Living in America: Will platform of ‘inclusivity’ trump ‘freewheeling’ felon in ‘post-racial’ US?
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00:00Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention wrapped up in Chicago, with Tim Walz taking
00:07to the stage, Kamala Harris' vice presidential nominee using his address to introduce himself
00:12to the American public.
00:14The governor of Minnesota previously served in the National Guard before becoming a school
00:18teacher and before he formally accepted the nomination last night, he reflected on what
00:23inspired him to run for office.
00:25Take a listen.
00:27For me, it was serving in the Army National Guard.
00:32I joined up two days after my 17th birthday and I proudly wore our nation's uniform for
00:3924 years.
00:41But it was those players and my students who inspired me to run for Congress.
00:46They saw in me what I had hoped to instill in them, a commitment to the common good,
00:53an understanding that we're all in this together.
00:57Tim Walz speaking there.
00:58We can now bring in Ellen Kuntz, professor at Insect Business School, as well as author
01:03of a book in French translated as Portraits of Veep, The Incredible Story of Kamala Harris.
01:10Thank you very much for joining us here on France 24.
01:11Happy to be here.
01:12Now, tonight is a big night for Kamala Harris, isn't it?
01:14I remember in 2016, I was working when Hillary Clinton took on the nomination.
01:19It was historic.
01:20This woman who would go on, try and go on to shatter that glass ceiling, didn't happen.
01:25It was obviously historic when Barack Obama took on the nomination in 2008.
01:30But tonight is bigger, isn't it?
01:32Well, I think the biggest thing about it is how unexpected it is.
01:36Before summer vacation started for teachers, my colleagues said, Ellen, your side is lost.
01:41And I thought to myself, but the Democrats that I know, we know how to pull things together.
01:46And then we had this incredible situation when Joe Biden, of his own accord, left the
01:50race.
01:51And I would say that that point particularly is what makes this perhaps even more historic
01:56from that point of view.
01:57And we're starting, you know, when Obama came to office, there was this idea that we were
02:00living in some sort of post-racial world.
02:03Maybe it's happening now, because the preoccupation with Kamala Harris is not so much her racial
02:08background, but much more what she brings to the table, the incredible contrast with
02:12Donald Trump and the Republican side.
02:14Let's talk about how challenging it's going to be for Kamala Harris to convince voters
02:18to pick her, because it's going to be difficult, isn't it?
02:21Do you think that is why she went ahead and selected Tim Walz to make that decision more
02:25palatable?
02:26Well, I think she made that decision historically based on what a winning ticket that goes to
02:32the White House looks like and its diversity in geography.
02:36So a lot of people thought, oh, she should pick somebody, you know, like the governor
02:39of California.
02:40Impossible.
02:41You can't have two California people, right?
02:42So by choosing Tim Walz, who's middle America, that's a really important, I'd say, geographical
02:50play that rounds out the idea that all parts of the country are represented.
02:55Also it seems that when we had President Biden going up against Donald Trump, it was about
03:03Donald Trump being a threat to democracy.
03:05It seems the Democrats have switched gears to saying, this guy's a joke.
03:09He's weird.
03:10Yes.
03:11And those words tended to really resonate.
03:13And by the way, that was Tim Walz's coined line, and he used it again last night.
03:19He'd said, they're weird, they're wrong, and they're dangerous.
03:22And he had a lot of, you know, facts to back it up.
03:25So what's really interesting is how the media tide has finally turned away from Donald Trump.
03:32It's taken nine years for the media to not be obsessed with every word that Donald Trump
03:37says and every tweet or social that he posts.
03:40So I think that that's the incredible thing about what happened in the last month, is
03:44so much of the media energy has gotten behind this Democratic ticket.
03:49Now the Democrats, of course, when you compare it to the Republican National Convention,
03:53have a host of high profile big hitters.
03:55Yes, they had the Obamas speaking this week, but yesterday it was Oprah Winfrey who came
04:02and addressed the convention.
04:03Take a listen to what she had to say.
04:06I'm calling on all you independents and all you undecideds.
04:16We will be set back, pushed back, bullied back, kicked back.
04:21We're not going back.
04:25Oprah Winfrey there.
04:26Speaking in true Oprah Winfrey fashion, it seems that also another thing the Democrats
04:30are doing is positioning this election as one about the future versus the past, because
04:37it seems when it comes to the Republicans in terms of abortion rights or going taking
04:42on gay rights, all these things, they want to take the country further and further back.
04:47Is that a fair assessment?
04:49It's a very fair assessment, and it's based on what they have written and what they have
04:52agreed that they're going to back.
04:54Project 2025.
04:55Project 2025, but even a shorter version, which is the Republican, their platform.
05:04Their platform this year is only 16 pages long, but it's like miniature excerpts of
05:08Project 2025.
05:10It's very curious, this idea that they've lost what the country wants.
05:16It's not just the fact that they published 2025, which by the way, is the work of the
05:20Heritage Society.
05:21The Heritage Society also picked the three Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump put
05:26in place.
05:27It's the idea that they're putting forward things that nobody has asked for.
05:32Women are not asking for less reproductive care.
05:36They're asking for more reproductive care.
05:39They're really missing the plot line on a lot of these things.
05:42If I could just say the punchline of Oprah Winfrey, I think what was important there
05:46is that-
05:47Cat ladies.
05:48Not just cat.
05:49One thing she said was, please vote for common sense and don't vote for nonsense.
05:55This idea that they're going to denigrate inclusivity on the other side.
05:59One thing I also noticed from this convention is they were including, she was talking to
06:04undecided voters and independent voters, as she says to herself, but how about all those
06:09Republicans who took the stage, over a dozen Republicans, former and current Republicans
06:16in office and out of office who are saying, really, we lost our party on the other side.
06:21This time we have to vote for the Democrats and we have to get the Republican House in
06:25order.
06:26I want to talk about something else Oprah said because she, of course, she doesn't have
06:30any children.
06:33Kamala Harris herself, she has stepkids but doesn't have kids of her own.
06:37It seems that the Republican ticket, particularly the vice presidential nominee on the Republican
06:41side, J.D. Vance, has gone after women who don't have children.
06:46Harris has obviously ruffled feathers across many parts of America, particularly very high
06:52profile people.
06:54If you think of Jennifer Aniston, for instance, who took to social media, somebody who isn't
06:59very vocal when it comes to politics.
07:01She took aim at J.D. Vance for going after reproductive rights and even IVF treatments,
07:08what have you.
07:11Is this the big rallying cry for the Democrats, the woman's vote?
07:16Well, I'd say it's more the woman's rights, which is to say, in this generation, we don't
07:22have to count just on women to be in favor of women's rights and women's health.
07:28And I think women with and without children are very offended, not just by the statement,
07:33but by the idea that your womanhood is totally based on your childbearing.
07:38So it hasn't worked, but they were so surprised, Trump and his campaign, they were so surprised
07:44by the change of candidate, as we say, top of the ticket, right, for the Democratic side,
07:48that I think that they were looking for ideas that might work.
07:51And that one did not work.
07:53Let's talk about Donald Trump, because he spoke yesterday.
07:55He gave his first press conference outside since that failed assassination attempt last
08:02month.
08:03Take a listen to what he had to say from what's coming out of Chicago.
08:06Did you see Barack Hussein Obama last night?
08:09Take little shots.
08:10He was taking shots at your president.
08:14And so was Michelle.
08:15You know, they always say, sure, please stick to policy.
08:19Don't get personal.
08:20And yet they're getting personal all night long, these people.
08:23Do I still have to stick to policy?
08:26There you heard that reaction from Donald Trump.
08:31Donald Trump, as you said, his campaign has been upended, upended, but it's also trying
08:37to find his footing when it comes to taking on Kamala Harris, because now in the past
08:43two or three days, he started calling her Comrade Harris, alleging that she's a communist
08:47for some reason.
08:49He's mispronounced her name incessantly, taken on her laugh.
08:56What's he got?
08:57Well, you know, notoriously, he doesn't follow the advice of his lawyers.
09:03And in this case, he's not taking the advice of his political advisors.
09:07In fact, he's kind of playing with them, mocking them right there.
09:09I really question how much Donald Trump really wants this job.
09:13What I mean by that is he wanted to beat Joe Biden specifically, Joe Biden personally.
09:19It was very personal to him.
09:20I mean, this election was in the bag for him a month ago.
09:23Absolutely.
09:24That's why he doesn't want to play anymore.
09:26Because for him, it was a game against Joe Biden, not against anybody else.
09:30And we know historically, he's not very interested in the content of the job.
09:33So once Biden has stepped off the stage, he really seems like he's just freewheeling.
09:39But Ellen, the fact that he keeps referencing Barack Hussein Obama, even many years after
09:44Barack Obama has left the presidency, he obviously, he's trying to undermine him some way.
09:50And he does the same thing when it comes to Kamala Harris, questioning her origin, whether
09:55she's Indian, whether she's black.
09:58It seems that he doesn't know how to really take her on and how to pin her down.
10:02Well, he is effective with his base, which is smaller and smaller, shrinking and shrinking.
10:07And by the way, they're ever so, I shouldn't say it lightly, because they're actually outright
10:11racist.
10:13And this is how it manifests itself.
10:15And I think that one thing we could definitely say in America, we talk about profiles you've
10:19never seen before, and you're right to imagine that the country is not ready to put a convicted
10:25felon in office.
10:28And the other lady is brown.
10:31You think that's where we are?
10:32That's where we are.
10:33Ellen, we're going to have to leave it there.
10:35Thank you very much for joining us on the program.
10:38Ellen Kutz, author of that book, which we're going to bring up the title there, you can
10:42see it, Portraits de Vipe in French, which translates as Portraits of the Vice President,
10:49the Incredible Story of Kamala Harris.
10:51Thank you so much for joining us on the program today.