Vice President Harris was bombarded with questions about her plans for black Americans on Tuesday from radio host Charlamagne the God and her listeners in an interview that was part of a media barrage in the final days before Election Day.
The interview began with Charlamagne asking Harris to respond to criticisms of the quality of her responses to questions and the idea that they were repetitive, which she characterized as “discipline.”
She also cited the “weight of the moment” in her role running for president against Trump.
“I now feel an extraordinary responsibility to do the best I can,” Harris said. “When I go to bed at night, in addition to my prayers, I ask: 'Did I do everything I could today?'
“This is a race with a margin of error. It's tough,” she added. “But I'm going to win. I'm going to win.”
Throughout the interview, Harris said she supports reparations research and shared her positions on topics such as building homeownership for Black people and opportunities to increase wealth across generations.
The interview was an opportunity for Harris to speak directly to black voters, who polls show overwhelmingly support her over President Trump. But some of the interview questions also revealed disappointment with the vote and disillusionment with whether candidates can deliver on the promises they made on the campaign trail.
At one point, Charlamagne noted that Harris faces a problem with misinformation in this year's election, particularly regarding her career as a prosecutor.
“One of the biggest misinformation stories, one of the biggest allegations against you, is that you targeted and locked up thousands of black men in San Francisco for marijuana,” Charlamagne said. . “Some say I did it to advance my career. Others say I did it out of pure hatred for black people. Please tell me the facts.”
Harris quickly denied the charges, instead calling herself California's “most progressive prosecutor.” He also vowed to decriminalize marijuana if elected president.
“I know exactly how these laws have been used to disproportionately impact certain people, especially Black men,” Harris said.
Questions arose repeatedly during the interview about black men and what Harris plans to do for black men, but while polls show Trump's approval ratings rising, her demographic decline This is not surprising since it shows that his approval rating is declining.
Harris announced the Opportunity Policy for Black Men on Monday, but one caller asked why she didn't announce it sooner and why support for black men was only requested during the campaign. I asked.
“I've been in this race for about 70 days. If you look at all the work I've done over the last 70 days, what I'm talking about right now is not new, it's about winning this election. “You'll see that it's not,” Harris replied. “This is about years of work, including the work I did as vice president and before that when I was a senator.”
At another point in the interview, Harris' time in the Senate came up when a caller from Nevada asked what she planned to do to address police brutality and the disproportionate impact on Black Americans. Ta.
The vice president was quick to point out his work with Sen. Cory Booker (D.N.J.) on justice in the George Floyd Policing Act during his time in the Senate.
“I didn’t get the votes in Congress,” she admitted. “But when we took office, and while I was vice president, what we did was pass an executive order that said the following must happen for federal law enforcement agencies. We need to implement no-knock warrants and a national database to collect information and track police officers who break the law.”
“I will always continue to work towards passing the George Floyd Policing Act,” she added. “Part of the work I do as a candidate for President of the United States includes elevating candidates who are running for re-election or who are being elected to Congress for the first time. I support what we need to do about the issues we've been talking about.
The interview was an opportunity for Harris to speak directly to black voters, but Charlamagne also pressed her about recent comments in which she said she would not do anything special for black voters.
Harris denied that statement and reminded Charlamagne that the conversation began over misinformation.
She then added that she was running “to be everyone's president.”
“But I'm very observant of the history and disparities that exist in certain communities, and I'm not going to shy away from that,” Harris said. “That doesn't mean my policies won't benefit everyone, because they do. Everything I just said will benefit everyone.”
