Senator Kamala Harris.
(cheers and applause)
Welcome to the show.
Thank you.
-Happy birthday. -Thank you so much.
This really is a birthday for me, uh,
because you have come out of the gate firing.
In fact, Donald Trump, apparently said
you were the best opening so far.
That's what he said. He was like,
(mimics Trump): "She was great. So great.
Came out firing."
He likes big crowds.
(normal voice): He does, but I mean,
if even he was impressed, what do you think
you've done right to begin your journey
as a presidential candidate for the Democrats?
Well, I that, um, coming out of the gate speaking truth
about how America really needs a fighter
for truth and justice in this country
-which are right now under attack. -Right.
Truth and justice are under attack.
I think it's about also fighting
for the opportunity America that's lost for so many people.
But coming out of the gate in Oakland, California,
the place of my birth, and talking about, um,
the fact that we are better than this as a country,
and I think we all know that, and we want folks
who are gonna fight for the best of who we are.
So it's been a good beginning, it's been a strong beginning,
and I hope to continue on this path.
That's exciting. It's an exciting journey.
-Exciting beginning. -(cheers and applause)
Um...
Since this is the beginning, and, you know, I read the book,
and I've learned so much about you now.
There are so many things
that people do want to know about you.
I think the most important is
how do people pronounce your name?
Because people argue about this all the time.
Is it "Hah-ris" or is it "Ha-reece"?
(laughs) It's Harris.
No, but seriously, everyone goes like,
"Is it 'Kah-mala' or is it 'Ka-mah-la' or is it...?"
Kamala. Just think of a comma and then add a "la."
-They-- Oh. Kamala. -There you go. Kamala.
-I like that. It's like a long "a." -There you are.
And what I didn't know from the book
is that you grew up in a household where--
for the most part of your life
you were raised by a single mother who is Indian,
-but she raised you in black America. -Yes.
You know, you went to civil rights speeches,
you went to marches with her.
Has that shaped a lot of how you see the world,
growing up in a household where you were in a black community
but at the same time, had multiple cultural influences?
Well, it's true. I mean, you and I were both raised
-by very strong mothers, you know. -Right.
My mother was all of five feet tall, but after meeting her,
you would have thought she was seven feet tall.
And my mother was one of the smartest, the toughest,
and the most loving people I've ever known.
And she was a fighter.
She was a breast cancer researcher.
She had two goals in her life:
-to raise her two daughters and end breast cancer. -Wow.
And she would take us to the lab with her on the weekends
and after work, and her whole vision of life,
and I adopted that vision,
was of what can be, unburdened by what has been.
Knowing what can be in a way that we improve human condition,
and seeing, even though we have not seen it before,
seeing the potential in human beings and in our future.
And that's how our mother raised us.
And she was active in the civil rights movement,
that's where my parents met.
You know, we joke that we grew up surrounded by a bunch
-of adults who spent full time marching and shouting -Right.
about this thing called justice.
And, um, and my mother knew that she was raising
her two daughters into a world that would present obstacles,
and would not necessarily get us,
but my mother raised us to understand, and she would say,
"Don't you let anyone tell you who you are.
-You tell them who you are." -Wow.
And, um...
-Thank you. -(cheers and applause)
I always wondered...
I always wondered, I mean, you know,
I know that you love your country,
and I know that there is oftentimes a call
that people feel to-to-to, you know,
ascribe to-to a larger goal, you know,
-I want to be president. I want to be that. -Yeah.
But why did you want to get into this line of work?
I mean, you know, to have a mom
who's trying to cure breast cancer,
and you go, no, I want to go into being a district attorney.
I want to go into public office. Why?
Well, when I was growing up in that environment.
It was a very rich environment.
It was an active environment.
And the heroes in the civil rights movement,
among many were the lawyers.
It was Thurgood Marshall, and Charles Hamilton Houston,
and Constance Baker Motley.
And these individuals who understood the skill
of the profession of law to translate the passion
from the streets to the courtrooms of our country.
And do that work of reminding folks--
and we know it must continually be done--
reminding folks of the promise we articulated in 1776:
that we are all and should be treated as equals.
And so I decided that's the work I wanted to do,
that that was noble, important work.
And I went to law school, and then out of law school,
I made the decision to become a prosecutor.
And I will tell you, you can probably imagine--
my sister went on, for example, to head the ACLU--
When I made a decision to become a prosecutor
folks thought it was a curious decision.
Yeah, I can imagine.
With some of my family, I had to defend the decision
like one would a thesis, but what I said--
-Truly. -(laughter)
But what I said is that when we want to reform systems,
and I was born knowing the failures,
and-and the problems
with the criminal justice system in America.
But I also believed then, as I do now,
that when we want to reform these systems
that need and must be reformed,
that we have a role to play on the inside
-as well as on the outside. -Right.
And so that's the decision I made.
And it was a decision to be able to then do things
as I did when I was D.A.
I was elected the first woman, and the first woman of color
to be district attorney of San Francisco.
And the first woman of color in the state of California.
-Right. -When I was then later...
Thank you.
When I was later elected attorney general of California,
I was elected as the first woman and the first person of color
ever to be the attorney general
of the biggest state in the country.
And in that position,
having the power that comes with the position,
I was able to champion reform,
um, like-like had really not existed before.
When I was district attorney, Trevor, of San Francisco,
I started a reentry initiative focused on young men
-who had been arrested for drug sales. -Right.
Getting them jobs and counseling
and then dismissing the charges against them.
This was back in 2004, when I became D.A.
People would say to me, "Why are you letting people out
when you should be locking people up?"
People would say to me-- I would talk to other D.A.s--
"This is a smart way to do business."
We need to stop the revolving door.
Let's-let's incorporate and embrace
-that concept of redemption. -Mm-hmm.
Right? The idea people, when they make mistakes,
they should be held accountable,
but let's let them earn their way back. Right?
You know this. This is what Mandela talked about so much.
-Right. -Right?
And, so, I would start these programs.
I'd talk with other D.A.s.
"Hey, let's do reentry initiatives."
They'd say, "What is reentry? What does that mean?
"That's not our job.
"Our job is not to get people services.
Why are you getting people jobs when they've committed crimes?"
I'd say, "Because it's the smart thing to do.
"Plus, the war on drugs was a complete failure,
and we need to have a different approach to how we do business."
Let's-let's talk a little bit about that different approach.
-(cheering and applause) -The, um...
The journey you've been on has been unique
-because you started as a prosecutor. -Right.
You were in a position where you had to put people in prison.
-You had to enforce the law. -Right.
But you've come under criticism recently
where people say, um, you had some programs
that some feel targeted minorities
or communities that didn't have the means.
You know, for instance, truancy programs
where mothers were threatened with prison
because their children weren't going to school,
weren't where they were supposed to be.
When you look at your past...
I know what you're proposing now,
but what do you think was the biggest thing
that changed the way you saw criminal justice reform?
Do you think it's just a time thing,
or do your views continue to evolve as you learn?
Well, okay, first let me say this.
I will never regret having prosecuted
people who molested children, people who raped women,
people who murdered other individuals.
Those are serious crimes for which I believe
-there should be serious punishment. -Mm-hmm.
And I'm never gonna apologize for that.
And I think most people would agree
that when one human being harms another human being,
especially those who are weak and vulnerable,
that there should be serious and severe consequence
and accountability.
We also know, and I was born knowing,
that this system of criminal justice
in this country needs reform.
It has been biased. There is systemic racism.
We have had a policy in place in this country
that has led to mass incarceration
where we have incarcerated more people per capita
than any other civilized or-or advanced,
so-called advanced country, and it needs to be reformed.
I will say to you that over the years,
one of the benefits that I believe the system received
and that helped me do the work that I was able to accomplish
was because of the incredible activism
and smart activism of folks
like the folks who are Black Lives Matter,
the folks who were involved on the outside
saying and demanding that the system would change.
Demanding and marching and advocating,
because that activism allowed me
to then be able to do some of the work that I accomplished.
I could not have done anything that I did
without that level of organized, smart activism on the outside.
And we have thankfully evolved, but there's a lot more to do.
-Right. -There's a lot more to do. I believe, first of all,
that we have got to continue on sentencing reform.
We have a Department of Justice led by this administration
that has shut down consent decrees
where there should be supervision
of police departments that have proven to be engaged
in racist or in-in... in systemic kind of targeting
-of people of color. -Right.
Um, this administration has shut down
the pattern and practice investigations
of police departments around the country.
They're engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination.
-We've got to change what we're doing right now. -How do you...
Let me ask you this. How do you change that
as a commander in chief and leader of the country
while still making police and people who love the police
feel like you are a candidate who believes in law and order?
'Cause that's-that's one piece of framing
that President Trump has done exceptionally well,
is he's gone and said the Democrats love crime.
The Democrats hate police.
So how do you say to the police,
"Hey, we're going to come after you, essentially,
"for the things that you've done wrong, but at the same time,
-we still respect the police force"? -Yeah.
How do you balance that?
Well, it's... In my mind, it's simple.
But I agree, he has created this false choice
and this paradigm that suggests
that he really doesn't understand who communities are.
When your grandmother's house gets burglarized,
when you have a family member who has been victimized,
you want to know that you can be able to pick up the phone
and call police and they're gonna be there.
-Mm-hmm. -And so it is a mistake and a myth to suggest
that certain communities don't want police.
They do. What they don't want
and what no community should want
is excessive force, racial profiling
and-and unequal application or enforcement of the law.
-Right. -But...
-(applause) -So we have to really...
we have to reconcile these points.
And, in fact, that's why when I was attorney general,
one of the issues that I worked on--
and we created the first of its kind in the nation--
training for police officers
on implicit bias and procedural justice.
And brought together leaders in law enforcement
as well as leaders in civil rights communities
to say, "Look, we have got to deal
"with the fact that when you carry a gun,
"when you have the ability to enforce the law,
"which means to pull somebody over,
"to stop them, to arrest them,
"you got to check where the bias is kicking in,
"and you got to recognize that it's there
"and that if we're not gonna deal with it,
"there's gonna be uneven application of the law,
and injustice results because of that."
And, so, there is work to be done,
but we have to have an understanding, also,
that this president has suggested
that so many issues are issues about national security
and public safety that are a figment of his imagination,
and, um, including the vanity project called the wall
and his suggestion
that there are terrorists who are invading the country
and, for that reason, suggesting
that we should have a concrete wall from sea to sea.