Vice President Kamala Harris agreed with radio host Charlamagne Tha God on Tuesday that former President Donald J. Trump is a fascist, casting his Republican rival as a dangerous authoritarian leader. We went one step further than before.
Ms. Harris was contrasting her vision for the country with Mr. Trump’s in a free-flowing interview in which she often spoke about the concerns of black Americans, when Ms. Charlamagne interjected: Why can’t you say that? ”
“Yes, I can say that,” Ms. Harris replied.
Journalist Bob Woodward’s new book reveals that her comments come after Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Trump administration, called the former president a “deep-rooted fascist.” It is said that this was published a few days after. .
Harris’ hour-long appearance in Detroit on Tuesday with Charlamagne, co-host of the popular hip-hop morning radio show “The Breakfast Club,” which has many black listeners, was a sign of support from black voters. It was part of a larger push to combat decline. . And in the conversation, she predicted that the election would be decided.
“This is a race with a margin of error,” she said. “I’m going to win, but it’s tough.”
Here are five points I learned from the interview.
Harris stepped up her attacks on Trump, calling him “weak” but dangerous.
During her tenure as vice president, some of Harris’ closest aides thought she was too cautious in her public statements. But when it came to Trump on Tuesday, she didn’t hold back.
She agreed with Charlamagne that Trump is embracing fascism and said Trump’s plan would “make it even harder for workers to survive and destroy democracy.” Republicans have branded Trump a threat to democracy and accused Democrats of inciting political violence, including an assassination attempt on him. Trump has repeatedly described Harris as a fascist.
The vice president’s comments Tuesday were just one in a series of blatant attacks on his character and what he represents.
She also accused President Vladimir V. Putin of praising the dictator, citing reports that he sent valuable coronavirus testing equipment to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin “at a time when black people were dying every day” in the pandemic. attacked.
“This man is really, really weak,” Harris said. “He’s weak. Wanting to please dictators, seeking their flattery and favors is a sign of weakness.”
He blocked questions about whether the Justice Department was moving too slowly to prosecute him and whether he should be jailed in November, but said Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot He once again criticized his role.
“The courts should deal with it and I will deal with it in November,” she said.
Her voice was nothing like Obama’s.
Harris has adopted a very different strategy to appeal to black voters, especially black men, than the one used by former President Barack Obama when he campaigned in Pittsburgh last week.
As enthusiasm wavered among some black men, causing panic within the Democratic Party, Mr. Obama rebuked them, accusing them of “not feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
Charlamagne said Tuesday that Obama was “waving his finger at black men” and wondered when anti-Harris white voters would be reprimanded.
“What’s happening is we’re all trying to remind people of what’s at stake,” Harris responded. However, she also acknowledged that she was under no obligation to accept support from anyone.
“I need to get every vote, and that’s why I’m here having candid conversations with you and your listeners,” she said.
She rattled off a list of suggestions, comparing her policies to Mr. Trump’s.
She said child tax credit measures and investments in lowering prescription drug prices would help Black communities. She described a plan to provide 1 million forgivable loans of up to $20,000 to Black entrepreneurs. She said her economic policy is to increase “home ownership in black communities.”
And Harris said the goal of legalizing marijuana would especially help black men. “I know exactly how these laws have been used to disproportionately impact certain people, especially Black men,” she said, adding that she has deliberately imprisoned Black men for marijuana offenses. after dismissing questions about the false claim.
Too many scripts? She says she’s just “disciplined.”
Charlamagne began the interview by noting that Harris has been criticized for appearing “very scripted” and sticking to “the talking points” in other media appearances.
“That would be called disciplined,” she retorted.
This exchange set the tone for a lively and substantive discussion, featuring prerecorded questions from listeners and people in the studio. Charlamagne, a generally friendly interviewer, suggested that Trump should “stay in jail” and interjected, “That’s right,” when he agreed with the vice president. But he also pressed her on issues such as the border and her career as a prosecutor.
Ms. Harris vacillated or dodged at times, including a question from a listener about whether she supported reparations for black Americans over slavery.
“I say this as a prelude to saying two other things, and I’ll go on,” she said during her seven-minute response, which was about economic policy for Black Americans more broadly. Charlamagne began to joke about it. filibuster.
(The issue of compensation “needs to be considered,” she concluded.)
Charlamagne brought her close to the border.
One of the most tense points in the interview came when Charlamagne pressed Harris on one of her biggest political vulnerabilities: the U.S.-Mexico border.
She got defensive.
When a radio host asked if the administration was to blame for the sharp increase in illegal immigration recorded during President Biden’s term, Harris said the White House has implemented a bipartisan border security bill that would significantly reduce asylum. He repeated his usual assertion that he had supported the . Republicans took a cue from Trump, who didn’t want Democrats to ensure victory in an election year, and repealed the bill.
But the exchange also included a rare comment from Harris about Trump’s efforts to label her a “border czar.” Mr. Biden did not assign her the task of managing policy at the border, but rather addressing poverty and corruption in Central America to encourage would-be immigrants to stay home.
“If I was reacting to every name he called me, I wouldn’t be able to focus on the things that actually helped the American people,” Harris said of Trump.
Trump’s immigration plan also came up when he was asked about his proposal to invoke the Alien Enemy Act of 1798, which requires the summary deportation of suspected gang members.
“I have a sneaking suspicion that if Trump wins, he’s going to use this law to put people who don’t look white into detention centers, and that’s scary,” the caller said.
Harris said that if Trump really cared about the issue, he would not have pushed through the bipartisan Senate border bill.
Harris said Trump is “trying to instill fear about problems where he could actually be part of the solution.” “He chooses not to do that because he prefers to deal with problems rather than solve them.”
Unusually, she spoke about her faith and being black.
Harris continued to discuss the role of religion in her life and her role as a black woman, even after Trump tried to inflame racial division by falsely claiming in July that she had only recently become black. We don’t talk much about identity.
But on Tuesday, the vice president was asked by a Detroit pastor about criticism from the Trump campaign for not engaging with black churches.
Harris, whose mother is Indian-American and whose father is Jamaican, was quick to dismiss this as “disinformation,” saying that opponents “have been trying to get rid of the people I’ve worked with and where I’m from. They’re trying to separate me from certain people.”
“I grew up in a black church. I grew up attending 23rd Street Church of God in Oakland, California,” Harris said. “My pastor is Amos C. Brown of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, California.”
And she tried to turn the tables on Trump, who is not known for his religious beliefs and has long made racist comments, by implying that he is a charlatan.
“He’s selling $60 Bibles and tennis shoes and trying to make people feel as if he has a better understanding of the black community,” she said. “Come.”
Peter Baker contributed to this report.
