The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Talking Dems - Kamala Harris on Embracing Unity in 2020 and Keeping America's Promise to Immigrants

Episode Date: July 6, 2019

California Senator Kamala Harris answers audience members' questions about the 2020 presidential race and the Trump administration's controversial immigration policies. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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been. Listen and subscribe to Pod Save America on your favorite podcast platform now. So what's fun sometimes is I mean we're done taping now. Now we can say the real thing. Now we we can really get dumb. Now we can really get dumb. I have one question. And then think of questions that you have as well. And then I'll come to you in the audience. Please, this is someone who's running for president. So don't be like what's your favorite color?

Think of like a real question, and then you'll goes to what we spoke about earlier in terms of like what people consider a scandal for everyone who's not Trump. Yeah. You were on the breakfast club and they asked you if you had ever smoked weed and you said yes and then someone said to you oh what music were you listening to you to listen to when you were getting high and everyone asked you like four questions at the same time and they came out and they theyre and you said I I I listen I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I the I the I the I the I the I the I was the. the. the. the. the. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thr thr thr thr thr thr thrown. thr thr thrown. thr thr thrown. thr thr thr thr thr listen to Cardi B, I listen to Tupac, and then like Fox News and stuff came out and they were like, there was no Tupac when you were in college. Yeah, right. It was crazy. It was literally, my communications team said to me, there's this thing that's going on out there that has happened. I thought they were joking. I don't listen I don't I don't know are people just bored or do they not understand complex issues and so they have to be

distracted by those that really have no difference in the lives of other people? I genuinely think it's that people have gotten used to it. I think unlike Trump because regular politicians as in normal people don't have the scandals that he does you don't't have a porn star, so we have to focus on Tupac. My part of that, the scandal for me was, how were you listening to Tupac and enjoying him as a prosecutor? Because he said some things about prosecutors in his songs, and I was like, damn, were you never personally offended by any of that?

Of course not. No, I mean, listen, I mean, Tupac also sang about the love of a mother. Remember that? That's true? Dear mama. I mean, dear mama, right? I mean, she would be, you know, she loved him. Right. And so that was the range of Tupac and tuc. And tupac also had his Bay area connection. was a pride that was associated with that, but Tupac was prolific. He really was, and he died far too young.

I mean, you know, he, it would be interesting to see where that whole genre went had he lived longer. Oh, it's interesting. Because he was so smart in the way that he understood politics, social justice issues, you know, and if you know his background, I mean his family was active before. Yes. Yes. So he actually was speaking to large numbers of people with a historical context and some

idea about where we should be, but also really well articulate about the social injustice that was happening at that moment, which included the war on drugs, which included what was going on in terms of massive incarceration of young black men in particular. And he spoke to that. And he was right. Now I'm imagining Tupac just like around today as like a businessman. I mean, it'd be interesting.

It would be interesting. It would be interesting. Because a lot of them have become very like, I mean, you look at how rap has changed and evolved, you know, just picture Tupac just like in the boardroom. Just being like, you know, I mean, everybody. I know my shareholders and my plan is to pay you back. You guys think about your questions? What do we have? Dave, you were jumping up there. You are jumping up hard. Hi.

Hi. Hi. I'm an attorney also for like 20 years. Right. How are you going to inspire to inspire inspire inspire inspire inspire inspire inspire the the the to inspire inspire the to inspire to inspire to inspire the to inspire to inspire to inspire the to inspire to inspire the to inspire to inspire the to inspire the to inspire to inspire thii, to inspire thi. to inspire to inspire th. th. thi. to be to inspire. to be to be. to be. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I'm to inspire. I'm to to to to to. to. to. t. t. t.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. t.a.a. t..... t.... to. to. I'm, to. I'm to. I'm to. this huge base of people who have no imagination at all or don't appear to be able to imagine themselves liking someone of color, not caring about what bathroom somebody uses, those kinds of things. What is your plan? Because these people need to get on board. So that's an interesting point. Here's how I would I think about it. First of all, especially to your point in this moment where we have such powerful voices that are trying to so hate and division

among us. I think it's really important that we reject that. And we reject it in a way that also speaks the truth, which is that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us. And I know that to be true. And the way the way thi thi that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that I that I that I that I that I that I that I that I that I thi, that I tho, thi, that I thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, that, thi, us have so much more in common than what separates us. And I know that to be true. And the way that I think of it and I talk of it, wherever I go, whatever the demographic of the group I'm speaking with, is this. I talk about in the context of the middle of the night thought. Some people call it the three in the morning thought, the witching hour. You know, in the middle of the night when you wake up with that thought that's been weighing on you sometimes, you wake up in a cold sweat. That's when Trump tweets. Well, right, and so for that reason some of us wake up just

delet, you know, right, exactly, panicked. But for the vast majority of us when we wake up in the middle of the night with that thought, one, it is never through the lens of the party with which we are registered to vote. It is never through the lens of some demographic a pollster put us in. And for the vast majority of us, when we wake up thinking that thought, it has to do with one of just a very few things. Our personal health, the health of our children, or our parents, can I get a job, keep a job, pay the bills by the end of thia, their their their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, thi, thi, thi, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and I, and, I... their, their, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, I......a, I.a, I. their, I. their, I. their, I. their, their, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th th retire with dignity. The vast majority, students, can I pay off those student loans? So many families in America, can I help my relative get off of the opioids that have addicted them?

The vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us. And so part of how we get to that place is we start with that as our premise and really know it in our heart, in our mind, and our soul, and then go from there. And it's going to be about unifying the country around the commonalities that we have. There are certain people will never be able to talk with on any extreme spectrum, right? But I'll tell you as another kind of story about the campaign trail. Yesterday I was in New Hampshire. And when I was there, the reporters, the first line of questioning I got was, you're in

New Hampshire. We heard you're not going to come to New Hampshire. We thought you weren't going to try and compete in New Hampshire. And what no one said, but the inference was, well, the demographic of New Hampshire is not who you are in terms of your race and who you are in terms. And I was like, no, I am competing in New Hampshire. I'm going to be here. And I'm going to tell you something, to the point of the universality and the commonality

of the message. I got to New Hampshire. There was a line around the block. There were 1,500 people who showed up for our event. You had overflow. We saw that, yeah. But, but, and what that tells me, it reinforces for me the commonality, that the demographics don't matter. When it comes down to it, it is going to be about that when we're at, when we're waking up in the middle of the night or at that kitchen table, you know, after dinner, trying to pay the bills and get through the week, the biggest issues that concern us are the same issues. And that is not to say that we also

should not talk about and don't need to deal with the issue of race in America, the issue of sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, because those all are real too. And if nobody was clear about that that thua, thua, thua, thia, tho, thii, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, to to to to to to to to to to say, to say, to say thi, to say, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th. th. th. thi, th. And, to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say, to say, to say, to say, to to say, to to to to to to to to to to tooooooooooooooooooooooo. And, to to to to to to the thi, the about that, then Charlottesville and the Tree of Life Synagogue and in Mother Emanuel Church should make it clear to everybody. That we still have a lot of work to do on those issues as well. But I find that most people, regardless of their demographic, want to have that conversation and are willing to have that conversation in our country right now. Let me, um, we take one from this side. Yes, sir? Hi, my name is Jesus.

I currently have DACA. When it comes to immigration, how do you know who to bring into America? Because now, what I have said is, the only way that you can come to America legally is if you have money. If you can pay the lawyer, the paperwork, and sometimes money, you won't have to weigh as much time as people that are poor that are gone from nothing. They say, why can't these immigrants come to legal because the only people that want to come legal, they can't afford it. How do you, what's your plan to fix that or find a way to allow the process for them to come?

You know, like that's my question because I thought about it. Me as an immigrant, I think about that all the time. How can you find a way to allow people that have good planning or like... Path and a Path. Yeah, exactly. How do you choose them? Because they're... How do you? That's a great question. Thanks. So first of all, Hissus, thank you for your courage to speak up and speak out at this moment and to do what you're doing. Because that's really important.

And I think part of how we will get to the place that we need to be, but also the place we're going to get. History is going to show that there are a bunch of people right now who are on the wrong side of history on this issue of immigration. The reality is that we are a nation of immigrants. It has been a source of our strength and part of the way that we do it is that we have a plan and we stick to the plan. But we Congress has not passed a bill around comprehensive immigration reform and by every indication this president won't sign it. The way we get

there is we have to pass comprehensive immigration reform. We have to put in place the rules that are consistent and equally applied to everyone around how people get on the path towards citizenship, how people apply, what are the qualifications. As you know this is also not, the immigrant population coming to the United States is not a monolith. There are people who come with H-1B visas. There are people who are DACA, like yourself, young people who, you still have to qualify for DACA. You went through a process and you passed that process.

That's why you got the DACA coverage. And we have to keep our promises. Part of the failure of our system right now is that this administration is not keeping America's promise to you as a DACA student or a DACA young person. And we're not keeping our promise to who we are as a nation by having a meaningful path for citizenship around comprehensive immigration reform. But what we have to do is Congress has to act and the President has to sign the bill. I'll ask you one question to that before you leave. There was a time when the negotiation landed in and around a wall in exchange for DACA. And it was give us this one-time payment and we will give you DACA in exchange.

You were one of the three senators, I think, who voted against that. Yes. Some would say, Senator Harris, why wouldn't you give Trump his wall in exchange for all of these people to receive the DACA and to stay in the United States? Because I did not agree with holding these kids ransom. And that's what that was. That's what that was. Period. We made a promise to these kids. He can tell you in a longer conversation how he went through a process of answering a

multitude of questions about the circumstances of his arrival, about what kind of life he is living right now. Is he living a productive life? Has he ever committed a crime? They went through a whole series, and when they vetted and passed, we told them that they would receive protection. And one of the most important aspects of what we told them is we told them if you answer these questions to qualify, we will not share that information with ICE. We will not deport you. That's what we told these young people. And now, this administration is prepared to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break to break the the thi thi thi. thi. thi. thi thi. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. the the the the the the the the the the the the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. they. they. they. they. they. they. they. they the. they they the. they the. they what we told these young people and now this Administration is prepared to break that promise and

Share that information with ICE. That is wrong and I'm not going to support that. I'm not going to support that and that's why I voted against it. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Ears Edition. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central app. Watch full episodes and videos at the Daily Show. to the Daily Show and Instagram and subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. Have you ever been watching the news and thought to yourself, wow, the Supreme Court sure does suck?

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