The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Kamala Harris Calls In To Talk Trump's Anti-Trans Ads, Policy Plans, Undecided Voters, Earning Votes + More

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Vice President Harris discusses the importance of voting, combating misinformation, and her commitment to supporting communities nationwide. She addresses recent misleading ads and emphasizes the power of truth and community engagement. The VP also shares her plans for economic support, including initiatives for small businesses and minority-owned enterprises.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake that ass up, Earl, in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Good morning, it's Kamala. Madam Vice President, how are you? I am very well. How are you doing this morning? Blessed black and highly favored. Always for you. I hear an echo. Do you hear it?

No, we don't hear an echo. We'll lower you down a little bit so you don't hear your feedback. Can you hear it better now? The feds might have the phone tap. Well, and the Russians. Don't forget them. That's right. Well, morning, everybody.

You meet all the Breakfast Club. And we got a special guest on the line, the Vice President Kamala Harris. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. It's good to be with you again. First of all, how are you? First of all, how's your energy?

You know, I am well. We are eight days out, seven, well, a week out practically. And I am just, I'm in the zone, right? We got to cover a lot of ground. There's still a lot of people to talk with. And so I am traveling all over the country, in particular the swing states, to talk with folks and organize them and remind folks of the power of their vote. Well, you know, Madam Vice President, you know I support you. This is Charlamagne. You know I support you. The Breakfast Club supports you.

In 2018, when you came up here, I told you I thought you would be president one day. I think God is setting us up for a woman of color president in 2020. I think that it's Senator Kamala Harris. I think she's our future 2020. I'm with it. I think that it's Senator Kamala Harris. I think she's our future president. I'm with it. And I hope God puts his hands on her and says, you know what? I want you to do this. All right.

We thought it would be in 2020. I was on the campaign trail with you in 2020. So I'm happy to see you in this position. And the reason I'm stressing that I'm voting for you on November 5th is because Trump has been running these ads with myself and envy in them, these anti-trans ads without our permission. How do we combat that? Can we? Well, yes. I mean, look, truth is always going to prevail over the misinformation and the lies, but it takes work, right? And so having this conversation right now, so all your listeners know, but there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation because they don't actually want to talk about the truth because their truth is a

failing truth. And so, yeah, we got to keep reminding folks of the reality, which is I am blessed and honored to have your support and the support of so many communities and individuals who are, their names are known and some names, you your listeners may not know but they are leaders in their community now miss vice vice president uh if you were here i would be holding up my hampton university helmet but we're not going to go there today i wanted to ask you i know i'm sorry both of y'all had experience she said i know i'm sorry delaware state university honestly both y'all should have attended but we we get it we understand i wanted to ask about those trans ads uh you know in the ads he's saying that you know kamala Cool little Hampton. Delaware State University, honestly, both of y'all should have attended. But we get it. We understand. I wanted to ask about those trans ads.

You know, in the ads, he's saying that, you know, Kamala Harris wants to spend taxpayers' money for sex changes in jails. He spent millions and millions of dollars on, like Charlamagne said, having him and myself in that. How do you answer that for people that don't know? And what is the real news when it comes to that? Well, first of all, to your point, he has spent tens of millions of dollars trying to hit me with a bunch of disinformation and misinformation on this. And he's living in a glass house because the policies he's speaking about in terms of those surgeries were also his policies. And the reality of it is that it would also those ads relate to two people versus the fact that he wants to get rid of the affordable care act which would impact 45 million people he wants to get rid of our 35 a month cap on insulin which would impact millions of people including millions of

our seniors black and brown folks latinos are 70% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes. Black Americans 60% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes. He wants to get rid of all of that. He wants to take away health care through Medicare, and he wants to distract from the fact that he actually, not only does he have a plan on this versus no plan on anything else, but his plan is to get rid of health care coverage for the most needy. Well, you know, while he was at MSG yesterday, while he had the rally at MSG

and he had people up there insulting Puerto Ricans and black people and Jewish people, you was actually in Philly reaching out to the black and Latino community. Yes. And, you know, it just turned out Charlamagne to be a real coincidence. But again, pointing out a stark contrast between he and I. Yes, I was in Philly meeting with leaders, many leaders in many communities, but including leaders in the Puerto Rican community to talk with them about my longstanding commitment to Puerto Rico, to the people who live on that island, who have often been overlooked. Puerto Rican community, to talk with them about my longstanding commitment to Puerto Rico, to the people who live on that island who have often been overlooked.

In fact, they know, and we talked about the fact that even when I was in the United States Senate, knowing Puerto Rico doesn't have its own United States senator, I was a leader in making sure that we would get relief to people on the island when it came to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. And what I shared with everyone is part of my opportunity economy, as you know, which is about lifting up people around home ownership and small businesses, that I will have a specific opportunity economy task force for Puerto Rico that will focus on the needs that they have in terms of fixing that electrical grid in Puerto Rico and also bringing private sector investment together with government investment

and nonprofit investment onto the island to help with job creation and sustainability for the island. Now, VP Harris, this is Lauren. Nice to meet you. We talk a lot up here about the black men conversation, the fact that people, you know, they keep trying to push this whole black men are not supporting Kamala Harris. That's a lie. And my question to you is, you know, the fact that, you know,

even if it's a lie, people are still saying it. What is your strong push to any black man right now that feels like you're not speaking directly to them and about the things that they should care about for their families and for themselves? Well, Lauren, I have to tell you back to what Charlamagne is shouting in the background. The brothers aren't saying that. I mean, I was just at the barbershop in Philly talking with very incredible and distinguished men who are leaders in their community and small business and education. And these men, these black men, were talking about not only their support for me, but most importantly, their support for my perspective on what we can do that lifts up the community

and taps into the ambitions and the aspirations. For example, the work that I will do that includes not only increasing access to capital for small businesses and minority-owned small businesses, but part of my agenda includes a $20,000 forgivable loan for startup small businesses who are invariably going to be the folks that you and I are now talking about who just need that startup help to be able to buy the equipment or to start up a meaningful website.

You know, because it can't just be starting up a business and having your cousin set up your website, right? It's got to be something where it can actually help you access markets and customers. These are the kinds of things we talked about. And I will tell you, at the rallies that I am doing where there are thousands of people, I just did a rally the other night, 30,000 people were there. And the number of people cover the whole span of race, gender, and age. But the black men in particular who are at the rallies have recently been saying to me, don't you listen to that. And they got to stop with all that noise. We support you. So I'm glad you raised the topic

so we could actually deal with the reality of it versus what some of the media is trying to create as a narrative. You know, you know, a poll came out yesterday that said the ABC News poll and it said that you're winning black men, 85 percent and outperforming Biden by 14 points with black men from 2020. So, yeah, I mean, listen, because I think I have said from the very beginning, black men are no different than any other voter. You have to earn their vote. And part of the challenge, I think, with the perspective in this narrative has been to suggest anybody's got black men in their pocket. No, you have to earn the vote, which is why I've been out talking with folks about not only my history of work that has had a positive impact, but also the work that has yet to be done, again, around lifting up the economic situation, helping young fathers with what they want to do to parent their children with an extension of the child tax credit to $6,000 for the first year of their child's life. What I intend to do that is about tapping into the desire for home ownership

and a $25,000 down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. And that's why those numbers are 85%, Charlemagne, because folks know I have a genuine commitment based on hard work that I have already done to lift up the community versus, to your point, Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden last night with all those tropes versus Donald Trump who took out a full-page ad in the New York Times for the Central Park Five suggesting that these young black and brown, and they were not young men, they were children, should be executed. Donald Trump who in New York as a landlord refused to rent to black

families. Donald Trump, who called the first black president, called him out and suggested he was not born in the United States, and then most recently referred to black legal immigrants in Ohio as though they're eating their pets. That's right. Absolutely. I was going to ask, you know, we see the support you have with small businesses. We see the support you have with small businesses we see the support you have with hbcus we even see the home buying voucher that is is there to help uh especially our community get into our homes what is your message to these undecided voters that are right now we're a week away that still don't know which way they want to go and and everything that you're trying to do that's positive they say well the home buying voucher is just going to make people to charge more money for houses, and HBCUs is for this and for that.

What do you say to those undecided voters right now that we're a week away? So, first of all, please go. I'm going to throw out my website, DJM, because people have to be able to see it and read it for themselves and take their time with it. For those who are interested and want to be more informed, and if I haven't had a chance to meet with them and talk with them directly, I invite you in your busy lives, if you can take some time to look at my website, kamalaharris.com, and look at my policies. For example, $25,000 down payment assistance for

first-time homebuyers. Let me tell you why that's not going to have an unintended effect, because that increases the demand for home ownership, which is going to have an impact also on supply. Part of my plan is, you know, I've been in public service my entire career, but I know the limitations of government. So part of my plan for affordable housing is to work with home builders and developers to give them tax credits to create incentives for them to build more homes. But I'm going to tell you another part of my perspective on this. I also know that in particular for high rent, a lot of it has to do with corporate corporations that are buying up all this housing and then eliminating competition and jacking up rent.

And part of my plan is to also go after them. Similarly, on the price of groceries, you and I both know it's still too high. I'm going to go after price gouging, which is those bad corporations that are jacking up the price of everyday necessities for folks, especially those who are, for example, in the zone of Hurricane Helene and other places that have experienced extreme emergencies, and those

bad corporations, and most of them are not, but those that will take advantage of the desperation of people in need. So these are the examples. And I will tell you, look, I'm about to give a speech Tuesday night at the Ellipse in front of the White House. And part of what I will be talking about is that there is going to be a new president on January 20th of next year. And it's either going to be Donald Trump or it's going to be me. And I would ask people to imagine the Oval Office. People have seen it on TV. You know what it looks like. It's either going to be Donald

Trump sitting behind that desk, writing out his enemies list of who he's going to seek revenge and retribution on, or it's going to be me working on behalf of the American people, as I always have done, working on my to-do list to see through these policies that are about home ownership, lifting up our small businesses, lifting up families with children, and lifting up the discourse in a way that it is not about trashing people all the time. That's right. Which is why, you know, even back to the point of Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny has endorsed me, right? He knows, and Jennifer Lopez, and they love Puerto Rico, and they are proud in terms of that heritage, and they know how demeaning and destructive Donald Trump can be on things like that. I'm proud to have the support of the kinds of people, not like those at Donald Trump's rally yesterday at Madison Square Garden.

The people supporting me, Bad Bunny, Fat Joe, Quavo, Beyonce, Kelly Rowland, and I could go on down the list. So I'd invite people to just look at who is supporting who as one measure of who cares about who. Right. How do you feel, Madam Vice President, about these major publications like the L.A. Times, the Washington Post refusing to endorse somebody for president? You know, Charlamagne, it's disappointing, no doubt.

But the other piece of it is it gets back to my point about who is Donald Trump, because he is the one, right, who is up for election with me. And, you know, he I think that some of your listeners, they know and others may not, which is that, look, it's billionaires in Donald Trump's club. That's who's in his club. That's who he hangs out with. That's who he cares about. That's why when he was last president, he put in place a massive tax cut for billionaires in the biggest corporations, and that is exactly what he will do again. His policies are not about middle-class folks.

He's not sitting around thinking about what he can do to take care of your grandmother and your grandfather. He's thinking about people like himself or himself and all of his grievances and all that makes him angry about how he has personally been treated as opposed to worrying about how you have been treated and what his responsibility is to lift you up well madam vice president we appreciate you so much for checking in i know you got calls to make and things to do today i do have

one last quick question though how often do you say to yourself man fuck donald trump Just in your mind. A little YG. If it's on the playlist, it's cool. You know, let me tell vote, to stand in line, especially in those places where their state leaders have tried to make it more difficult for them to vote. That's that's really where I spend my time. And the contrast point is really about that. They deserve better. They deserve better. They deserve a president who actually cares. That's right. Thank you, Madam Vice President. I appreciate you. We're a week away. Everybody

go out there and vote. Okay. Talk to y'all soon. Thank you. Bye-bye.