The Breakfast Club - We The People: Townhall with Kamala Harris and Charlamagne Tha God

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Charlamagne Tha God sat down with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday (October 15) for a live interview, billed as "We The People: An Audio Town Hall with Kamala Harris." Charlamagne hosted the Democratic candidate for president in Detroit, Michigan, for an hour-long interview that was broadcast on iHeartRadio stations across the country.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best. And you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing.

Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman,

Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama

who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, 1974. George Foreman was champion of the world. Ali was smart and he was handsome.

The story behind The Rumble in the Jungle is like a Hollywood movie. But that is only half the story. There's also James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, Miriam Akiba. All the biggest black artists on the planet. Together in Africa. It was a big deal. Listen to Rumble, Ali, Foreman, and The Soul of 74 on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Justin Richmond, host of the Broken Record podcast. Every week, I or my co-host, Leah Rose, sit down with the artists you love to get unparalleled creative insight. Our new series is looking at one of the

most influential jazz labels ever, Blue Note Records. You'll hear from artists like legendary bassist Ron Carter, singer-songwriter Noah Jones, and guitarist Julian Lodge. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida.

And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We the People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris, in conversation with Charlemagne Tha God, God live from Detroit, Michigan and exclusively on iHeartRadio. We'll tackle the tough questions, the pressing issues and the future of our nation. Now, here's your host, Charlemagne Tha God.

Yes. Peace to the planet. Charlemagne Tha God here with Madam Vice President Kamala Harris. How are you? Very well, Charlamagne. How you doing? Listen, we got 20 days and 60 minutes, so we just need to get to it. I'm with you. I'll do it in 21 days. How are you? Because you did just walk in. You were kind of late. Well, I try to be on time. Apparently, I'm 40 seconds late. You're right. Well, you are black. Now, you know, one thing they've been saying, a lot of your press hits get criticized. You know, folks say you come off as very scripted. They say you like to stick to your talking points. And some media says you have.

That would be called discipline. Oh, OK. OK, but go on. Some people say you have an inability to fearlessly say who you are and what you believe. I know that's not true. But what do you say to that criticism? And is it fair for SNL to make fun of it? Hasn't Maya Rudolph been wonderful?

Yes. I think I have nothing but admiration for the comedy. And I think it's important to be able to laugh at yourself and each other. But what do you say to people who say you're— In the spirit of, obviously, comedy and not belittling people as my opponent would do. But what do you say to people who say you stay on the talking points? I would say you're welcome. I mean, listen, here's the thing. I love having conversations, which is why I'm so happy to be with you this afternoon. And the reality is that there are

certain things that must be repeated to ensure that I have everyone know what I stand for and the issues that I think are at stake in this election. And so it requires repetition. You know, some people say that until someone has heard the same thing at least three times, it just doesn't stay with you. So repetition is important. And for that reason, yes, at my rallies, I say the same thing when I go to Detroit, as I do in Philly, as I do wherever I am, to make sure that people hear and receive what I think are some of the most critical issues that are at stake in this election. There has to be a high level of anxiety, too, when you have these conversations,

because you are running for president. I mean, you know what, there is certainly a lot of, I feel the weight of the moment and my role. I feel an extraordinary weight of responsibility right now to do everything I can. I'm telling you, Charlamagne, when I go to bed at night, I almost every night, in addition to my prayers, will ask, have I done everything I could do today? This is a margin of error race. It's tight. I'm going in. I'm going in. But it's tight.

And, you know, what is at stake is truly profound and historic, many would say. And it's about, you know, some people would say this lofty notion of supporting and preserving our democracy. But it is about real issues that affect people every day, like whether we're going to maintain a $35 cap on insulin for our seniors, whether we're going to continue to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices to bring them down, whether we are going to have, as my opponent would have, a formalized stop-and-frisk policy, for which he has said if a police department does not do it, they should be defunded or not.

There is so much at stake, whether America is going to stand on its principles around the importance of sovereignty and territorial integrity and stand with our allies around the world, or whether we're going to admire dictators and send during the height of COVID in the pandemic, COVID tests that nobody could get to the president of Russia for his personal use when black people were dying every day by the hundreds during that time. Yeah, I feel like that one, that one has gone over people's heads. The fact that he was sending COVID tests to Putin. I mean, you know, I invite, I don't, your listeners, the people we

know, the number of people who lost their grandparents and parents. Remember what that was like during the height of COVID? And a lot of it, people were scrambling for the resources and needed tests. And Donald Trump during that time secretly sent COVID tests to the president of Russia, who, by the way, do not forget in the 2016 election, because I was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee when we investigated it, targeted black voters in 2016 with mis- and disinformation to discourage black people from voting in that election. And this is just another of the very many examples

of who Donald Trump really is and the danger he presents to real people. Sending COVID tests to Russia, that doesn't sound very America first at all. But it's not just you versus Trump, it's you versus misinformation. Yes, that's true. Right?

And one of the biggest pieces of misinformation, one of the biggest allegations against you is that you targeted and locked up thousands of black men in San Francisco for weed. Some say you did it to boost your career. Some say you did it out of pure hate for black men. Please tell us the facts. What's the facts of that situation? It's just simply not true. And what public defenders who are around those days will tell you, I was the most progressive prosecutor in California on marijuana cases and would not send people to jail for simple possession of weed. And as vice president, have been a champion for bringing marijuana down on the schedule. So instead of it being ranked up there with heroin, we bring it down. And my pledge is as president, I will work on decriminalizing it because I know exactly how those laws have been used to disproportionately impact

certain populations and specifically black men. Before we get into, you know, the talkback feature and take some questions from the audience, I do want to talk to you about the legalization of weed because you're saying you want to legalize it now. What steps did the Biden administration take to get closer to that reality? So we had to work with the DA and it's there's a certain level of bureaucracy that exists in the federal government that slows things down, but essentially to bring down how weed is classified, how marijuana is classified, to make it classified as a lesser harm. And so that took some time. There's a whole process around that, but that's the work that we have done, in addition to work that we have done writ large on criminal justice reform.

Okay. Let's take some calls. Let's take some, well not calls, let's go to the talk back feature. My question for Kamala is why are we, and I say we because my tax dollars is sending the money. Why are we sending money to other countries when we desperately need it in our own country for homeless, housing, resources, for whatever. That is my determining factor if I vote for Kamala or not. That's one of the reasons the America First rhetoric resonates,

because nobody in America would complain about where money was going if American citizens' everyday needs were being met. So what do you say to that? We can do it all and we do. So first of all, I maintain very strongly America should never pull ourselves away from our responsibility as a world leader. And that is in the best interest of our national security and each one of us as Americans and our standing in the world. That being said, we also have an obligation to American citizens, obviously, and people who are here to meet their everyday needs and challenges, which is why, for example, we have done the work in the last four

years of bringing down the cost of prescription medication, whether it be $35 a month for seniors for insulin or $2,000 a year cap on prescription medication. What we have done that has been about putting $17 billion in our HBCUs. I am proud to be the first HBCU vice president of the United States. I intend to be the first HBCU president of the United States. Those resources are about sending them to centers of academic excellence that I know them to be. The work that I continue to do is about increasing access to capital for our small businesses. It is about increasing the opportunity for home ownership, knowing that black people are 40% less likely to be homeowners in America. We have a history

of legal and procedural obstacles to that homeownership, starting with the fact nobody got 40 acres and a mule, to redlining, to issues that this Detroit area and people around the country know to be real. So part of my plan is that we're going to give people a $25,000 down payment assistance to get their foot in the door to buy a home for first-time homebuyers. The work that I'm going to do to get their foot in the door to buy a home for first time home buyers. The work that I'm going to do to increase housing supply in America, knowing that that's one of the reasons that rents and housing prices are jacked up, and to work with the private sector, cut through the red tape, and work to build more housing, three million before the end of my

first term. And I give these examples, and there are many more which I will offer. So for example, the work that I will do to extend the child tax credit to $6,000 for young families during the first year of their child's life. Because as you and I both know, our families all have a natural desire to parent their children well, but not always the resources. So by expanding the child tax credit to the first year of child's life to six thousand dollars, that gives that young family the ability to buy a car seat or a crib or clothes, the things that are so famously said, you know, we got money for war, but can't feed the poor, right? And I saw President Obama say last week that, you know, you really shouldn't expect, you know, a president to rid the world of all of its problems. So is it fair to tell people, hey, we can do it all? Because that's when people get disappointed when things don't happen. But I think President Obama is absolutely correct,

but it doesn't mean we can't do anything. That's right. So when I talk about extending the child tax credit, when I was vice president, I pushed that we would do it during our first year. And we reduced black child poverty in America by 50 percent. We did that. We can do that. My plan that is about building up homeownership in the black community, we can do that. My plan that is about building up home ownership in the black community, we can do that. My work that has been about increasing access to capital, bringing billions more dollars into our community banks, which I've done as vice president through cooperation and partnership with some of the big banks and tech companies to get more access to capital for our entrepreneurs, for our businesses. We've done that. So we should never sit back and say, okay, I'm not going to vote because everything hasn't been solved.

I share a desire that everything should be solved, by the way. I think it is what we should all want. But that shouldn't stand in the way of us also knowing we can participate in a process that's about improving things. And by voting in this election, you have two choices. Or you don't vote. But you have two choices if you do. And it's two very different visions for our nation. One mind that is about taking us forward and progress and investing in the American people, investing in their ambitions, dealing with their challenges. And the other, Donald Trump, is about taking us backward. The other is about fascism. Why can't we just say it?

Yes, we can say that. Reverend Solomon Kinloch Jr., I want you to meet him. He is the senior pastor of Triumph Church. Where's Reverend Kinloch? Oh, he's here. Come on, tell Secret Service to move out the way. It's okay. It's just the Reverend. Yeah, all right. Hey, Reverend. What's up, Reverend? Madam Vice President Charlemagne, thank y'all for being in Detroit tonight. Thank you. Recently, Madam Vice President, by one of Trump's surrogates from the black faith-based community, you've been criticized by him and others for your lack of engagement to the black church. Knowing that the black church is an unrivaled place in the heart

of black people, what could you speak to as it relates to a future Harris administration, how you would partner with the black church to address some of the urgent needs of the black community. Dr. King talked about the fierce urgency of right now. And as a church, Triumph Church is in that place. So, first of all, that allegation, of course, is coming from the Trump team because they are full of mis and disinformation because they are trying to disconnect me from the people I have worked with and that I am from so that they can try and have some advantage in this election because otherwise they have nothing to run on. I grew up in the black church. I grew up attending 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, California. That's church. Yes, that is church. My pastor is Amos C. Brown of Third Baptist Church

in San Francisco, California. Yes. I have throughout my career and as vice president and recently been actively engaged in the church and church leaders, not only so we can share in fellowship, but so we can share in what we can do together that is about supporting the community, the strength of the community, the cohesion of the community. And it is my longstanding work and therefore my pledge going forward. I will always work closely with the church because I understand who our church leaders are and who the congregation is. We are talking about people who are driven by faith and the ability to see what is possible by faith, where I was raised, and I know many of us were, understanding that our God is a loving God, that our faith propels us to act in a way that is about kindness and justice and mercy, that is about lifting one

another up? And let's talk about the contrast here. Donald Trump and his followers spend full time trying to suggest that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, which is absolutely contrary to the church I know. He sells Bibles, though. Where our church and my church is about saying true leadership, the measure of that is based on who you lift up. Right. And then he's selling $60 Bibles or tennis shoes and trying to play people as though that makes him more understanding of the black community.

Come on. Thank you, Reverend. Thank you. Come on. Thank you. Thank you for the correction. Thank you, Reverend. And God is good. Every day, all the time. There you go. I had to make sure you get that right.

Now, have you seen the clip, Madam Vice President, from the Griot? It's a clip that's kind of out of context. And it says that you won't do anything specifically for black people. Have you seen that? I've not seen that. Well, it's a clip that has you saying that you're not going to do anything specifically for black people. Well, that's just not true. And listen, again, you said it at the beginning of this visit, Charlemagne.

One of the biggest challenges that I face is and disinformation. And it's purposeful because it is meant to convince people that they somehow should not believe that the work that I have done has occurred and has meaning. My work from the beginning of my career through today has been about, for example, we've talked about it, whether it be on HBCUs, whether it be on health care, black maternal mortality. I am singularly, many would say, one of the highest level leaders in our country to my life experience of knowing the entrepreneurship that we have in the community, the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams, but that also knowing that that should be a baseline that everybody has a job. And what we should be invested in is also building wealth in the community and intergenerational wealth. And I have many, many examples of that. But again, part of the challenge that I face is that they are trying to scare people away because they know they otherwise have nothing to run on.

Ask Donald Trump what his plan is for black America. Ask him. I'll tell you what it is. Look at Project 2025. Project 2025 tells you the plan includes making police departments have stop and frisk policies. The plan includes making it more difficult for workers to receive overtime pay. The plan includes ending the ability of Medicare to negotiate drug prices. You know what we have done? He said he would. We did, which means that that's how we brought down the cost of prescription medication. His plan includes making it more difficult for working people to get by and to destroy our democracy.

You know what he says he'll do? Terminate the Constitution of the United States. Let me remind folks, you know what's in the Constitution of the United States? The Fourth Amendment, which protects you against unreasonable searches and seizures. the Fifth Amendment, the Sixth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and he's going to terminate the Constitution of the United States, which in most of those amendments, one thing or another was about a movement. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia Keys opens up about conquering doubt, learning to trust herself and leaning into her dreams. I think a lot of times we are built to doubt the possibilities for ourselves,

for self-preservation and protection. it was literally that step by step. And so I discovered that that is how we get where we're going. This increment of small, determined moments. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Like grace. Have grace with yourself.

You're trying your best. And you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, y'all? This is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman

called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all. Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone.

Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was called a moment.

Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you

to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Black Lit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life.

Listen to Black Lit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him.

Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist who studies human behavior.

On my podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, I marry science and storytelling to better understand how to navigate the big changes in our lives. It was like a slow nightmare, you know, because every day you think, oh, surely tomorrow I'll be better. And I would dream of being better. At night, I would dream that my face was quote unquote normal or back to the way it was, and I'd wake up and there'd be no change. I also speak with scientists about how we can be more resilient in the face of change. You can think of the adolescent brain as like the social R&D engine of our culture, that they're something that looks like risky and idiotic to us is maybe their way of creatively trying to solve the problem of having social success and fewer of the things that bring you

social failure. Listen to A Slight Change of Plans on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Spurred by Black people to ensure that we would be equally protected under the law? Come on. Let's take a question from TalkBack. Hi, my name is Joshua Fisher, age 31 years old, African American male from Las Vegas, Nevada. I'd like to ask Madam Vice President, what laws does she have planned to make sure that there's a stop to police brutality and murders that have been going on viciously? So again, the work that I have done through my career and the most recently, even when I was in the United States Senate to help write the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. Cory Booker and I worked very closely on that.

Could you tell people why that didn't pass too? Give folks a quick civics lesson. We couldn't get the votes in Congress. There's a clip somewhere of me fighting with a Republican senator to actually get it passed. We couldn't get it passed. But what we did when we came in office and during the time that I've been vice president

is we passed an executive order. So whereas we were trying, and I have been trying to make these things national so that everyone would have to do it, an executive order by the president and our administration says that for federal law enforcement, the following things have to happen, which we for the first time put in place.

No knock warrants, barring chokeholds, a national database. Now it's for federal law enforcement, but a national database for us to collect information and track police officers who have broken the law. And this is no small issue, this piece, in addition to everything else, because as we know, we've seen plenty of examples of a police officer who committed misconduct in one jurisdiction and then goes to another jurisdiction and gets hired because there's no place that's tracking their misconduct. So these are some of the things that we've done. And then, listen, I'm still going to always work on getting the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act passed. Part of the work that I'm doing as a candidate for president of the United States includes lifting up those candidates who are running either for re-election or for the first time to Congress who are supportive of what we need to do on all of the issues we've been discussing, whether it be freedom to vote and passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,

whether it be freedom to make decisions about your own body, whether it be the freedom to just be and be free from any brutality, including police brutality, when and where it occurs. I think a lot of the frustration comes from people who will say sometimes politicians volunteer lies because, you know, yes, it's great to try to pass the George Floyd Policing Act, but you probably know you can't get the votes. So why push that? Why push that on people? I don't I don't subscribe to that approach. And I'm going to tell you why. Look, it took a long time for the Voting Rights Act to get done. It took, you know, it took the brutality of what happened when John Lewis and all those were trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It took a lot of work over our history to do what we have accomplished thus far. And we have to remain committed.

How do you convince Republican senators, as you just said? Well, part of it is that their constituents are part of this. I mean, we have plenty of folks who want this who live in districts where they serve. And this is the point. This gets back to the earlier point about you can't let anybody take you out of the game by not voting. The solutions, and maybe this is the point you're making about what President Obama said, the solutions are not going to happen just overnight. And the solutions that we all want are not going to happen in totality because of one election.

But here's the thing. The things that we want and are prepared to fight for won't happen if we're not take yourself out. Don't participate. Look at that circle. Look at that vicious circle then. So let's not fall for it. Zeke, this is my man Zeke. He's the president and CEO of New Era Detroit. He wants to talk

to you about your blackmail agenda for the black community. Just your agenda for the black community period. Zeke for the black community, period. Zeke, what's up, brother? What up, Doe? What up, Doe? Madam Vice President Charlamagne Tha God, what up, Doe, and welcome to Detroit. Yes, sir.

It's good to be back. I like to say the real Detroit because I'm up in here. My name is Zeke, New Era founder and CEO. I worked on the ground here in Detroit and in black communities all across the country for over the past 10 years, actually celebrating our 10th year this past August. In my 10 years of organizing, we played a major role in the resurgence of pride and the change of mindset in Detroit neighborhoods across the city. We are not only known for the work that we do here in Detroit, but across the country in black communities,

having worked in over 35 cities of the blackest cities in America. Saying all that to say, I'm extremely qualified to sit in front of the current vice president and which can be the next president of the United States of America. As I pose my question to you, I would first like to make it known that I don't have any emotional connections to politicians. I believe that this is one of our biggest flaws in the current political process. I view politics as a business and America is one of the biggest corporations in the world. With that being said, I'm here on behalf of the business of the black community. With all that black Americans have been through and contribute to the success of America,

I feel that there should be an in-depth investigation or evaluation of the lack of resources and current living conditions in black communities nationwide. My question to you is, what's your stance on reparations? We all know that America became great, you know, off the backs of free black labor. How progressive are you on making it a priority and righting America's wrongs? It's understood that you are running for president for all people of America asking for specifics for black communities doesn't mean no don't do for others but black Americans are heavily asked to vote democrat in every election for over half a century with very little in return what are your plans to address these very important

issues and change that narrative? Thank you, Zeke. I appreciate that. Thank you. And thank you for your work. So to your point, yes, I am running to be a president for all Americans. That being said, I do have clear eyes about the disparities that exist and the context in which they exist, meaning history, to your point. So my agenda, well, first of all, on the point of reparations, it has to be studied. There's no question about that. And I've been very clear about that position. In terms of my immediate plan, I will tell you a few of the following. One, as it relates to the economy, which is a lot of what you have addressed. Look, I grew up in the middle class. My mother, you know, worked hard, raised me and my sister,

and by the time I was in high school, she was able to afford our first home. I know what it means for an individual and a family to have home ownership. I also know in the context of history, nobody got 40 acres and a mule. We have a history of a number of things, including redlining. Detroit knows it well. A history of, for example, something that still exists that I've worked on to address, which is racial bias and home appraisals. And we know homeownership is, black families are 40% less likely to be homeowners than others. And that homeownership is one of the surest ways to build intergenerational wealth, right? Because when you own a home, that's when if your child says, Daddy, I want to go to college, you can say, sweetheart,

don't have to take out a loan, I'll take some equity out of the house. Or if your child says, I want to start a small business, same point, right? So my plan includes making sure that for first-time homebuyers, they have a $25,000 down payment assistance to just get their foot in the door. Because we know folks will work hard, they'll save and pay that monthly mortgage. Second point is to bring down the cost of housing generally, because one of the issues is we have a housing supply shortage. And so that's about working with the private sector. In terms of our small businesses, which are part of the backbone of the economy of the black community and part of the backbone of America's economy writ large. My second mother, the woman who helped raise us, was a small business owner.

I know who our small business owners are. And I have convened black small business owners way before I was running for president in my official office at the White House to talk with young entrepreneurs, mostly young, about the work that they are doing that is about clean energy, work, technology, as well as the traditional, you know, whether it be a barbershop or a restaurant. One of the big issues facing black entrepreneurs and black small businesses is access to capital. Because unlike my opponent, who got handed $400 million on a silver platter and then filed bankruptcy six times, don't forget that. Calls himself a businessman.

Not everybody has access to the capital, but we know in the community we do not lack for ambition, aspirations, dreams, hard work ethic. And so my work has been as vice president to increase billions of dollars into community banks. And as vice president, part of that work will also be to change the tax deduction for startup small businesses from $5,000 to $50,000. Because nobody can start a small business on $5,000. And if you don't otherwise have intergenerational wealth, how are you going to be able to do it? Second point on small business is this. I'm going to do, basically, it's a program that is about a $20,000 nonrefundable loan to a certain, to basically businesses that don't have access to wealth and don't have those relationships, which is going to directly impact a lot of black-owned small businesses. That $20,000 nonrefundable loan is what would help somebody if they need to buy equipment, right, if they need to buy an extra truck, depending on what that business is,

which we know that's a big part of what holds back our small businesses. Just having enough capital to actually pay for the things that allow you to then put your hard work into play to actually grow for the things that allow you to then put your hard work into play to actually grow your business. The other piece, and this is something that is critically important, is to see black folks, and in particular black men, as a whole human being and understand that we are talking about sons, we are talking about fathers, we are talking about grandsons, we are talking about grandparents, we are talking about sons. We are talking about fathers. We are talking about grandsons. We're talking about grandparents. We're talking about uncles. And so I say that as a preface to say two other things,

and then I'll keep going. One, to deal with... You keep going? I mean, you like that? You caught that? Okay, filibuster, ma'am. To deal with health care for black people and black men in particular. We know that we still have a lot of work to do to increase, for example, the high risk that we have for colon cancer, for prostate cancer. Right. And to increase screenings and to make sure that people are actually going to get the screenings, not to mention the higher the higher risk for sickle cell. So part of my agenda is about what we will do to deal with and highlight what we've got to do to focus on black men's health. And then a similar point is this. 40% of caregivers are men. And we know culturally we take care of our elders.

And we have a lot of men in the community who are in the sandwich generation who are trying to take care of their young kids and take care of an elder parent or relative. And it's overwhelming for people to be able to do both. And a lot of people have to end up thinking about leaving their job to just do it. So my plan is this. One, in order for people to then afford assistance for hiring health care, home health care, they basically have to go broke to be eligible for Medicaid. My plan is this. Let's have Medicare, and I've mapped it out, and we can make it work. Medicare cover the cost of home health care for seniors, which means that you are looking at individuals in the context of their whole family. Because what we know is, again, understanding the culture,

understanding the reality, lots of people are having to leave work in order to do that. So these are some examples of my agenda. And overall, it is an agenda that understands, by the way, because we've talked already a lot about criminal justice, that the needs of the black community are not just about criminal justice. We need that money. It's about. Yeah, because here's the thing. We have brought down black unemployment. I said this earlier to one of the lowest levels in history.

But I'm very clear. The community is not going to stand up and applaud just because everybody has a job. That should be a baseline. My agenda is about tapping into the ambitions and the aspirations, knowing that folks want to have an opportunity. If they want, they should have a meaningful opportunity to build wealth, including intergenerational wealth. And that's my agenda. You know, there's a couple of things that you said.

I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. There's a couple of things that you said that people would say were talking points. But it's really just your story, even though they are becoming your greatest hits. When you talk about the middle class and your godmother being a small business owner. But that's just your story. It's my story. Look, I've been in this race 70 days. Some people are just getting to know me.

Other people have known me. And I owe it. Listen, I feel very strongly I need to earn every vote, which is why I'm here having this candid conversation with you and your listeners. I have to earn people's support, and I am working to do that. Before we go to another talkback call, I want to say there was a time, I had a politician tell me once that if you're running for a national

election, it's bad electoral strategy to say you are going to do things specifically for black people, which is why a lot of politicians don't speak directly to their plans for black people. Is that a thing? I don't know that that's true. I think that what is true is that I am

running to be president for everybody, but I am clear-eyed about the history and the disparities that exist for specific communities, and I'm not going to shy away from that. It doesn't mean that my policies aren't going to benefit everybody, because they are. Everything I just talked about will benefit everybody. Small business owners, whatever their race, their age, their gender, their geographic location are going to benefit from the fact that I'm going to extend tax deductions to $50,000. Every first-time homeowner, wherever they are, whatever their race, will benefit if they are a first-time homebuyer with a $25,000 down payment assistance. Everyone is going to benefit from my plan to extend the child tax credit to $6,000 down payment assistance. Everyone is going to benefit from

my plan to extend the child tax credit to $6,000 for the first year of their child's life. That's going to benefit everybody. But I do realize, again, that on the issue of home ownership, for example, black people are 40% less likely to own a home. Do you feel like President Obama stepped on your rollout? Because I know you've been working on this blackmail agenda for a long time and you've been doing the outreach, you know, which was the Opportunity Economy Tour and things like that. But then he made the statements that he made last week. So everybody thinks this is a reaction to that. Oh, no, no, no, no. I mean, you just have to. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia Keys opens up about conquering doubt, learning to trust herself and leaning into her dreams.

I think a lot of times we are built to doubt the possibilities for ourselves. For self-preservation and protection. It was literally that step by step. And so I discovered that that is how we get where we're going. This increment of small, determined moments. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Like, grace. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best. And you're gonna figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before.

Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, y'all? This is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records.

It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all. Nimany here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records.

Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Each episode is about a different, inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me Did you know, did you know I wouldn't give up my seat Nine months before Rosa It was called a moment Get the kids in your life excited about history

by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new

Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me

in a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them.

Black Lit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Black Lit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel.

I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with.

His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist who studies human behavior. On my podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, I marry science and storytelling to better understand how to navigate the big changes in our lives.

It was like a slow nightmare. You know, because every day you think, oh, surely tomorrow I'll be better. And I would dream of being better. At night I would dream that my face was quote unquote normal or back to the way it was. And I'd wake up and there'd be no change. I also speak with scientists about how we can be more resilient in the face of change. You can think of the adolescent brain as like the social R&D engine of our culture, that they're something that looks like risky and idiotic to us is maybe their way of creatively

trying to solve the problem of having social success and fewer of the things that bring you social failure. Listen to A Slight Change of Plans on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. No, obviously not. I've been doing this for quite some time, including before I was running for president. Let's go to talk about it. Hi, I'm Bobby from Georgia, and I have a question for Kamala Harris. Could you please respond to Trump's claim that he's going to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to round up immigrants if he wins the election? This law was last used to put Asian Americans in internment camps during World War

II, and I have a sneaking suspicion that if Trump wins, he's going to use this law to put anyone that doesn't look white in camps. And I'm scared. Yeah. So you've hit on a really important point and expressed it, I think, so well, which is he is achieving his intended effect to make you scared. He is running full time on a campaign that is about instilling fear, not about hope, not about optimism, not about the future, but about fear. And so this is yet another example. Look what he did in saying that those legal immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their pets.

And by the way, the hypocrisy of it abounds because on the issue of immigration, let's be clear, some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress working with others came up with a border security bill, which was the strongest, toughest border security bill in a long, long time. It would have put 1,500 more border agents at the border. It would have reduced the flow of fentanyl into our country, which is killing people all over our country of every race and background. It would have allowed us to do more work on prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, which I have done in my career. Trump got word that that bill was afoot, knew it would fix the problem, and told his buddies in Congress to kill the bill. And you know why? Because he would prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.

And he's running his campaign in a way that he does these rallies where people, by the way, walk out and does these rallies to try and instill fear around an issue where he actually could be part of a solution. But he chose not to because he prefers to run on a problem instead of fix a problem. And we've got to call it out and see it for what it is. But doesn't the Biden administration have to take some blame for the border, though? A lot of the blame? Because, I mean, the first three years, y'all did get a lot of things deal with gun violence. First thing we dropped was a bill to fix the broken immigration system, which, by the way, Trump did not fix when he was president. And you can look at every step along the way. We then tightened up the asylum application process. We then worked with what we needed to do to secure ports of entry. We did a number of things, including what we did to try and get that border security bill passed.

And then also an executive order that has actually reduced significantly the number of illegal crossings and tightened up what needs to happen in between ports of entry. But, no, we've been working on it ever since. So what went wrong? Here's what has to happen in between ports of entry. But no, we've been working on it ever since. So what went wrong? Because something had to go wrong. Here's what has to happen. Congress has to act to fix the immigration system. And it has been broken for a long time.

Congress has to act. But it does not help when finally a bipartisan group got together to fix it. And Donald Trump told them, hold on. Don't do that because it won't help me politically. Why do you allow them to call you the Bordasar when that's not even your, that wasn't your You know I'm not giving him permission for that. You're right. But I mean, you don't push back on it because that wasn't your role? Fact checkers have made that clear.

Look, if I responded to every name he called me, I wouldn't be focused on the things that actually helped the American people. And that's my focus. That is true. Before we go to talk about it, I want to say something else. I don't feel like the Biden administration has treated Trump like a real threat to democracy. And that's why America doesn't realize how much of a threat he is. It's one thing to say it, but you have to act on it. Don't you believe Merrick Garland should have moved faster

to put Donald Trump in prison for leading an attempted coup in this country? The Department of Justice has independence in terms of how they make those decisions, as they should.

And let's also be very clear. What do you think, though? No, well, no. Donald Trump has been very clear that he would weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies. He has been very clear that he would weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies. He has been very clear that he would take out the independent folks who are in there and put in there instead his loyalists. So understand, again, you talk about because this brings back to exactly your point about threats to our democracy. Donald Trump would go in to the Department of Justice and manipulate

it in such a way that it would be used as a weapon against his political enemies yeah he's going to lock y'all up if he gets back in office well by the way he's going to you should look at his words I don't think that you as a journalist should feel so sure that

journalists, judges others and you know who does that? Dictators do that to feel so sure that journalists, judges, others. And you know who does that? Dictators do that. Other countries do that, which is say that you're going to send, as he has, the military to go and suppress peaceful protesters. That happens in other countries.

That's not supposed to happen in America. So do understand when this man says what he says, how that would play out in real time. So why is it OK for him to say he'll lock up his political opponents, but it's not OK for y'all to say he should be in prison when he's actually committed crimes? Oh, I've been very clear. I think that the court should handle that. And I'm going to handle November. The court should handle that, okay? Let's go to talk back, Eddie. What do we got?

President Harris, our men and women in the military are sent to foreign countries to fight for their freedom. Win or lose, Donald Trump has promised to seek revenge. My question is, will our military be there to fight for our freedom after the election? Should Trump start another insurrection? Mm hmm. Well, you raise a profound point that is very much a part of this election cycle in terms of what the American people have a choice right now. So January 6th, Donald Trump incited a violent mob to try and undo the will of the people and undo the results of a free and fair election.

That violent mob attacked the United States Capitol. Over 140 law enforcement officers were injured. Some of them were killed. And he has said since then that there will be a bloodbath after this election. He has, on your point about the military, referred to members of our military as suckers and losers, which is why, by the way, do see the number of military leaders who worked under his administration who are supporting me. And I will point out what everyone knows, which is that the people who worked the closest with Donald Trump when he was president, worked with him in the Oval Office,

saw him at play in the Situation Room. His chief of staff, two secretaries of defense, his national security advisor, and his former vice president have all said he is dangerous and unfit to serve. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, most recently articulated exactly that point. And again, you know, here's Charlemagne, one of the things that I think is really ironic, but at play. Donald Trump, through his way of trying to name call and demean and divide, tries to project as though those things are a sign of strength, when in fact the man is really quite weak. He's weak. It's a sign of weakness that you want to please dictators and seek their flattery and favor. It's a sign of weakness that you would demean America's military and America's service members.

It's a sign of weakness that you don't have the courage to stand up for the Constitution of the United States and the principles upon which it stands. This man is weak and he is unfit. So why is everybody sitting around acting like Donald Trump isn't going to plan to steal this election if he loses? Like, you know, Republican officials won't certify the results of the election. We know it's Donald Trump's Supreme Court. Why are people acting like this is going to be a free and fair election? And he won't try to steal it. Well, but those are two different points.

So it will be a free and fair election if we, the American people, stand up for that. You know, I see it as this. I think that democracy has, it's like two points of nature. One, there's a fact about a democracy that when it is intact, the strength that it possesses in terms of the protection of people's individual rights and liberties. When a democracy is intact, we protect your rights and your liberties. Strength. Democracy is also very fragile. It will only be as strong as our willingness, we the people, to fight for it. And not as much as anything is what's at play in this election. Fight for our democracy. Flawed though it is, imperfect though it may be.

Because there are very two real paths right now. The man has told you he intends to terminate the Constitution. The man has told you all these things about his disregard and disrespect for your freedoms and liberty, including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body. And he hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention they would do exactly what they did. One out of three women in America lives in a state with the Trump abortion ban. You know every state except Virginia in the South has an abortion ban.

You know where the majority of black women live? In the South. In those same states that have some of the highest rates of black maternal mortality. And they want to strut around talking about this is in the interest of women and children, and they've been silent on an issue like black maternal mortality. But I know that people are aware and clear-eyed. And I do believe that on Election Day and early voting in Michigan starts in four days. People are going to go to the polls. And they're going to vote. To stand up for these principles and to stand up for their rights.

To freedom and liberty and to live and just be free to be. I believe that. I want to bring in my guy Iceware Vezo. He's very politically engaged. I want to ask you a question while he's coming in. It's a quick question. There's a rumor that Janet Jackson is mad at you because you prosecuted her brother, the late, great Michael Jackson.

That's on the Internet. Clear that up for people. That's just not true. I know. On either count. Oh, she's not mad at you? Well, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I have not talked to her, but certainly it's not true. I know. On either count. Oh, she's not mad at you? Well, I mean, I don't know. I don't know.

I have not talked to her, but certainly it's not true about her brother. Bezo! Charlamagne, what's up? Madam Vice President. How you doing? How you doing today? As we say in Detroit, what up, though? So yesterday I read that there is a new opportunity agenda,

a plan for black men which includes a proposal of forgivable loans up to $20,000 for 1 million black entrepreneurs. What would you say to the people that would consider the timing of this proposal as political timing? And how would you speak to the sentiment that support for black men is only sought out during election cycles and feels that building trust requires consistent engagement and genuine investment into the community outside of election periods and political benefits for politicians, and may view that some people in the Democrat Party use black Americans to play identity politics. So, first of all, thank you for your question and for being here.

I've been in this race about 70 days. You can look at all my work before those 70 days to know that this, what I'm talking about right now is not new and is not for the sake of winning this election. This is about a longstanding commitment, including the work that I've done as vice president and before when I was senator and before that. In fact, a lot of what I'm doing that is about my economic agenda and opportunity economy was born out of the work I did as vice president and before that as senator most recently to get access to capital for our entrepreneurs. The work that I did in the Senate was about getting a couple billion more dollars into our community banks and then building on that when I became vice president. I created, it's called the Economic Opportunity Council, bringing in some of the biggest banks and

technology companies to put more into the community banks. And I'm going to tell you one of the reasons why, because I have been aware for years, black entrepreneurs only get 1% of venture capital funding. Of all the venture capital funding, only 1% goes to black entrepreneurs. We don't have the same rates of access to capital, be it through family or through connections, which is why I've done the work of putting billions more dollars and working to put billions more dollars into community banks, which go directly to the community. My work around the $20,000 is building on that and understanding that, you know, I convened, for example, I said this earlier, a group of black entrepreneurs way before I was running for president in my official office at the White House, to hear some of the obstacles that they were facing. And one of them was what we need to do around getting folks the help to just be able to buy the equipment they need to run their business. And oftentimes, we find that when black entrepreneurs and black people apply for credit,

they're denied at a higher rate than others. We have also seen, and the data proves this, that all of those realities also tend to dissuade black folks and black entrepreneurs in particular from even applying for credit. So my point is to work on every way that we can approach the issue to encourage people and to invest in their ambition. Because I know the ambition is there. I know the talent is there. I know the innovation is there.

And certainly the hard work ethic. So this is not new work for me. You should speak to the American Rescue Plan, too, because, I mean, tens of millions of dollars. I know small businesses in North Carolina, small black businesses that got tens of millions of dollars because of that. I don't hear you speak to that. That's right. And that was from the first time, from when we first came in. The American Rescue Plan, the work that we have done, the infrastructure bill. I mean, part of that is we made a decision that we were going to increase the number of federal contracts

that go to historically underrepresented businesses. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia Keys opens up about conquering doubt, learning to trust herself, and leaning into her dreams. I think a lot of times we are built to doubt the possibilities for ourselves. For self-preservation and protection, it was literally that step by step. And so I discovered that that is how we get where we're going. This increment of small, determined moments. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love.

I forgive myself. It's okay. Like grace. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, y'all? This is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right.

A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all. Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for

kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one

gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit. The podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating

our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba.

He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom.

At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist who studies human behavior. On my podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, I marry science and storytelling to better understand how to navigate the big changes in our lives. It was like a slow nightmare, you know, because every day you think, oh, surely tomorrow I'll be better. And I would dream of being better. At night I would dream that my face was quote-unquote normal or back to the way it was, and I'd wake up and there'd be no change.

I also speak with scientists about how we can be more resilient in the face of change. You can think of the adolescent brain as like the social R&D engine of our culture, that something that looks like risky and idiotic to us is maybe their way of creatively trying to solve the problem of having social success and fewer of the things that bring you social failure. Listen to A Slight Change of Plans on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This was way before I was running for this years ago. So this is not new work. Let's go to the talkback feature. On several occasions recently, Don Lemon has stated that there's a large group of Black men who believe Donald Trump

sent them a personal check during COVID because his name was on it versus it coming from the government as a stimulus check. Can you provide some clarification on this? I'm so glad you raised that. So. So here's what happened. A majority Democratic Congress fought to get those stimulus checks out, fought against resistance by the Trump administration. And won because we had a majority of Democrats in Congress. And that's why those checks went out. As we all know and grew up learning, Congress holds the purse strings. It was Congress that made that decision. And then Donald Trump, never being one to pass up an opportunity to give himself credit when no credit is due, put his name on those checks. And sadly, it resulted in people thinking Donald Trump was responsible for and directly responsible for putting money in their pocket, when in fact,

it was a Democratic majority Congress that was responsible for those checks going out. Why is it hard for Democrats to message their wins on the economy? Like since World War II, the economy has done better under a Democrat president. This is just a historical fact. For some reason, the narrative is that the economy does better under Republicans. Why do people believe that? And why don't Democrats push back on that narrative more well i you know we i think that part of the issue is that democrats probably talk about it more in terms of what we are doing for people rather than the economy when in fact when you do for people the economy grows and you are absolutely right charlemagne you will look at the growth of the economy grows. And you are absolutely right, Charlemagne. You will look at the growth of the

economy and compare it Democratic and Republican administrations. Democrats have accelerated economic growth. My plan, for example, okay, so some of the smartest economists in the country have reviewed and compared my plan to Donald Trump's plans for the economy. From Goldman Sachs to Moody's to 16 Nobel laureates and even most recently, the Wall Street Journal. And in comparing our two plans, the net result is my plans will strengthen the economy. His plans will weaken the economy, his plans will weaken the economy. Their reports come back and include the fact that Donald Trump's plans for the economy would accelerate inflation and invite a recession by the middle of next year. My plans would strengthen the economy as a whole. You look at under what we've been doing, you look at the stock market as one of the strongest it's ever been.

Wages have outpaced inflation. Inflation is going down to, I think it's now the most recent number is 2.4%. So, but those are, you know, nobody wants to hear an econ one-on-one lecture, right? But the reality of it, to your point, is that under democratic rule, the economy gets strengthened. And certainly when you look at my plan for my presidency, it will strengthen the economy and it will help people. And as per the conversation we've been having today, perhaps the issue is that I'm going to always think about it in the context of how am I helping working people? How am I helping families? How am I helping people in the middle class? How am I helping people who have been without access having access? That's how I talk about it. But my plan is about strengthening the

economy. And I know when you strengthen the economy, that's how you do it. You do it by investing in the middle class. Let me tell you the contrast. Donald Trump thinks about the economy based on what he has done and will do, cutting taxes for billionaires and the biggest corporations. That's how he thinks about the economy. He thinks about the economy, not about middle class people trying to not just get by, but get ahead. No, he wants to stop Medicare from being able to negotiate drug prices down from the big pharmaceutical companies. We got a couple more questions. I want to get my man Eric Thomas in here because we only got like a few more minutes. But I do want to say my man Eric Thomas in here because we only got like a few more minutes

but I do want to say President Obama was out there last week waving his finger at black men when are Liz Cheney and Hillary Clinton going to wave their finger at white women when are Bill Clinton and Joe Biden going to wave their finger at white men because 52% of white women voted for Trump in 2016

55% voted for Trump in 2020 they all voted against their own interests when are their finger waving going to start at them 2016, 55% voted for Trump in 2020. They all voted against their own interests. When the finger waving will start at them? Well, thank you for highlighting that. I do have the support of over 200 Republicans who worked for various administrations, including everyone going back to Ronald Reagan, to the Bushes, to John McCain and Mitt Romney and including Liz Cheney. And I'm very proud to have her support. And I believe that they who many of them who may have voted for Trump before are supporting me because they know the stakes are so high in terms of our very democracy

and rule of law. And so the finger wagging should start today or tomorrow. Well, I think what is happening is that we are all working on reminding people of what is at stake, and that is very important. Eric, real quick, we only got a few minutes. Only got a few minutes. Thank you, Madam Vice President, for having me. Thank you, Charlamagne Tha God. So as an employee of a mission-driven nonprofit bank, I appreciate the efforts in that bank. I work with Invest Detroit.

But as chief storyteller of the city of Detroit, I spend a lot of time dispelling information about the city of Detroit. And so I'm sure for those of us who are like me,

if Donald Trump doesn't like Detroit so much, he's not welcome back. But, okay, I don't want to interrupt you. I don't know if everybody knows what you're talking about. Okay, go on. But you can want to interrupt. I just I don't know. Everybody knows what you're talking about.

OK, go on. But you can get into it. I just wanted to say that we know that there's been a lot of conversation about growing the middle class. But black men have been taken out of the workforce for a myriad of systemic reasons, from mass incorporation to racial bias, fear mongering. We know that black men are not criminals. They are criminalized. And that has taken black men out of the home has taken wealth out of the home and so because especially in a city with such high poverty i've heard a lot about middle class but i would love to hear more about stair-stepping

from poverty into middle class so they can take advantage of the opportunities and the policies you're talking about that's right and that's real uh so for, the child tax credit. When we did it, when I when I first became vice president, we cut black child poverty by half. And, you know, when you when you deal with poverty for a child, that's about the whole family. Right. When you look at the work that we have done that has been about dealing with prescription medication. For our seniors, black people are 60 percent more likely to get diagnosed with diabetes. And when you look at what people are in terms of on the verge of bankruptcy because of medical bills and medical debt, that's very real. So us capping the cost of something like insulin and prescription medication, not to mention the work that I've been doing to ensure that medical debt does not get included on your credit score. Because medical debt comes about because of a medical emergency.

Nobody invites it upon themselves. And back to the point about history and the reality of life, we also know the real disparities around access to meaningful health care, which are more likely to result in people facing chronic illness and in medical emergency. So my work has been, and included, working to get medical debt not be on your credit score so that that thing you did not invite upon yourself would not be the reason that you can't get a lease on an apartment or anything else. We have to deal with child poverty. We have to deal with poverty, period. And there are many specific ways to do it, including dealing with getting resources into the community that alleviate the burdens that hold people down. But back to Detroit. So can you imagine you go to a city and you say you want the votes of those people and then you disparage the city. And that's what he did in Detroit. And he has a tendency to mention cities that either have a historically black majority population or a black mayor.

That's right. And that's what he did. He only did that to Detroit because Detroit is 78% black. And he doesn't want America to look like that. Madam Vice President, thank you. We got to do this again. We're done? We only, according to iHeart, we just want to keep going. I got more questions for you. But thank you. I appreciate you, Charlamagne.

Thank you. This has been iHeart Radio's We The People. An audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris. Remember, your voice matters. Stay informed. Stay engaged. And most importantly, make sure to vote. Thank you for joining us.

As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best. And you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey y'all. Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand-new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records.

Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The cracker, the bat, and another one gone. to life through hip-hop. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it.

And it began with me Did you know, did you know I wouldn't give up my seat Nine months before Rosa It was called a moment Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records because in order to make

history, you have to make some noise listen to historical records on the iHeartRadio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Muhammad Ali George Foreman 1974 George Foreman was champion of the world Ali was smart and he was handsome story behind the rumbleumble in the Jungle is like a Hollywood movie. But that is only half the story. There's also James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, Miriam Akiba, all the biggest black artists on the planet together in Africa. It was a big deal. Listen to Rumble, Ali, Foreman and the Soul of 74 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or

wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Justin Richmond, host of the Broken Record Podcast. Every week, I or my co-host, Leah Rose, sit down with the artists you love to get unparalleled creative insight. Our new series is looking at one of the most influential jazz labels ever, Blue Note Records. You'll hear from artists like legendary bassist Ron Carter, singer-songwriter Noah Jones, and guitarist Julian Lodge. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you listen to podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami? Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.