Latest / Pod Save America / 2020: Kamala Harris on American identity and secret recipes

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2020: Kamala Harris on American identity and secret recipes · Pod Save America

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. This week
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I got to sit down with Senator Kamala Harris, who's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: running for president, and we had a fantastic conversation. We
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: talked about her time as Attorney General and District Attorney
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: in San Francisco. We talked about what her priorities would
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: be as president. We talked about what drives her crazy
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: about the Democratic Party. We even talked about how she's
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: been secretly collecting recipes on the campaign trail. It's a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: great conversation. She was really fun to talk to, so
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: check it out. Very pleased to welcome to the show
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  Speaker 1: my senator, And one of the leading candidates for the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Democratic nomination for president, Kamala Harris. It's great to be
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: with you.
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  Speaker 2: It's great to be back with you.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome back. Yeah. I think last time. We were in
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were in San Francisco on stage.
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  Speaker 1: That was a rowdy crowd.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: That was fun. That was fun.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: San Francisco have always been our rowdiest crowds. Yeah. Maybe
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: because it's like Saturday night and there's an open bar there, but.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: And people are engaged.
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  Speaker 3: They're informed and they're engaged and they're huge fans of
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: you and your show. I mean, you know, so they're, they're,
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: they're excited.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Um, So your mother was a civil rights activist. Yes.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: You grew up going to protests. Yes. But you ultimately
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: decided against being an activist yourself. And in your book,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: you wrote, you know, when activists came marching and banging
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  Speaker 1: on doors, I wanted to be on the other side
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  Speaker 1: to let them in. Yeah. What was appealing about being
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: on the other side of that door to you?
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  Speaker 3: Part of it was, honestly and candidly, the idea that
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't have to ask permission to do the things
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: that I knew needed to be changed.
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  Speaker 2: And what do you mean by permission?
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  Speaker 3: Well, for example, when I became DA of San Francisco,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: almost immediately after taking the oath, I pulled out, I'm
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: going to date myself, but I pulled out a yellow
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  Speaker 3: pad and a pen and designed from scratch a reentry
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  Speaker 3: initiative that was focused on mostly first-time drug sales offenders
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: who were young adults who, when they were convicted, would
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: be felons for life. I knew we needed to do
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: this differently. I knew that most of these, and most
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: of them were young men, most of these young men
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  Speaker 3: were in that predicament because they did not have any
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: other opportunities or options. They were doing it because it
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: was a way to make some money. And I wanted to...
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I wanted to use the power that I had to
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  Speaker 3: show everybody else that there is a different way that
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: this can be done. And so I created one of
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: the first in the nation reentry initiatives. And I'll tell you, John,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: when I created this reentry initiative, it was called Back
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: on Track. There were DAs who would say, what are
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: you doing? you're supposed to lock people up, not let
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: them out.
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  Speaker 2: And this was what year was this?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: 2004.
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  Speaker 2: This was a long time ago.
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  Speaker 1: Not a lot of people talking about criminal justice.
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  Speaker 3: No, I mean, thankfully, we've come a very far way
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  Speaker 3: in a relatively short period of time. But back then,
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: and part of the way that we designed the program,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: it was about getting people job skills, development, and training,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: and jobs. And people would say to me, what are
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: you doing? I haven't committed a crime, and I need
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: a job. Why are you giving jobs to them?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, this was the mentality, right?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't have to ask permission. I was the DA.
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  Speaker 2: I was elected. I could do what I wanted.
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  Speaker 3: And if the voters didn't like it, they'd kick me out.
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  Speaker 3: And apparently the voters liked it, and I got reelected.
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  Speaker 3: But I had the ability to try something and also
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: to use the influence that I had as not only
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: the leader of the office, but also understanding that I
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  Speaker 3: had the discretion to be able to make those decisions.
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  Speaker 3: And I didn't have to convince somebody else that could I,
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  Speaker 3: may I exercise my discretion that way.
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  Speaker 1: From your time as DA and then your time as
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  Speaker 1: Attorney General, what are you most proud of from that record?
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  Speaker 3: I'm very proud of the work we did on reentry
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  Speaker 3: because we ended up, the work that we did at
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  Speaker 3: a relatively small scale in the beginning ended up being
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  Speaker 3: a model that was replicated in offices around the country.
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  Speaker 3: The United States Department of Justice designated back on track
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  Speaker 3: as a model of innovation for law enforcement in the
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  Speaker 3: United States. So I'm very proud of that. I'm very
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: proud of the work that we did when I was
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: attorney general. I created a whole new division of the
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: California Department of Justice, which is the second largest department
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  Speaker 3: of justice, second only to the United States Department of Justice.
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  Speaker 3: And I named the division the Bureau of Children's Justice.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Why?
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  Speaker 3: Well, because Attorneys General and certainly the Attorney General of California,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: which is a state of 40 million people, it's a
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  Speaker 3: very powerful office, and it represents a lot of people.
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  Speaker 3: There is the piece of it that is about law enforcement.
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  Speaker 3: There is also the piece of it where the Attorney
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: General is responsible for protecting consumers. So you'll remember in
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  Speaker 3: that role, I took on the five big banks of
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: the United States around the foreclosure crisis, and it was
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: a big battle, but we ended up prevailing. So I
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  Speaker 3: created the Bureau of Children's Justice because I said this.
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  Speaker 3: We seem to think that consumers are just people who
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: can engage in a financial transaction. And the assumption there,
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  Speaker 3: that's an adult, somebody who has a credit card, the
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  Speaker 3: ability to enter into a contract. But if you think
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  Speaker 3: about it more broadly, children are consumers and children consume
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  Speaker 3: a lot of goods and services. And in particular, children
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  Speaker 3: and children who are children of color, children who are
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  Speaker 3: in economically poor communities, consume an incredible amount of public
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: goods and services. And I created this division of the
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  Speaker 3: Department of Justice saying, we need to oversee and make
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  Speaker 3: sure the children are getting the benefit of their bargain.
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  Speaker 3: So we looked at things like in school districts, are
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: the children getting the benefit of their bargain around education?
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  Speaker 2: We looked at consumer rights issues. Because when I.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: Stood back as AG, I looked and there was no
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: state department that had the responsibility of protecting children in
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: that way. So I'm proud of that. I'm proud of
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: the work, again, that we did around the foreclosure crisis.
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  Speaker 3: We pushed through with the help of organized labor, with
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: the help of lots of activists and housing activists, the
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: first in the nation homeowner bill of rights, which we
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: created pretty much with our friends in the legislature out
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  Speaker 3: of whole cloth, saying that there should be legally, certain
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: rights that homeowners have in the process of foreclosure. Because
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: of course, when they are foreclosed upon, they lose everything
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: that represents their dreams and their hard work. And we
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: need to make sure they're protected in that process and
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: not taken advantage of.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Do you wish you had been able to bring a
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: civil claim against Steve Mnookin? I know people have asked that.
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  Speaker 2: Yes. And yes.
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  Speaker 3: But here we had a challenge, which is that I
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: didn't have the power to subpoena the federal, him as
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: a CEO.
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  Speaker 2: And so we changed that. We actually changed the law.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
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  Speaker 3: So that, well, we have a bill that seeks to
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: change the law in Washington. That was one of the
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: first things that we did. So that a state attorney
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  Speaker 3: general would have the tools to be able to subpoena
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  Speaker 3: and go after what we believed but needed to prove
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  Speaker 3: was wrongdoing.
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  Speaker 1: So when you were DA, you looked at high school
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  Speaker 1: dropout rates and And you started sort of a truancy
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  Speaker 1: program to sort of reduce high school dropout rates. Then
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  Speaker 1: when you were attorney general, you were champion of a
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: 2011 law that was a truancy law sort of modeled
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  Speaker 1: after your experience as DA. That law made it a
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  Speaker 1: crime for parents who let their kids miss school too
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  Speaker 1: many days in a row. As a result, some parents
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  Speaker 1: were arrested for that crime. Because of that law, a
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  Speaker 1: couple went to jail.
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  Speaker 2: In other jurisdictions.
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  Speaker 1: In other jurisdictions.
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  Speaker 2: Not under my watch ever.
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  Speaker 1: This is when you were an attorney general.
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  Speaker 2: I had no control over that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, so I guess the question is, would you support
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  Speaker 1: that kind of law, the California law as president?
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: So what went wrong with that versus what you did
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  Speaker 1: as DA?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: Unintended consequences, to be frank. When I was DA, we
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  Speaker 3: never sent a parent to jail. The whole point to
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: your introduction of the issue was... that I took a
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: look at and did an analysis of who our homicide
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  Speaker 3: victims were who were under the age of 25. And
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  Speaker 3: I learned that over 90% were high school dropouts. When
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  Speaker 3: I went to the school district, I learned that up
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  Speaker 3: to 40% of the chronically and habitually truant students were
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  Speaker 3: elementary school students, missing 50, 60, up to 80 days
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  Speaker 3: of 180-day school year. And when I looked closer, I
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  Speaker 3: realized that the system was failing these kids... not putting
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  Speaker 3: the services in place to keep them in school, to
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  Speaker 3: make it easier for their parents to do what those
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  Speaker 3: parents naturally wanted to do around parenting their children.
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  Speaker 2: And so I put a spotlight on it.
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  Speaker 3: And as a result of doing that, we ended up
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  Speaker 3: increasing attendance by over 30% because we actually required the
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: system then to kick in and do the services that
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  Speaker 3: they were required to do and sometimes had available, but
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: they weren't doing the outreach with these parents. And so
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  Speaker 3: that was the whole purpose. The purpose was understanding... the
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: significance of third grade reading level. If by the end
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  Speaker 3: of third grade, a child is not at third grade
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  Speaker 3: reading level, they literally drop off.
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  Speaker 2: And why?
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  Speaker 3: Because before third grade, they're learning how to read, then
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: comprehension kicks in and they're reading to learn. If they've
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  Speaker 3: not learned how to read, they can't read to learn
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  Speaker 3: and then they fail. And my concern was, if we
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  Speaker 3: don't take seriously the need that we as a society
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  Speaker 3: should have to ensure that our children are or receiving
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  Speaker 3: the benefit of an education, we will pay the price later,
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: and those kids will pay the price, which is that
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: they'll end up in the criminal justice system. And that's
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  Speaker 3: what I wanted to avoid. I wanted to avoid a
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: situation where those children end up being criminalized, some for
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: their entire lifetime, because we failed them in the earliest stages.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: And so part of what we wanted to do and
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: what we did successfully, when I looked into this issue, John,
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  Speaker 3: I realized that there was no distinction in the education code.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: between truancy, meaning three or four unexcused absences, and what
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: we were seeing, which is kids missing as much as
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: 80 days of 180-day school year. So we changed the
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  Speaker 3: law to say, no, we need to understand, like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: if you think of it in phases as, you know,
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  Speaker 3: yellow light, red light, red light situation is the chronic truancy.
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  Speaker 3: And we actually got it in the education code. So
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  Speaker 3: now it says chronic truancy, 10% or more of the
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  Speaker 3: school year missed. Because we had to understand institutionally that
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  Speaker 3: this is a red light warning. And we're failing these
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: kids if we're not paying attention to the fact that
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: there are kids who are chronically truant and what that
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  Speaker 3: will mean for their lives or just our failure as
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: a system to let them achieve their capacity.
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  Speaker 1: So do you think that the 2011 law shouldn't have
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: allowed some of these DAs to arrest parents?
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  Speaker 3: Because my regret is that I have now heard stories.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: That where in some jurisdictions, DAs have criminalized the parents.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: And I regret that that has happened.
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  Speaker 3: And, and that the thought that anything that I did
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  Speaker 3: could have led to that, cause that certainly was not
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: the intention.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Never was the intention. Never was the intention.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Um, so you said that when it comes to electability, uh,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: voters are going to want a candidate who has the
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: proven ability to prosecute a case against the president.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Um, Prosecute the case against the policies of the president.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Right, right, yeah. I'm sorry. I know some people took
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: that out of context.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes.
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  Speaker 1: And you were out there going to prosecute the president.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: But what does that case sound like coming from you?
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I remember I was on the Kerry campaign in 2004,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: and one of our problems was there's like a million
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: targets that George Bush gives you, right? He's incompetent. He's extreme.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: He's like, what to you is the case that you
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: want to make against Donald Trump if you get up
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: there on that stage next to him?
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Well, it's first of all, to successfully prosecute a case,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: you need to collect the evidence.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: And there's a lot of evidence, right?
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: There is the evidence that he has created policies that
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: are absolutely against the principles and the values of who
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: we say we are as Americans. And so, for example,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: the policy that's about separating children from their parents at
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: the border. in the name of border security, when in
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: fact it's a human rights abuse being committed by the
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: United States government. You can look at a number of
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: things that relate to immigration actually on that point, including.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: What he did with DACA.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: DACA was created by our former president understanding that children
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: who were brought here, many before they could walk or talk,
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: who have been proven to live a productive life, they're
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: in our colleges and militaries working in Fortune 500 companies,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: that they should be given, if they can clear a vet,
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: if they've not committed any crimes, they should be given
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: protection from deportation.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: We put a policy in place, and when we told
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: these kids.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: That you have to qualify for this protection and give
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: us information, we also told them, if you give us
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: this information, we will not use it against you for.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: The purposes of deportation.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: This guy comes in and breaks America's promise to these kids.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: You can look at playing politics with trade and conducting
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: trade policy by tweet, and the evidence is clear about
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: how that has hurt American workers, be it farmers or
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: folks in industries, and the way that this president has
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: conducted himself with this unilateral approach to policy as it
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: relates in particular to issues like trade and foreign affairs
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: and national security, and what invariably that will mean in
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: terms of real peril to us as a nation, in
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: terms of not only our standing but our security, there
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: is plenty of evidence to prosecute the case against the
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: policies of this president and to show him ill-equipped to
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: lead this nation, ill-equipped to be the commander-in-chief, and that
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: he needs to go.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: You mentioned immigration. You've been a fierce advocate for immigration
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: for a long time when you were in California Attorney
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: General and DA as well. What do you think about
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Julian Castro's proposal to decriminalize illegal entry? So it would
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: go back to being a civil infraction. Obviously, if you
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: don't have your papers, you could still go through a
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: deportation hearing. You could be deported. But by not criminalizing it,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't have these long detentions anymore.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: I'm not familiar with his proposal, and I'll take a
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: look at it. But as a general matter, I'll tell
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: you what I've said for years, which is being an
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: undocumented immigrant is not a crime. You know, I mean,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: the idea that people are suggesting that.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: It is a violation of rules. That's not the point, though.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: The way it has been characterized is to suggest... that
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: undocumented immigrants are criminals, which has led then to this
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: president being able to then suggest that they're murderers and rapists.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: And so as a former prosecutor, I will say that
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: this is an absolute mischaracterization of the issue in a
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: way that is deceptive and in a way that is dishonest.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: And I support anything that is about characterizing it in
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: its proper form. And its proper form is to recognize
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: that when people are fleeing harm when they are asylum
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: seekers when they are coming here for opportunity like all
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: the immigrants before them we should not call them criminals
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: we should and if.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: We're going to be true leaders put a path in place.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: To let them gain citizenship which of course that does
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: not exist right now and that's part of the case
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: against this president there is a bipartisan bill That if
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: passed and if he would indicate that he'd sign it,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: would create a path towards citizenship for the 11 million
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: plus people who are here. But there's been a failure
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: and an absence of leadership on this.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: And you know why?
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Part of my theory of this is because this president
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: and this administration needs a villain. They want a scapegoat.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: That's what they have done on this issue because of
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: their failure. to have a plan for the future of
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: our country. And that relates to a number of things,
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: the future of work, that relates to the kind of
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: displacement that we're seeing around the country because of economic issues.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: But what do they do?
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: They want to create a scapegoat in immigrants and then
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: they pass a tax bill that is designed and it
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: has the effect of benefiting the top 1% and the
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: biggest corporations of our country. It's an abject failure of leadership.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: And they're playing smoke and mirrors, and I would suggest
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: to you that the American public is smarter than that.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Would you go back to the immigration enforcement policies of
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the Obama administration, or do you think we need something different?
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Because obviously those have been criticized as well.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you'll remember that there were very few
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: and very rare instances where I disagreed with that administration.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: This was one of them.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Secure Communities was a failure. I studied it, and it
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: became clear to me that the policy was leading to
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: ICE picking up people by ICE's own definition who were non-criminals. Like,
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: by ICE's definition, they were not criminals.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: And being picked up under that policy. And I was
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: opposed to it. In fact, as Attorney General, I then...
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: issued a statement to all of the sheriffs in the
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: state of California saying, you do not have to honor
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: those detainer requests because they are requests, not mandated. And
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: so I would urge you to look at what is
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: being asked of you and make decisions based on what
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: is truly in the interest of public safety. And I
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: will also say this about that policy and how I
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: feel generally about this issue.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: And again, as a former prosecutor, I.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Want that the rape victim, that the victim of a
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: horrible crime will be able, without any hesitance, to run
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: in the middle of the street and wave down the
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: patrol officer. Instead of having a policy, which is what
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: is the natural extension of these kinds of approaches, having
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: a policy which makes local law enforcement do the work
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: of immigration enforcement, which means that that victim will not
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: report that crime against her because bottom line no matter
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: what bad thing happened to her she's also got babies
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: at home and her natural instinct will be to endure
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: any kind of abuse versus letting her children suffer yeah
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: And these are the real consequences of those kinds of policies,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: which is why I disagreed with the administration before on
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: that secure communities.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: What does ICE look like under a Kamala Harris presidency?
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: And what sort of direction do you give to your
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: DHS secretary? Because I know it seems like eventually in
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: the Obama administration, by the end, we got there. But
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: part of it was, you know, you have this agency
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: that sort of drags its feet, the bureaucracy drags its feet,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and it's sort of tough to change this enforcement policy.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: To your point, and I serve on the Senate Homeland
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: Security Committee, and I have been, I'm sure they would describe,
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: relentless in addressing the failures and the dysfunction of that agency.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: It has actually been found by.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: An audit of sorts to be the most dysfunctional of
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: all federal agencies of its size.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: It is in massive need of reform. And it's about
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: its bureaucracy. It's about failure to train. It's about failure
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: to be clear about policy and enforcement of rules. And
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: so under a Harris administration, there's going to be a
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: lot of cleaning up. Under a Harris administration, issues like asylum,
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: for example, we are going to honor the process.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: And not try to circumvent the process and expedite the
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: process for the sake of some political goal as opposed
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: to the sake of justice and fairness and what is right.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: Under a Harris administration, we will reinstate DACA until Congress
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: can get its act together and pass comprehensive immigration reform.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: Under a Harris administration, we will not have local law
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: enforcement do the work of federal law immigration officials because
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: local law enforcement needs to deal with their own priorities
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: and issues. And under a Harris administration, the president of
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: the United States will not use her bully pulpit in
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: a way that is designed to vilify and scapegoat as
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: opposed to elevate public discourse and reflect the true values
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: of who we are as a country.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: You've talked about that your first legislative priority as president
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: is the LIFT Act, which is a piece of legislation
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: that you've introduced in the Senate. It's basically a $ 2
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: trillion middle class tax cut. It would provide, I believe,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: up to $ 3, 000 for individuals, $ 6, 000 for families per year.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Who make under $ 100, 000 a year. And for the individual,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: obviously under $ 50, 000. Right. Okay. What made you decide that
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: that should be the top legislative priority? Obviously, there's a
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: lot of ambitious policies you propose, Medicare for All, Green
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: New Deal, New Voting Rights Act. What made you think
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that was?
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: And I'm supporting all of those, but I will tell
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: you that this is my priority among priorities, but a
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: first priority because it's clear in our country right now,
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: almost half of American families are a $ 400 unexpected expense.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Away from complete upheaval.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: $ 400.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: That could be the car breaks down. That could be
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: a hospital bill you didn't see coming. In America today,
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: in 99% of the counties in our country, if you
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: are a minimum wage worker working full-time, you cannot afford
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: market rate for a one-bedroom apartment. In America last year,
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: 12 million people borrowed on average $ 400 from the payday
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: lender at an interest rate of often in excess of 300%.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: America's economy is not working for working people. And so
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: my first priority, and that is why I, as president,
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: would put this in place, the LIFT Act, is about
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: lifting up middle-class working families. And it is really a
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: simple concept. The tax credit of up to $ 6, 000 a
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: year that they can collect at up to $ 500 a month,
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: which will make all the difference between those families literally
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: being able to get through the end of the month
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: or not.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: It's pretty simple and straightforward.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Economists have described it as what will be the most
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: significant middle-class tax cut we've had in generations, in large
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: part because it, as it has been proven, would lift
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: up one in two American families, two in three American children,
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: and one in seven Pell Grant recipients. Because remember, and
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you why it's one in seven Pell Grant recipients. Statistically,
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: one in seven Pell Grant recipients they're not living with
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: their parents, right? So it's those kids who are making
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: it on their own without any parental support. This would
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: lift them up as well.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: That's great.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: On health care, there was a Kaiser poll a couple
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: months ago. It says 56% of Americans would support Medicare
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: for All. That number drops to 37% when they hear
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: that it means the elimination of private health insurance. You're
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: a supporter of Bernie Sanders' single-payer Medicare for All bill.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: You've also talked about the need to just get rid
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: of private insurance. Do those poll numbers scare you at all?
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Do they concern you? Or do you think Democrats can
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: make the argument that we should eliminate private insurance, that
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: we'd be better off that way?
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: So I do want to correct the record, if you will.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying we need to get rid of private insurance.
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: I don't believe we need to get rid of private insurance.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: And if you look at it, for example, under Medicare currently,
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: under the current Medicare system, private insurance is still there,
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Medicare Advantage, you can get supplemental healthcare through private insurance.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: So that's not my vision, that we would get rid
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: of private insurance. That being said, I believe that the
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: bottom line and anything we can do to deal with
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: this is something we should consider, is that healthcare in
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: America is too expensive, so we have to cut costs,
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: and we have to have greater quality of care. And
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: that means a number of things, including that people have
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: access to comprehensive host of whatever they need to actually
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: be healthy or to relieve their pain. So Medicare for
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: All is certainly a goal because it can achieve that.
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: But my vision of Medicare for All includes that in
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Medicare for All,
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: That is my vision
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: of what Medicare for All.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Can be, should be, and that's the goal.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: So all the issues I mentioned, LIFT Act, Medicare for All,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: immigration reform, obviously require legislation to pass Congress. Yeah. Do
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: you have any hope for bipartisanship if you're president in 2021? Like,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: do you, do you think there, you obviously served in
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: the Senate. Do you think there are any Republicans in
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Congress who would support any of those Medicare for all
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: green new deal would be there for that?
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: So let me just first tell you, I fully intend
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: to win this election. And, um, than looking forward on
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: your point about Congress. Part of how I think about
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: what is at stake right now is a lot of
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: people talk about the current occupant of the White House
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: and he shouldn't be there and we've got to get
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: rid of him.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: That's a given.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: Beyond that, we really better be focused on the fact
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: that even if the election in November of 2016 had
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: turned out differently, We would still be a nation in flux.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: We would still be a world in flux. We have
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: ascending and descending economies around the world, shifting populations in
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: large part because of the climate crisis. We are in
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: the midst of an industrial and digital revolution. So the
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: question before us will be, after November of 2020, what
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: will America's standing be in the midst of all of
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: this flux? And part of the concern that I have
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: is this. For the last couple of years, we've been
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: staring at our belly button while the world is.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Passing us by.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: And part of the failure of leadership is that we've
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: not been addressing core issues that must be dealt with.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: And it is making us weaker. Congress is not acting
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: on so many important issues. I've got a bipartisan bill
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: with James Langford from Oklahoma. Because he and I for
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: two years were the only two United States senators who
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: were both on Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: So we were in a unique position to receive a
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: lot of information that demanded what we did, which is
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: to create a priority around improving the security of elections.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: And the bill essentially would upgrade the state's election systems.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Do you know they won't put it on the floor
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: for a vote? It's a bipartisan bill. They won't put
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: it on the floor for a vote.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: So this is about critical infrastructure, our elections, not putting
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: on a vote. You look at it in terms of
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: the issues of infrastructure, period. Where are we putting that on?
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: We're not dealing with the climate crisis at all. We
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: are not dealing with issues like immigration at all. And
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: nobody else is going to come into our country and
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: fix our problems. And in the midst of us failing
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: to address our problems, others are growing and are moving
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: into the places where we have left a space and
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: a vacuum. And so this is a long way of
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: saying this. On day one, Part of my approach, the
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: metaphorical day one, part of my approach would be to
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: bring Congress together and say, guys, we got to fix
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: some things because we are becoming weak as a country
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: because of our failure to come together and solve some
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: critical issues and problems.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: So, I mean, I remember in the 2012 election, Obama
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: used to say, if I win this one, the fever
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: will break and maybe these Republicans will start working. That
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: didn't obviously happen. And then it seems like the party
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: has only become more radicalized under Donald Trump. How do
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: you pass this very urgent, necessary, ambitious agenda if the
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Republican Party, Mitch McConnell in the Senate, treats you like
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: they treated Barack Obama?
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: Well, let me just say that as an aside, but
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: really important point, everybody's focused on the presidential.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I know, I know.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: But just like in 18, that's exactly right. And in 18,
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: when we said take back the House, and that became
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: the mantra, and that became the slogan and the cry
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: and the call and the song.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. 2020, got to take back the White House and
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: got to take back the Senate.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: Because that is a very specific thing that must happen
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: in order for us to get at least in a
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: faster way to where we need to go in terms
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: of breaking the gridlock.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: But I'll also say this.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: I think it is a mistake on the politics of
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: 2020 to put too much emphasis on 2016 because I
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: think that this is a very different time than 2016,
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: and I think 2018 tells us that. I would also
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: suggest that it is different because we are seeing the
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: emergence of these countries that are– are not aligned with
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: us in terms of our values. We are seeing the
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: kind of growth around the world of those who will
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: fill the vacuum that we leave. And on the issue of,
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: for example, climate and the climate crisis, we are seeing
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: each year, shoot, every day, the urgency growing and growing
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: and growing on that issue. So I would suggest that
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: in 2020, it will be much more apparent than it's
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: been before. Not that it hasn't been before, but more apparent,
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: I think, than before. That we are facing critical moments
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: that must be addressed.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Would you consider eliminating or urging the Senate to get
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: rid of the filibuster if, say, if we win the
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Senate in 2020, we're still only going to have 51,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: 52 Democratic senators at best. You're the Democratic president. You
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: got a Green New Deal on the agenda. You got
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Medicare for All. The LIFT Act seems like you could
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: maybe pass through reconciliation. So maybe you only do need
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: 51 votes for that. But what's more important, I guess,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: the institutions and the Senate and keeping the filibuster or
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: I just got to get some stuff done?
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: So I am open to the discussion, but I would
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: suggest that in addition to the concern about keeping the
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: tradition of the institution, there is a practical concern concern
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: that i have which is were it not in place
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: they probably would have run roughshod over plant parenthood and
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: all that we need around women's access to reproductive health
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: and choice were it in place this this approach that
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: is being advocated um we probably would have lost the
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: affordable care act so i i those are my concerns
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: while recognizing fully recognizing um what the obstacles that filibuster
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: also presents.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Right. So Trump famously picked his Supreme Court judges from
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: a list of 25 nominees that a bunch of right-wing
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: groups put together. Yes. Would you consider putting together a
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: list of potential Supreme Court justices? How do you think
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: about what a Supreme Court justice should be? Have you
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: thought about any potential great Supreme Court justices that we
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: should have on the bench?
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Well, I will.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: Say this about the Supreme Court of the United States.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: It is one of the most important symbols of our
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: commitment or lack of commitment to the concept of justice.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: You know, inscribed on that marble, equal justice under law.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: That we have said is our ideal, right? And we
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: have many ideals, many important ideals, and part of our
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: strength is that we fight to reach them. Part of
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: our strength is also we're clear-eyed and realizing we haven't
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: yet reached them. But It is such an important institution
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: for so many reasons that are practical and also a
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: statement about who we are in terms of our democracy
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: and our strength as a democracy and then by extension
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: our strength around the world because we are a democracy.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: So I'll say that that's one way that I think
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: of the United States Supreme Court. An additional way that
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: I think about the United States Supreme Court is this.
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: Had that court not decided Brown v. Board of Education,
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: I would literally not be in this interview with you
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: And there are so many other issues. I was proud,
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: as the Attorney General of California, to refuse to defend
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: what I believed was clearly an unconstitutional law, which denied
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: same-sex couples the ability to marry. Had we not pushed
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: that case in the direction that it went, the United
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: States Supreme Court would not have ruled. so that wedding
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: bells then rang around the country, thankfully, right? So the
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: decisions made by the United States Supreme Court have real
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: impact on real human beings every day. And for that reason,
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: we must all have a sense of urgency about who
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: is the President of the United States and who is
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: appointed to the United States Supreme Court. That being said,
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: I will remind you, it was Earl Warren— Former Attorney
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: General of California, actually, who was a Republican nominee to
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: the United States Supreme Court, who led then a unanimous
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: United States Supreme Court to decide Brown v.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: Board of Education. Another one of my heroes.
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: And one of the reasons I actually wanted to be
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: a lawyer as a child is Thurgood Marshall, who was
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: a great civil rights activist who had never been a
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: judge and was appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: So you can look at the history of some of
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: the most noble and important decisions that have been made
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: by that court, and then look at who was on
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: the bench at that time, and you'll see a whole
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: assortment of people who each, regardless of their party, at
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: least in these two examples, were committed to what's inscribed
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: on that wall, to making sure that justice and equal
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: justice under law came out of that building.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: So I don't necessarily, I don't have a list.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You didn't bring your list with you?
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: I didn't bring my list with me. It's not in
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: my back pocket.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: What are the most important qualities?
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: I am open to submissions for that list from anyone.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Send Senator Harris your list.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: But what would be important to me is that.
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: I think it's really critically important that people who serve
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: on the United States Supreme Court have a diversity and
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: a variety of life experiences. Yeah. I really strongly believe
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: that because, again, back to the earlier point, the decisions
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: that court makes has real and direct impact on real
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: human beings. And we want to know that when the
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: decision is made on high in what could otherwise feel
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: like an ivory tower, we want to make sure that
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: the people making those decisions understand how that's going to
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: hit the streets and what it's going to mean.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: So that's one of, I think, an important quality.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. A few quick foreign policy questions. Bibi Netanyahu just
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: won re-election. One of his promises right before the election
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: was he said he might annex West Bank settlements. If
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: your president, Netanyahu, decides to annex West Bank settlements, what
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: do you do?
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm completely opposed to a unilateral decision to annex,
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: and I would express that opposition.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: How do you, how do you see sort of your
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: support for Israel, which I know you're, you know, strong
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: support of Israel with the policies under Netanyahu, the direction
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: he's taken that politics. Like what, what, what can you
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: do as president to show that, yes, we support Israel,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: but I'm unhappy with the direction. Yeah, sure.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: So, you know, let me be clear.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: I support the people of Israel and that I'm, I'm
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: unambiguous about that. Supporting the people of Israel does not mean,
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: it should not be translated to... supporting whoever happens to
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: be in the elected office at that moment. And so
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: my support of Israel is strong and it is sincere.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: There is also no question that we must speak out
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: when human rights abuses occur. We must work with our friend,
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: which is Israel, to do those things that we collectively
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: know are in the best interest of human rights and
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: democracy because it is that shared commitment to democracy from
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: which the relationship was born.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: And so we have to hold on to that, right?
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: I also believe that there is no question that a
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: Harris administration would be very forceful in working toward a
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: two-state solution. Okay.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: That has to happen.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: What kind of diplomatic pressure could you exert on Israel
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: to make sure that that happens or to at least
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: push them toward that direction?
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: Well, there are a number of things.
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, but it has to be about opening a
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: channel of communication that is honest.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: And not informed by a lack of information or a
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: lack of historical perspective or a lack of concern. And
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: I think that all of those are concerns that we
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: should have about the current administration.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Venezuela, would you take the military option off the table?
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: At this point, yes. I don't believe that we should.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: I do not believe that we should take military action
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: at this point.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Um, What drives you craziest about the Democratic Party? What
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: do we get wrong and what should we be doing better?
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: A couple of things. I'll just be very.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Candid with you. Yeah, no, it's great.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: And then, you know, we'll see.
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: What kind of repercussions follow. I think we could do
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: a much better job. Because you said the party.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: So I'm not talking about Democrats.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: No, no, no. All of us are perfect.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: Right, we're otherwise perfect. And so I will say two things.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: One, and this is not about a statement of who's
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: currently leading the party, just a general statement about where
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: we've been.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: We could do a much better job reinforcing the states
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: and their Democratic parties. You know, there are certain states
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: that through the strength of the leadership in those states
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: and kind of the however their system has been in
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: place and has been fortified, especially in those off-cycle years,
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: they're very strong.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: There are others that have atrophied.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: And at a national level, we should be paying attention
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: to that and also should agree that we can't just
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: helicopter into states at the time of the big election
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: that is the fancy election that everybody's talking about, and
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: then we.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: Pull out right after.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: You can't win, and also because... Look, everything that happens
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: at the national level, you just go back and do
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: the math and you can see a connection to what
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: happened at the state level, both in terms of issues
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: like redistricting, but in terms of who is Secretary of
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: State and who was elected Attorney General and what that
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: meant in terms of what was the Affordable Care Act
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: going to be challenged or not, who is going to
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: conduct the voting process. and conduct the elections of that
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: state and what that means in terms of national implication.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: So that would be one. The second would be I
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: think it's.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: Really a mistake to fall into a trap that started,
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: I think, maybe predated it, but the morning after November
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: of 2016, which is a conversation that I've heard many times.
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: which suggests, hey, we got to go get back that
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: guy in the Midwest, which is code. And the conversation happening, one,
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: part of why I have a problem with it is,
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: so if what that's supposed to be referring to is
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: blue-collar working guy, we've always been the party that has
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: been the fighter and the protector of working people, of organized.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: Labor, of workers.
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: Of all that they deserve in terms of the dignity
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: of work, in terms of receiving wages and benefits commensurate
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: with the value that they produce. So a concern I
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: have is that, yet again, it started or it was active,
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: this conversation, in the autopsy of November of 2016, and
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: it has continued to today.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: Who can talk to the Midwest?
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: Really?
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: Okay, so are you suggesting then that there's a different
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: conversation that happens in coastal states? Are you suggesting there's
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: a different conversation that happens in the South?
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: Like, what exactly are you saying when you say that?
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Well, how do you think about the voter who voted
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: for Barack Obama in either 8 or 12, voted for
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump in 16, and then in a bunch of
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: districts decided to vote for the Democratic candidate in 18.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, we did win some of those voters back.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: How do you think about that voter? What motivates that person?
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: How you should talk to that person?
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you that I first come from a
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: place of deep, deeply held belief that the vast majority
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: of us have so much more in common than what
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: separates us. And the way I think about it is
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: what I call the middle of the night thought, the
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: three in the morning thought, the witching hour, you know,
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: when people wake up in the middle of the night
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: with that thing that's been weighing on you, right? Well,
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: for the vast majority of us, when we wake up
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: thinking that thought, it is never through the lens of
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: the party.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: With which we're registered to vote.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: That is true.
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: For the vast majority of us, when we wake up
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: thinking that thought, it is never through the lens of
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: some simplistic demographic upholster puts us in.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: And for the vast majority of us, when we wake
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: up thinking that thought, it usually has to do with
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: one of just a very few things, our personal health,
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: the health of our children or our parents. For so
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: many Americans, can I get a job, keep a job,
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: pay the bills by the end of the month, retire
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: with dignity? For our students, can I pay off those
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: student loans? For so many Americans, can I help my
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: family member get off their opioid addiction? The vast majority
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: of us have so much more in common than what
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: separates us. And I'm going to tell you, as I'm
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: traveling around the country as a candidate for president, That
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: is reinforced to me every day. And so I think
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: that's how we talk about it. Or at least that's
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: the spirit with which we think about issues. That black
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: or Latina mom and that guy in the Midwest, you know, that.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: Metaphorical, that coded, coded, coded.
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: You know, they're waking up in the middle of the
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: night having the same thoughts. So back to your question
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: about Democratic Party, it'd be a huge mistake For us
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: to fall into a trap of denying the commonality of experiences.
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: And I do want to add, though, that I also believe,
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: and I gave a speech at Netroots Nation about this,
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: that we also cannot fall in the trap of this
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: stuff that centers around this term identity politics.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: Right. So let's talk about that for a minute.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: From my perspective, the term identity politics is the newest
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: version of that phrase race card. So people will talk about, oh,
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: we can't talk about identity politics, right? And so when
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: they bring that up, it's meant to either marginalize the
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: topic of discussion or to shut you up or to
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: quiet you down.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: So here's how I feel about it.
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: When it's brought up, identity politics, it's usually when we're
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: talking about race, gender, sexual orientation. So here's how I
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: think about that. Where America stands on those issues, which
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: often are about civil rights, where America stands on those
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: issues is about America's identity. So don't come at me
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: and Democratic Party, don't fall into a trap of saying, oh,
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: we can't talk about identity politics.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: What?
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: Where America stands on those issues is about America's identity.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders just did a Fox News town hall. It's
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: been reported that now Mayor Pete Buttigieg is in talks
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: with him to do one as well. Would you consider
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: doing a Fox town hall? Is that something that.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, I haven't considered it. I'll think about it.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: What do you think about that audience, like trying to
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: reach that audience? Do you think that's hopeless?
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: I mean, let me tell you, I plan to compete
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: for every vote. And as far as I'm concerned, every
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: vote is on the table and I'm not excluding anyone
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: in terms of trying to earn their vote and compete
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: for their vote. So, you know, the audience is, that's
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: how I feel about the audience. You know, but we
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: could talk, I think there's a whole other conversation to
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: be had about how Fox News does their work and
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: the bias with which they do it.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You had a really fascinating passage in your announcement speech.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: You said, some say we need to search to find
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: that common ground. I say we need to recognize that
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: we are already standing on common ground. And then you said,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about unity for the sake of unity.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: And I believe we must acknowledge that the word unity
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: has often been used to shut people up or preserve
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: the status quo. What did you mean by that? And
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Were you referring to anyone in specific?
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: No, I wasn't referring to anyone. I mean, this is,
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: you could just, different moments in history. But the idea
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: being that, it's the same point I guess I was
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: partly making. about the identity politics piece, which is unity
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: for the sake of unity, meaning that in order for
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: us to be unified, certain people have to suppress their
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: issues or suppress an issue.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: No. Yeah. No.
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: You know, kind of like, hey, everyone has to get along,
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: so stop mentioning that thing that is an issue in
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: a certain community because we all need to get along
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: and be unified.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: No.
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: Then that's not truly unity. True unity is when everyone
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: has equal voice, when the issues that impact people are
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: treated with equal.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: Respect and priority.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You've experienced a lot of firsts in your career,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: historic firsts. First San Francisco DA who was female, who
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: was black, who was Asian-American. First California attorney general who
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: was female, who was black, who was Asian-American, as you
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: think about the historic first that could come with.
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: Second black woman to be elected to the United States
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: Senate in the history of the United States Senate.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Yes. And then if you become president, first black woman,
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: first woman, first black woman president of the United States.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: How do those weigh on you, those firsts, thinking about
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: those four firsts? Or do they?
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: So every time I've been elected, these reporters would come
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: up to me, put a microphone in front of me,
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: and ask this really original question. So what's it like
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: to be the first fill in the blank?
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: To which I would respond, well, I don't really know
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: how to answer that question because I've always been a woman.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: But I'm sure a man could do the job just
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Right. Good answer. Yeah.
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: Or people will say, okay, because you've been the first woman,
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: this woman, that woman to do these things, talk to
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: us about women's issues. To which I will respond, you know,
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: I am so glad you want to talk about the economy.
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: Or sometimes I'll say, I'm so glad you want to
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: talk about national security.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: Like what?
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Those are women's issues.
• 51:21
  Speaker 3: These are all women's issues. And women's issues should be
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: everyone's issues. That being said... I do also fully understand
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: and carry as a real weight of responsibility, understanding what
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: it means in terms of my ability to break these barriers,
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: what it will do and can do to provide a
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: path for others. My mother used to have many sayings
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: and one of them, she'd say calmly, you may be
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: the first to do many things, make sure you're not
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: the last. And I carry that with me as a
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: great responsibility. Some might even say a great weight of responsibility.
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: I take it very seriously.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: You're a fantastic cook.
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: Yes, I love to cook.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: When you don't get to cook because you're on the
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: trail too much, what's your favorite junk food? Wait, wait.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: Well, my whole guilty pleasure passion is nacho Doritos.
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: I heard you.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Ate a whole bag of those on election night.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: By myself on election night.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Good way to handle it.
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: And then my second favorite is cheese popcorn. Like any
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: white cheddar cheese popcorn, I like crazy.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Are the Garrett's from Chicago? Are you a Garrett's fan? Yes.
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: But I don't like it mixed with the caramel.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no. I only eat the cheese stuff.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: I leave the caramel stuff there.
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: And then I pick them out. But, you know, like
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: there's a Garrett's. Like they open a pop-up in National Airport.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, in National Airport?
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I was trying to talk to the guy about,
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: can you just give me the cheese popcorn?
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: Because they have them in two different bins. But that
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: being said, I do love to cook. I love, love,
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: love to cook. And you know what I've started doing?
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: What's that?
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: So on the road, I've asked the team that when
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: we do get to eat anywhere, I would really prefer
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: that it be a family-owned-run restaurant. Oh, that's nice. And
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: so that's what we've been doing as much as we can.
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: And I'm collecting recipes.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, from all the family- Oh, yeah.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: So like there's a place in Reno, Nevada- Sabrina's.
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: And I, and so we walk and we're, and it's,
• 53:26
  Speaker 3: and it was like the small, she's got a small kitchen.
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: It's a small restaurant. She comes out to greet us
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: and we're sitting down and we all ordered. I had
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: these incredible enchiladas and she's got this cilantro coconut rice
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: on the side.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: To die for see I'm one of those weird cilantro people.
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: Oh you are okay you're not gonna appreciate it but
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: okay okay.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: Well the people the listening audience but.
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: It's so good it's so good and I was like
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: can I get the recipe and she looked at me
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: she's like nope and I was like okay well and
• 54:03
  Speaker 3: no wait and then we stayed and we stayed and
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: then we hung out we hung out for a minute
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: the whole team we were all having lunch together and
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: then finally as we're leaving she walked up to me
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: and whispered the recipe in my ear.
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: And I cooked it.
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: And it's so damn good.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: One voter at a time right there.
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: And so I'm collecting recipes. So then, for example, Rodney
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: Scott in South Carolina. So you know South Carolina. There's
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: a whole thing about barbecue.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, I know. I know.
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: But like one region, vinegar-based. Another region, mustard-based. Another region, tomato-based.
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: And do not confuse which region.
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: Does what because they will throw you out. And so
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: Rodney Scott.
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: Is this guy who, it was his family's barbecue place.
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: He inherited it. He'd got a James Beard nomination.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: And so we went and hung out there, and I
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: tried to get his recipe for the barbecue sauce.
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: He didn't give it to me, but I'm going back.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: Good. A couple more trips back there.
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: Uh-huh. And, like, the best greens you've ever had. This
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: is making me want barbecue. Right?
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Kamala Harris, thank you so much for joining us.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: It's great to be with you.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: Good luck out there.
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: On the campaign trail.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you. It's great to be with you. Take care.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: Thank you.