-Thank you so much for taking time
out of your schedule to be with us tonight.
I appreciate that. -Of course.
-We have a whole room full of college students here.
-I know. Our future --
[ Cheers and applause ]
Our future is bright.
-What was Kamala Harris like in college?
-Oh. -Like, if there was Instagram...
-Yeah, what would that shot have been?
-Yeah.
-Well, it would have included me protesting apartheid...
-Uh-huh. -...on the Mall.
And it probably would have included me
in the various jobs that I had.
I was a tour guide at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
where they make the money,
and I would take people through the tour.
I worked at McDonald's one summer.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Let's talk about that. How was that?
-You know, so, I mostly had the fries station.
-Oh, yeah. -But sometimes I graduated
to actually checking people out. -Yeah.
-At the cash register. -Yeah.
-I never got to the flipping the hamburgers piece.
That would have been a real promotion.
-Yeah, no. You didn't get that far?
-I didn't get that far.
-My friend worked at McDonald's, and they would give me --
They would slip a couple extra fries in there for me.
-Yeah.
-Your real friends, you're like, "Oh, yeah, no, you --
There were two fries."
-Yeah, I'm not admitting to that right now.
-Imagine. A big McDonald's scandal, yeah.
-But I loved being in college. I hitchhiked to graduation.
Don't -- I shouldn't tell you that.
-What was that about?
-The night before was a late night and --
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Finally! Finally. Okay. Yeah.
-And we missed our rides.
And so a girlfriend of mine,
who lived just down the street from me,
we were hustling, and we were running late.
And our families were on campus and they were all ready.
And we were supposed to be walking across the stage.
And we couldn't figure out how to --
And we had our graduation robes,
and we were like, "Let's just get out there."
And we just hitched.
It was old-fashioned, old-school thumb up on the street.
-No way. -Yes. Yes.
-How far away were you from the graduation?
-It was, you know, probably -- I don't know. 15, 20 blocks?
-And no one knew that you were doing any of this.
No cellphones.
-No, we got there, and that was the important thing.
And we didn't really confess.
I don't think I've ever actually told many people.
-Thank you for opening up. I appreciate that.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-But you made it, right? -You got to get there.
-You have to get there, yeah.
This was your third Democratic debate
we just finished last week. -Yeah, right.
-How did you think you did?
And is there any issues that you wish you could have touched upon
that they didn't bring up? -You know, I really --
We've got to talk about issues like choice for women
and access to reproductive healthcare.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And you guys know. I mean, it's a big issue.
And women -- the women of America right now
are, you know, full-on under attack
by these states and others who are passing legislation
that is, you know, prohibiting a woman
to make a decision about her own body.
And it's all these out-of-touch politicians
who are making these decisions.
And they need to understand --
[ Cheers and applause ]
They need to understand it's the woman's body.
It's not their body.
And, you know, I was in a hearing
for, you know, the Supreme Court.
I was on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
And I actually asked the nominee,
"Is there a law that you know of that tells a man what he can do
with his body or should do with his body?"
-Yeah. -Right?
-There is none. -No. No.
-Wow.
-You know, and it's a real issue.
And, you know, it is about woman --
It's about a woman's right
to make decisions about her own life.
And it really -- In this year, in 2019,
that we've still got legislators
who are telling women what to do with their own body.
-Yeah. -And in some of these cases,
it's not an extreme statement to say that women will die.
Because poor women -- a lot of, you know, women of color
are the ones who are not going be able to travel to a state
to have a physician-assisted procedure
and, out of desperation, are going to do exactly
what women in previous generations resorted to
out of desperation.
It's a real issue, so I wish that that would have been
discussed in any one of the debates.
It has not been brought up as a subject,
and it's one of the biggest issues facing women
in America right now. -That's bizarre...
...that it wasn't brought up. -Yeah.
-You -- I know you have a kid. You have a daughter who's...
-Yes. -...college age.
-What issues do they bring up, do your kids bring up?
They're like, "Oh, Mom, you got to talk about this."
-Yeah, it's a lot about dating advice.
-"You can't bring it up in the debates,
but what do you think? Is my boyfriend cute?"
-You know, it's --
I can't talk about their business on national TV.
They will kill me.
-Right now they're going, "Mom, stop it."
-But, you know, it's that.
They talk about climate and the climate crisis.
It's real. -Yeah.
-Because, I mean, you know, we have all these leaders here,
these college students who know that we are failing them
and they're going to end up paying a price.
Over the next 12 years, if we do nothing,
it will be irreversible in terms of the harm.
And you've got, you know, a president, a current president
who's pushing science fiction instead of science fact.
He had the nerve to say wind turbines cause cancer.
Jay Inslee, who was in the race, I love his phrase.
Jay, I'm giving you credit for this.
And he said, "You know, no, wind turbines don't cause cancer.
They cause jobs." Right?
[ Cheers and applause ]
So, I have a Green New Deal, and it's about creating jobs.
It's about addressing ignored communities,
and that relates to poor communities,
communities of color, the indigenous people,
and making sure that folks are not overlooked.
And that's about accountability. Because I've taken on
the big oil companies before, when I was attorney general
of California, and let's just be clear.
There are people who are profiting
off of the pollution they are creating.
And the bottom line -- You've been in L.A., right?
-Of course. -You know, remember --
Did you ever go to L.A. about 20 years ago?
Remember what color that sky was?
-Black. -Right.
-And now you look up, and it's blue. And you know why?
Because leaders led,
and people said, "Enough. We can do something about it."
The pollution is caused by human behaviors,
which can be changed without much change to our lifestyles.
We need leadership, and that's one of probably
the most critical reasons that we need a new president of the United States.
And I intend to be the next president
who's going to deal with this. -Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]