Trump’s ’loser’ fear grows as Kamala surges: GOP newspaper & Dem Senate veteran agree
Trump’s ’loser’ fear grows as Kamala surges: GOP newspaper & Dem Senate veteran agree
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00:00On this, 100 days until the election, the marathon has now become a sprint, and we are also marking
00:06one week, just one week, since President Biden quit the race and endorsed his vice president.
00:10Kamala Harris then spent the next few days, as you probably saw,
00:13holding dozens of events, phone calls, meetings, fundraising, Zooms, and a first-of-a-kind effort
00:20to do something no one's ever done over a course of just a couple days, which is take that torch
00:25that the president passed her, and also try to unify this party at warp speed.
00:34We have 105 days until election day, and in that time, we've got some work to do.
00:40I am running to become president of the United States of America.
00:44I know Donald Trump's type.
00:50I'm ready to debate Donald Trump.
00:52Donald Trump wants to take our country backward.
00:55He and his extreme project 2025 agenda
01:01will weaken the middle class.
01:04We are not going back.
01:08Not going back.
01:13We are not going back.
01:14Joe, are you watching? Do you hear this clapping?
01:18Do we believe in the promise of America?
01:22And are we ready to fight for it?
01:33You can hear some of the excitement.
01:34Harris reflects the Biden-Harris administration's policies,
01:38but also brings her own style, biography, and priorities to the ticket.
01:42And now she's atop the ticket.
01:44She has clinched the pledged delegates.
01:47She has the leadership.
01:48She has the Clintons, the Obamas.
01:50This is her nomination, and it will be her convention.
01:54And she is now, with her own style,
01:56leading on certain issues that she wants to put front and center, including women's rights.
02:03So-called leaders are saying that after an individual
02:08has experienced such a crime of violence, a violation to their body,
02:15and surviving that, that these so-called leaders would say to that same person,
02:21and the next decision you make about your body is not yours either.
02:27That's immoral.
02:30That's immoral.
02:32To take away her ability to decide what happens to her body next.
02:40Harris, a nationally known figure,
02:43but this first week has also been so strong that even the Trump campaign
02:48referred to it as her honeymoon and said the polls may tighten.
02:52Many Democrats seem more excited about Kamala Harris than ever before,
02:55from the fun memes to reflecting on her own strong and prosecutorial style,
03:00which people remember when she has questioned witnesses on Capitol Hill.
03:05I do want you to be honest.
03:06I'm not able to be rushed this fast.
03:09It makes me nervous.
03:10Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.
03:12It was you who made the charging decision, sir.
03:16You made the decision not to charge the president.
03:19In a PROS memo and in a declination memo.
03:22You said it was your baby.
03:23You know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class
03:28to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day.
03:33And that little girl was me.
03:36Can you think of any laws that give the government
03:39the power to make decisions about the male body?
03:44I'm not I'm not thinking of any right now.
03:47America does not want to witness a food fight.
03:49They want to know how we're going to put food on their table.
03:53Now, that's just some of the history I mentioned where we were one week ago.
03:57A week can feel like a long time in politics,
03:59but it's still too early to know where the voters will land 100 days from now.
04:04The early polls have showed a surge of support,
04:07but also headwinds where Trump is still doing fine.
04:09Many polls are basically tied and within the margin of error.
04:12Harris has the shortest calendar for any nominee ever because of Biden's late exit.
04:18She has a shorter window to pick her running mate before the convention.
04:21The campaign is not offering clues yet,
04:23although we've seen certain names floated in the media.
04:26She did once tell me about her dream running mate, though, back when this was a hypothetical.
04:32If you could have anyone living or dead as your perfect running mate, who would it be?
04:38Oh, oh, Muhammad Ali.
04:46Muhammad Ali.
04:46How do you like that?
04:49How do you like that?
04:50Well, Ali can throw a punch, take a punch,
04:52and of course, is a civil rights icon, among other things.
04:55But that was an exercise.
04:57She is now really looking seriously at a range of people, including potentially the Democrats
05:02with the right resumes in swing states who could affect the race and also be ready to serve on day
05:06one. Now, what you see here is relevant to Kamala Harris as the only woman of color to be a major
05:12party's presidential nominee. She was the second such woman in the U.S. Senate.
05:18She showed ambition and energy because she was one of the first candidates to run to fill the big
05:22shoes of the senator you also see on your screen, the long-serving California Senator Barbara Boxer.
05:28She served 24 years in that post in California before Harris became her successor. You are
05:35really one of the perfect people we could come to on this tonight. You're our lead-off guest.
05:38Thank you for doing it.
05:41Thank you so much.
05:44We'll put the picture back up and start there. A lot of us have been watching Harris over the years,
05:50but you really knew her and she filled your shoes, as I said, proverbially.
05:55What can you tell us about that time and how she's grown into her work in government?
06:03I can tell you that I became really friends with Kamala in 2010. She was running in a very
06:11difficult race for attorney general. Very few women in the country had been AGs. And in California,
06:18she became the first. It was very hard for a woman to be tough. That's why I named my book
06:28The Art of Tough because it may not come naturally to us. We're always trying to bring people
06:33together. You've got to be tough as a prosecutor. She won that race. It was really hard. I remember
06:39calling her almost every day to find out if she had won because it took so long to find out.
06:46And then when I decided not to run again for the United States Senate,
06:51six years later, she had already been reelected handily as a prosecutor.
06:56She was the perfect person for that seat. And as you showed from some of the clips,
07:03frankly, I hated to see her leave the Senate because I love the Senate and I love the way
07:09she went after some of those people who were trying to hide their true feelings about a woman's right
07:15to choose and about crime and all the rest. She was so good at it. So she won. She grew into that
07:22role. And boy, has she grown into this role to be our presidential candidate. Just incredible.
07:30Yeah. And Senator, politics is not proportionate. It's not always fair.
07:36It's certainly not always logical. And I say that because so many Democrats think that Joe Biden
07:43not only did a great thing in 2020 in finding ways to unite the party and stop Trump, which
07:47was not guaranteed, he's incumbent president, when he was not only doing everything to win,
07:52he was trying to cheat, which he did on through Jan 6. But not only that, a lot of Democrats we've
07:57talked to think that he has had a great first term. And yet, as you know, there was not only
08:04a lack of excitement, but a real concern about whether he was going to win reelection for a
08:09second term. Contra Kamala Harris, we've heard from at least maybe not Democrats out across the
08:15country, Senator, but in D.C., all kinds of questioning about her as vice president, which
08:20is a hard role. It's a diminished role. Ask Dan Quayle or anyone. And yet in the last week,
08:27again, no one's counting votes yet. But in a certain way, the people have spoken a little
08:31and they've started to say they're really excited and pumped. And I could I could show you in the
08:35audience all the measurements we have for that. What do you make of that? That that sort of
08:39disproportion. Great respect for what Biden's done, but not wanting him to continue now. That's the
08:44change. And whatever she initially faced now, what I would call a huge Kamala moment.
08:51It's a huge moment for her. Now, the president, who I personally adore and I believe he will go
08:59down in history as one of the greatest, said that if he was convinced he couldn't win,
09:05he would definitely stand aside. And he did. But here's the thing. He didn't have to endorse
09:11Kamala. He did not. A lot of my colleagues, my former colleagues, open convention. He said,
09:18no, I know she can do it. So here's the thing. So many people respect and admire this president
09:26and were saddened by what happened to him, that they said, OK, if she's good enough for Biden,
09:32she's good enough for me. That's one piece of it. The other piece is the people who thought
09:37that Joe was too old. Here she comes. Here she comes. And she can prosecute this case against
09:45Trump. When you talk about a woman's right to choose, it's from here. When you're a woman,
09:51it's from here. And you know what it means when people try to take away your rights and she'll
09:57make the case. They're coming for us first. Then they're coming for you next. And, you know, we
10:03see it happening. And so this is an extraordinary moment. You're right to call attention to the
10:09100 days. I have not seen this much excitement. I go back a long way. I was 20 years old.
10:16I couldn't even vote then. We didn't have the right to vote at that time until we were 21.
10:22And JFK was the candidate. And I remember to this day the feeling in my soul. Everything was so
10:29exciting. And America was going to move forward. And the world would look at us with such excitement.
10:35And I feel like that is happening now.