Like your loyalty was being questioned
48:52
Speaker 2: by you know, the Biden, Biden's wife in particular, and
48:57
Speaker 2: Dougie had an issue with that, like that that didn't.
48:59
Speaker 1: Mean you feel a way.
49:02
Speaker 3: Nobody likes to have their loyalty or they're good questions,
49:06
Speaker 3: but that was I mean, that was something that I
49:12
Speaker 3: think needs to be put in context as well. But
49:16
Speaker 3: the reality of it is that my focus was not
49:21
Speaker 3: one not in the book and not on the campaign
49:24
Speaker 3: trail about Joe Biden. My focus was on the fact
49:29
Speaker 3: that I was running against Donald Trump and that that
49:34
Speaker 3: needed to be the focus of everybody involved, as opposed
49:38
Speaker 3: to trying to find some kind of palace intrigue in
49:42
Speaker 3: terms of what was going on within our administration.
49:45
Speaker 2: When people say they still don't know who the real
49:47
Speaker 2: Kamala Harris is, do you ever think to yourself, that's
49:49
Speaker 2: because you're.
49:49
Speaker 3: Not ready for her, because I'm not.
49:52
Speaker 2: What do you ever think to yourself that's because you're
49:55
Speaker 2: not ready for her as in me?
49:58
Speaker 3: I think there is some truth to that, I suppose,
50:01
Speaker 3: but yeah, I don't know that people are asking that
50:04
Speaker 3: question as much as they're asking how can we bring
50:06
Speaker 3: down the cost of food?
50:10
Speaker 2: During the campaign, they were though, Like during the campaign,
50:14
Speaker 2: they definitely were.
50:15
Speaker 3: Well, not seventy five million people. Seventy five million people
50:18
Speaker 3: voted for me.
50:18
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, pact. You want to do some audience questions, sure,
50:27
Speaker 1: Courtney Weaver. Oh how are you? Yeah, this is a
50:32
Speaker 1: good question.
50:33
Speaker 2: How are you fostering hope during a time when hope
50:35
Speaker 2: can feel lost?
50:36
Speaker 3: Oh? Courtney, are you here? Can we turn on the
50:39
Speaker 3: lights so we can see everybody? Courtney, somebody's gonna turn
50:44
Speaker 3: on the lights in here. Where are you? Wait? Wave
50:48
Speaker 3: waves everybody around Courtney Wave.
50:52
Speaker 1: Oh there were a great you just woke up. You
50:55
Speaker 1: was on your on Instagram? Was something pay attention.
51:02
Speaker 3: Hope. So here's for example, I just ask everybody look
51:08
Speaker 3: at each other, the person sitting next to you that
51:10
Speaker 3: you don't know, and just say hello, and how you
51:16
Speaker 3: do it right? My hope is is born out of
51:26
Speaker 3: just the mood here and my knowledge that we want
51:35
Speaker 3: to we love our country and we know it's our
51:39
Speaker 3: country and we're prepared to fight for it. The same
51:49
Speaker 3: people who came to the rallies by the tens of
51:52
Speaker 3: thousands during those hundred and seven days still have that
51:57
Speaker 3: sense of hope. I know it for what are our
52:00
Speaker 3: country can be. They still believe it on behalf of
52:03
Speaker 3: their children and the children and their lives. And hope
52:08
Speaker 3: is an interesting thing is It's something that is ours
52:12
Speaker 3: to have, but it can't be taken from us. We
52:17
Speaker 3: can't let our hope be taken from us. It's something
52:20
Speaker 3: that comes from inside of us that we have and
52:25
Speaker 3: when we look around and see each other and we
52:28
Speaker 3: know that this fight is worth it, that gives me hope.
52:32
Speaker 3: That gives me hope, And it gets back to my point,
52:40
Speaker 3: don't let any circumstances, situation diminish that light that when
52:47
Speaker 3: I think about hope and light, it's part of the
52:49
Speaker 3: same thing.
52:51
Speaker 1: Did you ever have to build that back up?
52:53
Speaker 2: Like was there ever a period like after election night
52:56
Speaker 2: and now where you had to replenish that couple hope.
53:00
Speaker 3: Well, I needed to take some time, and that's for sure.
53:06
Speaker 3: I spent time, you know, with my family. I spent
53:10
Speaker 3: a lot of time cooking. Doug's very happy. I needed
53:17
Speaker 3: to take a minute. And you know, for example, for months,
53:23
Speaker 3: I did not watch cable news. I just was not
53:25
Speaker 3: going to I was watching the cooking channel full time.
53:33
Speaker 3: So I knew I needed to take a minute to
53:35
Speaker 3: just pull back because again, every day and still every day,
53:41
Speaker 3: you see what's happening and we knew what could have been,
53:47
Speaker 3: and it's very it's painful for all of us, and
53:49
Speaker 3: most importantly, it's painful for the people who right now,
53:53
Speaker 3: for example, starting on November first, their premiums are going
53:57
Speaker 3: to go up in terms of the healthcare because the
54:02
Speaker 3: Republicans who are in charge of the House to send
54:04
Speaker 3: it in the White House. They're in charge. This is
54:07
Speaker 3: their shutdown. This is their shutdown, right And you know,
54:19
Speaker 3: so when you see bad things happening, it has a
54:21
Speaker 3: way of being very deflating, and sometimes you need to
54:24
Speaker 3: just step step back for a moment to realize it's
54:28
Speaker 3: not everybody, and it's and and there are more good
54:33
Speaker 3: people than there are those who are trying to cause destruction.
54:37
Speaker 2: You know, you asked me earlier it was the misconception
54:39
Speaker 2: that people have you, And I just thought about it
54:40
Speaker 2: that people I don't know if people really know you
54:42
Speaker 2: really be cooking because I remember one time we were
54:46
Speaker 2: in South Carolina. We was in Somerville, South Carolina, I believe,
54:50
Speaker 2: and I think we were speaking. You were speaking at
54:52
Speaker 2: a church. That's when you unveiled your mental health plan.
54:54
Speaker 2: And I was with you, and you know that you've.
54:56
Speaker 3: Been a great leader on mental health.
54:57
Speaker 1: Thank you.
54:58
Speaker 2: And it was when it was over you. You It
55:00
Speaker 2: was like, look, I want to show you something. And
55:02
Speaker 2: you had a trunk full of calligreens.
55:05
Speaker 1: And wasn't no cameras around. It was nothing. And she
55:10
Speaker 1: asked me, say, you think I'm a little crazy walking
55:11
Speaker 1: through the airport with all these calligreens.
55:15
Speaker 3: Okay, So here's what happened. It was Thanksgiving, yes, and
55:24
Speaker 3: I was campaigning and my family we decided to spend
55:30
Speaker 3: our Thanksgiving in Iowa, and I wanted to take my
55:37
Speaker 3: callagreens from South Carolina. So I had plastic bags full
55:47
Speaker 3: of fresh collar greens walking through the airport. I didn't care.
55:52
Speaker 3: I was a good country woman. I was walking through
55:58
Speaker 3: put in my collar.
56:00
Speaker 1: It's true story.
56:02
Speaker 3: It's a true story.
56:04
Speaker 1: Darryl Prewitt, he says, Madam Vice President.
56:07
Speaker 2: A lot of people in our communities feel like we
56:09
Speaker 2: only get attention when it's election season, but not when
56:12
Speaker 2: it's time for real investments. So my question is how
56:14
Speaker 2: do we move from being needed from votes to being
56:17
Speaker 2: valued for our power?
56:20
Speaker 1: Darryl Pruitt.
56:21
Speaker 3: Darryl, where are you there, darl there? You are hello? No,
56:29
Speaker 3: you're right. I mean part of the work that elected
56:32
Speaker 3: leaders have to do, that we all have to do
56:35
Speaker 3: is not just come around election time and and it
56:41
Speaker 3: can't be transactional.
56:44
Speaker 1: You know.
56:44
Speaker 3: One of the reasons I decided not to run for
56:47
Speaker 3: governor of California is I'm just I need I want
56:50
Speaker 3: to be I want to be talking like to the
56:54
Speaker 3: young people else talking with today in Birmingham, and it
56:58
Speaker 3: not be transactional where I'm not there asking for their
57:02
Speaker 3: vote and elected leaders people are running for office. Democrats
57:08
Speaker 3: need to do a better job of that and being
57:13
Speaker 3: present and listening. I mean as an extension at that point.
57:20
Speaker 3: So part of what I am proposing to extend the
57:25
Speaker 3: power of the people and to make sure that people
57:28
Speaker 3: who have so much at stake are heard, is I
57:32
Speaker 3: actually believe we need to bring down the age of
57:38
Speaker 3: voting to sixteen. I do. So let that sit with
57:45
Speaker 3: you for a minute. I know it's if you have
57:53
Speaker 3: if you have sixteen year olds in your life, it's
57:54
Speaker 3: a complicated thing I'm asking you.
57:56
Speaker 1: To think about.
57:58
Speaker 3: I mean, you can work and drive, it's but here's
58:02
Speaker 3: the thing. The biggest issues that I think we are facing,
58:08
Speaker 3: that are the most intractable, are directly going to impact
58:14
Speaker 3: people who are in that generation. It is going to
58:18
Speaker 3: there is so much about way the things have been
58:23
Speaker 3: that for some of us, we're going to be okay.
58:27
Speaker 3: But if you look at it in terms of the
58:29
Speaker 3: future of work, for example, what technology is doing right
58:34
Speaker 3: now to change the future of work in America and
58:38
Speaker 3: the world is profound. Gen Z are from age thirteen
58:43
Speaker 3: to about twenty seven to twenty eight. They are a
58:47
Speaker 3: larger population of people than boomers. They have only known
58:53
Speaker 3: the climate crisis. They missed substantial phases of their education
58:59
Speaker 3: and socialization through the pandemic. Understand one in four Black
59:05
Speaker 3: Americans lost a family member during the pandemic, So imagine
59:09
Speaker 3: what that means in terms of the trauma for the
59:11
Speaker 3: family unit. Understand that the statistics that I have seen
59:18
Speaker 3: are that gen Z will come out of high school
59:21
Speaker 3: or college having ten to twelve jobs in their lifetime.
59:27
Speaker 3: Previous generations, the job you took out of high school
59:31
Speaker 3: or college was pretty much the job you had until
59:33
Speaker 3: you retired. For those who are in high school in
59:38
Speaker 3: college right now, they're wondering, especially those who are in college,
59:42
Speaker 3: if what they are studying is actually going to result
59:45
Speaker 3: in a job that pays them. Right. The American dream
59:54
Speaker 3: around the possibility of home ownership all of that. And
1:00:00
Speaker 3: so when I think about if we were to allow
1:00:06
Speaker 3: younger people to vote and what that would require of
1:00:10
Speaker 3: people running for office, which is to not just talk
1:00:13
Speaker 3: about right now, but what is your plan for the
1:00:16
Speaker 3: next five, ten, and twenty years for our country, Because
1:00:20
Speaker 3: it is they, our youngest generation, that are going to
1:00:25
Speaker 3: either benefit or pay the price for what we are
1:00:29
Speaker 3: doing right now. So there you go, think about it,
1:00:34
Speaker 3: think about it. But I think it is it is
1:00:37
Speaker 3: when we talk about listening to the people, and not
1:00:40
Speaker 3: just around election time, because when I'm talking to young
1:00:43
Speaker 3: people around our country, they're done with us. They are impatient.
1:00:48
Speaker 3: They're like, you know what, y'all need to figure it
1:00:51
Speaker 3: out or we're going to do it for you. So
1:00:55
Speaker 3: there you are.
1:00:55
Speaker 2: You know, in the book you write about democracy being fragile,
1:00:58
Speaker 2: and we see that happening right now. Do you still
1:01:00
Speaker 2: believe the system can can fix yourself from the inside?
1:01:04
Speaker 3: No, not necessarily. Okay, it pains me to say that.
1:01:09
Speaker 3: I when I decided to become a prosecutor, I had
1:01:15
Speaker 3: to defend that decision with my family. They were not
1:01:19
Speaker 3: down with that decision, so many of them. And I said, look,
1:01:24
Speaker 3: why is it that we are always thinking that for
1:01:28
Speaker 3: systems that need change or reform, that we have to
1:01:33
Speaker 3: be on the outside on Ben de knee or trying
1:01:36
Speaker 3: to break down the door to get that improvement done.
1:01:40
Speaker 3: I said, shouldn't we also think about being on the
1:01:42
Speaker 3: inside of the system as a way to have an impact.
1:01:48
Speaker 3: And I have believed that, and I've seen the benefit
1:01:50
Speaker 3: of that my entire career. But to be very candid,
1:01:56
Speaker 3: I perhaps naively thought the system and would be stronger
1:02:01
Speaker 3: in this moment, and it's been. And I think that
1:02:08
Speaker 3: without any question, the destruction caused by this administration in
1:02:13
Speaker 3: this moment and the debris that will be left is
1:02:18
Speaker 3: going to require some serious work, and it will need
1:02:23
Speaker 3: to be without nostalgia about how things were, knowing that
1:02:31
Speaker 3: there was a lot that was not working so well
1:02:35
Speaker 3: and there was a lot that was working well, to
1:02:37
Speaker 3: be sure, and the people inside, these career people who
1:02:42
Speaker 3: have been there doing incredible God's work must be applauded always.
1:02:47
Speaker 3: But the structure and the way we have designed some
1:02:50
Speaker 3: of these systems has turned out to be quite flawed.
1:02:54
Speaker 3: And so the change that we want and the improvement
1:02:59
Speaker 3: that we're going to need, some of it will be
1:03:01
Speaker 3: from inside the system. But I think a lot of
1:03:03
Speaker 3: it is going to be because of the pressure that
1:03:05
Speaker 3: the people put to say, this is how I want
1:03:08
Speaker 3: my government to work for me. I think that's and
1:03:12
Speaker 3: I think that perhaps in this moment of crisis, it
1:03:15
Speaker 3: is going to one of the maybe opportunities in this
1:03:19
Speaker 3: moment of severe crisis is that when we have to
1:03:22
Speaker 3: then start figuring out how we're going to deal with
1:03:25
Speaker 3: the debris and the cleanup, that it gives us an
1:03:28
Speaker 3: opportunity to reimagine some of these systems to make them
1:03:35
Speaker 3: more effective and responsive to the needs of the people.
1:03:39
Speaker 2: Well, if one hundred and seven days was your closure
1:03:42
Speaker 2: for one chapter, what's the new one you're ready to open?
1:03:45
Speaker 1: Are you going to be part of that cleanup? Are
1:03:46
Speaker 1: you going to be out there to shoot you?
1:03:49
Speaker 3: You know, it is my nature to serve. I'm not
1:03:51
Speaker 3: going to stop serving, But right now my focus is
1:03:55
Speaker 3: on winning, and so I'm going to be doing work
1:04:01
Speaker 3: on behalf of folks in the midterms. There are two
1:04:05
Speaker 3: important governor's races happening in the country right now, which
1:04:09
Speaker 3: we should focus on. In New Jersey and Virginia. There's
1:04:14
Speaker 3: the local work that's happening, and that's going to be
1:04:17
Speaker 3: my focus. We have to win on everything, and it's
1:04:21
Speaker 3: about not only elections, but around this war on disinformation
1:04:28
Speaker 3: and also just lifting up the ability of us as
1:04:33
Speaker 3: Americans to trust each other. There's a lot of work
1:04:35
Speaker 3: to be done, and I'm in it and I'm here
1:04:38
Speaker 3: for the fight.
1:04:39
Speaker 2: Make some noise for the Madame Vice President John Kamala
1:04:42
Speaker 2: Harris Birmingham, y'all have been amazing.