WEBVTT - The Truth with Lisa Boothe: Who Is The Real Kamala Harris? 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:05.439 Kamala Harris is the anointed one. She is heading towards 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:09.920 the Democrat National Convention basically as the presumptive nominee. She 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:14.360 most recently received the endorsement of the Obamas. She's never 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:19.079 received a single primary or Coccus vote, Yet this is 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:23.720 the party that proclaims it cares about democracy. She says 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:28.360 she's running a people powered campaign, but she's never received 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:32.640 a presidential primary or Cocca's vote. Make it make sense? 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:36.440 So who is this woman? Who is Kamala Harris? What 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:38.080 do you need to know about her? We're going to 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:40.239 talk to someone who literally wrote the book on her. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:43.680 His name's Charlie Spearing. He wrote the book Amateur Hour 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.400 Kamala Harris in the White House. So we're going to 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:50.720 do a little deep dive in the Kamala Harris. Stay 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:59.240 tuned for that with Charlie Spearing. Well, Charlie, it's great 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:01.480 to have you on this show. I imagine you've got 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:03.560 a lot of thoughts right now, since he wrote the 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.679 book about Kamala Harris. I guess, at first glance, you know, 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.600 it looks like she's obviously going to be the Democrat nominee. 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.000 The Obamas haven't out on doorst she pretty much has 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:15.600 the green light. I guess what would a Kamala Harris 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:17.840 presidency look like, do you think. 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:23.039 Thanks Lisa, Yeah, certainly that's what everybody's looking at her. 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.119 You know, her record as vice president was so unimpressive. 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.120 There's really only one sort of priority that stood out, 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.560 which was her effort to campaign on abortion rights. I 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.280 really feel that if Kamala Harris did achieved the presidency, 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.120 I think the issue of abortion would be number one 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.080 on her priority list, as she would use that issue 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:45.680 to be Republicans politically. I think that's one of the 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.760 biggest strengths the Biden administration had, and it certainly one 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.600 that she was she was leading the way. So I 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:55.360 think she's and that's sort of already featured in her 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:59.360 campaign material, this idea that abortion rights are freedom and 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:02.240 we stand for freedom and abortion, and that's going to 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.160 be a focal point of who she is as a 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.720 as a candidate and certainly and she becomes president. 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.960 You called her book Amateur Hour. Why did you choose 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:13.400 that title? 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.280 Well, that's just based on conversations I was having with Republicans. 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:22.160 It was clear that with Democrats, even certainly with Republicans 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:26.760 but also Democrats that Colin Hardison wasn't necessarily prepared to 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.280 be on the national stage. She had only had a 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:31.760 couple of years in the Senate before she was sort 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.240 of plucked out of the in a failed presidential campaign. 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.480 Before she was sort of plucked out of the sort 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.640 of the dolt from you know, the Biden administration has 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:44.480 really sort of resurrected her political career after her failed 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.600 presidential campaign. I think she would have been left behind, 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.880 as you know, an ordinary California senator, munched in the 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.880 lines of a Barbara Boxer or a Dianne Feinstein. She 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.919 clearly didn't have enough capital to run her own campaign 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:02.200 for president when she became vice president. A big part 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.240 of the reason that Biden ran for reelection is that 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.920 Harris was not ready to run and didn't and Democrats 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.160 didn't think she could run and win against against Donald Trump. 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.200 So that's the certain that was certainly the mood in 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.320 the early part of the Biden administration, and that just 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.120 makes it even more surprising that now today they're putting 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.960 all their hopes on a on a person that they 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.680 privately derided behind the scenes early in her career. 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.959 You know, she grew up at Oakland, California. What do 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.040 you know about her upbringing, about her childhood. 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.080 Yeah, she grew up as the you know, daughter of 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:43.120 an of the academic and you know, cancer researcher. Her 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.640 parents separated when she was young, and she sort of 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:50.840 grew continued to grow up under her mother's watch. Mostly 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.240 she was at work, and so there was a sort 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.680 of a community of women that surrounded her and built 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.040 her up as she was as she was raised as 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.680 a child. But she's so wasn't raised poor, and she 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.600 certainly wasn't raised in a you know, a segregated community, 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.720 and she didn't have to suffer any of the effects 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.000 of you know, her race, which is what you know 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.240 a lot of other black people and black candidates would 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.520 talk about if they grew up in the South or 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:20.320 they grew up poor in urban communities. 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:23.240 And what do we know about her parents. I know, 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:27.880 her dad, you know, was a Marxist, uh you know economists. 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.280 But you know, give us a little insight into kind 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:32.200 of you know, her parents and sort of how she 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.920 was raised, like what ideologies were taught in her household 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:40.040 and kind of was her to impact that her parents 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:41.719 have on her what which you tell us about them? 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:46.320 Right, Kamala Harris lates to talk about her parents regularly 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.840 attending protests. You know, she talks about her parents growing 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.280 up in marching and shouting for justice and how they 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:56.400 pushed little Kammel and the stroller. But upon closer examination, 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:01.160 a lot of their activism was into sellectual activism and 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:07.000 at at the university where they were, Stanford, and certainly 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.400 they held a lot of talking groups and at the 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.640 Kamala's parents actually met at a seminar that her father 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.880 was giving at the time, and certainly that's how they 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:21.520 how they met, and so there was really more of 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.360 an academic sort of discussion, and there was very limited 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.119 They had very limited activism simply because they were both 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.040 you know, not they were certainly there legally as students, 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.640 but they were not citizens at the time, so it 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.400 was very difficult for them to you know, they very 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.919 careful about their actual activism, you know. 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.240 And what kind of was she raised with religion or 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.120 you know, what what did that look like in their household? Well, 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.760 it was very split, right because yes, she did have 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.640 a black father, but her black father ended up leaving 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.240 and she was raised by her Indian mother who was 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.560 so her Indian mother talks about raising her as you know, 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:01.240 and taking her to the Hindu to simple and participating 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.520 in all the Hindu rituals. But Kama likes to talk 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:08.920 about this woman called that she calls her second mother, 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:12.920 and that's a woman in the in the area of 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:17.239 the household who watches over the daughters, you know, Kamala 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:22.000 and her sister, and takes her to a Baptist church, 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:26.400 a Christian church, Black Christian church in San Francisco. So 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:30.960 she has this sort of dual faith upbringing. But we 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.320 don't really hear Kamala talk about her Hindu upbringing anymore. 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:38.560 She focuses more on this sort of adopted you know, 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.200 the attendance at a Black church. And then tell us 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.520 a little bit about you know, how did she well, 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:45.800 First of all, you know, tell us a little bit 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:48.479 about her you know, college age, you know, college years, 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:50.760 and then you know her entry into politics. 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.000 Right, So her college year she went to Howard University, 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:58.800 and you know, she spent a lot of time, you know, 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.640 enjoying college for all of its all the things that 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.280 it offers. She attended a few protests, but she wasn't 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:08.800 seen as, you know, a radical activist. She was very practical. 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.080 She wanted to go to Howard University, get a law degree, 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.520 and go back to San Francisco and get a good job. 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.560 And she ultimately went back and became a prosecutor, working 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:23.680 for the Almeda County Attorney you know, district Attorney's office 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.679 as a lawyer. And that's when she first met Willie Brown, 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.520 one of the most powerful politicians in California, who was 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:32.320 then running for mayor of San Francisco. 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:35.320 And then tell us about their relationship. How did he 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:36.880 help her get into politics? 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.520 Right, So, Willie Brown is sixty years old, he's running 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:44.840 for mayor of San Francisco, and Harris is relatively unknown, 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.640 twenty nine years old. She is the, like I said, 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:53.760 working in the Almita County's District Attorney's office. And that's 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.320 where they sort of kick off this relationship. Willy Brown 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:01.240 starts dating her, and she's seen as a stabilizing force 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:05.120 on his personality as he's running for office. Gossip colonists right, 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.200 for the first time, Willi Brown is having a relationship 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:11.640 with an adult woman because he's sort of a known 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:14.680 philanderer with young women on his arm, different women on 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:19.800 his arm because he's long estranged from his real wife, Blanche, 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:24.120 who lives separately from Brown, but the couple never divorced. 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:29.520 So Willie Brown really helped get Kamala Harris on this stage. 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.480 First of all, through the social connections on Willy Brown's arms. 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:38.359 She meets all of his wealthy donors, all of the celebrities. 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:43.440 There's a fun gossip column bit about Clinton Eastwood spilling 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.719 champagne on the mayor's new steady is what they could 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.439 describe her as. So she's definitely rubbing shoulders with all 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:53.760 the top celebrities, the donors, and certainly the democratic officials 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:59.360 of the very powerful San Francisco Democratic community. And on 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.400 top of that, Willie Brown also appointed her to some 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:05.040 state board positions that paid her a great deal of money. 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:09.720 She made over four hundred thousand dollars just after a 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.800 couple of years serving in these board positions that only 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.280 met like once or twice a month. Put that in 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:19.200 today's dollars, that's nearly a million dollars. So it was 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.679 very lucrative for Harris, put her on a very stable 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.840 footing for her to pursue her next goal. She also, 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.640 you know, Brown also gave her the keys to a BMW, 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.280 so she he made sure that she was well taken 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:35.800 care of and perfectly positioned for a political future. So 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.520 it's partly a lucrative relationship. Then to say the leadast. 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.120 She got her start in two and three she was 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.000 elected to DA of San Francisco. You know, what can 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.600 you tell us about sort of her record there as DA? 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.079 Yeah, her record is DA. She ran sort of there 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:56.680 was already sort of a progressive, a progressive district attorney 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:01.600 Terrence hollanand who San Francisco voters were growing tired because 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:06.240 there was a rise of prostitution, of drugs, and of homelessness, 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.720 you know, much of the issues we see today. Harris 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.560 ran almost to the right on that, you know, arguing, 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.000 we don't need to be tough on crime or week 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:18.920 on crime, we need to be quote smart on crime. 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:21.920 That was Harris's campaign slogan. So she ran a little 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:26.120 bit to the right, to the center of Terrence halling On. So, 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:30.040 but when she took office, she was mostly a relatively 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.600 you know, a different face, but pursued many of the 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:38.559 same progressive priorities that the previous candidate. Had. She famously 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:42.120 kicked off her campaign by refusing to seek the death 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.400 penalty for a cop killer that angered the police force 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.560 in San Francisco, you know, who made a big deal 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.200 about that and would turn their backs on her anytime 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.400 they saw her. Even Dianne Feinstein at the time, who 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.440 attended the funeral of the police officer, publicly called out 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.920 Harris for failing to pursue the death penalty. And it 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:04.080 was it was a slight that Harris never forgot, you know. 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.600 And if she also let a man out on probation 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.760 who went on to kill two people as well, So 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.480 did she kind of carry that same you know, left 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.400 wing philosophy into her time as Attorney general as well? 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.880 Well. She ultimately moved a little further to the right 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:23.400 after beating sort of the last significant Republican for attorney 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.439 general just by a hair, you know, very small margin, 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.440 and this is Steve Cooley of Los Angeles, was a 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:33.640 Republican who ran for the attorney general position. Harris just 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.079 barely beat him. So she shifted a little bit further 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.440 to the right as she grew, as she grew further 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.360 up into California politics. You know, there was the famous 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:49.160 Supreme Court decision against California that demanded they start releasing 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:54.160 their overpopulated prisons. Klin Harris, as Attorney General, worked with 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.920 Governor Jerry Brown at the time to sort of slow 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:01.720 down and stop these and find excuses to keep these 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.880 people in prison, because, as we all know, you know, 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.719 it's bad, bad luck for any sort of politician with 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:12.400 future political ambitions to release criminals, because one of these 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:16.400 criminals could significantly commit another crime and that would damage 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:17.319 your political career. 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:23.480 Got a quick commercial break, stay with us. You know, 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.880 it's interesting because then when she was the United States senator, 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.760 you know, Govtract named her as the most liberal senator, 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.600 even further to the left than you know, Bernie Sanders. 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.120 And you know, since then, we've seen her say that, 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.119 you know, she wants to take her to private insurance, 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:38.640 that she believes in Medicare for all. She's compared you know, 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.800 I used to KKK and all these really radical left 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.240 wing policies. So it's like, I guess with her, she 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.080 sort of strikes me as the kind of person that 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:51.680 just says whatever people want to hear. It doesn't really 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:57.520 believe in anything. I guess, what's your sense? And obviously, 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.880 you know, researching her and learning of her like, does 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:02.760 anything motive error or is it just power? 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:08.280 Yes, that's a very astute observation because Kamala Harris famously, 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.079 you know, opposed legal marijuana when she was running for 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.000 attorney general and then after she won her re election 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:17.440 race and won a Senate seat, she changed her position 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.000 on it. And then there's examples of that all throughout 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.439 her career where she changes her position on the issues. 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.680 It's as soon as it becomes politically liable. But after 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:30.440 she became the Senator of California, she was she moved 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:34.000 significantly farther to the left. Even before she launched her 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.480 campaign for president, her assessment appeared to be if I, 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.560 if I am on the same page of Willie's of 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.880 Bernie Sanders, then perhaps I can earn the respect and 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.440 love from his followers if I just get as far 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:49.840 to the left as I can, and I'll be a 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.400 candidate that doesn't have the sort of the downsides of 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.520 the Bernie Sanders, you know, a cranky old man from Vermont. 0:13:55.960 --> 0:14:01.280 I'll be the sparkling, inspirational figures who becauses on policies. 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:05.760 The Democratic primary voters love so she already worked on 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:08.880 building that reputation, and then certainly when she launched her 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.120 campaign for president, there was no position to liberal that 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.480 wasn't up for discussion or that she took a side on. 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:18.680 But so it's kind of scary then if she would 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.000 assume the office of the presidency, because if you have 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.920 someone who doesn't really believe in any thing, is not 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:31.840 really rooted in anything, what that mean for how she 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:37.480 decides to to govern. You know, she sort of just 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:39.720 strikes me as kind of like a you know, soul 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:42.920 well willing to you know. I mean, we saw her 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:48.120 with the presidential debate for twenty twenty, which you know, 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.480 she obviously flamed out and dropped out before Iowa, where 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:54.400 you know, she accused Joe Biden essentially of racism and 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.960 then immediately signed up to be his vice president. 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.280 Yeah, you know, I've disrectly seen as a very cynical politics. 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.880 She was playing very cynical politics, and she wasn't sort 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.960 of you could tell, voters could tell that she wasn't 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.400 necessarily wed to the issues because she was all over 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:15.440 the map. One day, She's supported getting rid of private insurance, 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:17.480 the next day she said it was a mistake and 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.400 didn't understand the question. And when voters would ask her 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:22.400 these questions, she was kind of all over the map 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:26.680 because she initially thought she had the right answer, but 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:28.840 would often bracktrack and clarify. 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.840 You know, do people like her? I mean she has had, 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.040 you know, a ton of turnover. There's been so much 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.240 written about the turnover in her office as vice president 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.760 of just losing a lot of staff throughout her time there. 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.160 So I mean, do people like her? You know, sort 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.840 of what's the gauge on her as just a person? 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.280 I mean, I feel like typically staff turnover is telling 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:52.800 about the kind of person someone is. 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.560 Right, And when I did the research for the book, 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.960 Harris was not a beloved figure in fact, behind the scenes, 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:04.200 and Washington Democrats and Republicans alike would would quite you know, 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:07.800 privately mark her behind the scenes. It was very hard 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.440 to find any bands of Kamala Harris back when I 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:12.840 first started researching this book, and I was surprised that 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:17.520 there wasn't this solidified group of Kamala defenders. And that's 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:19.360 kind of the way it isn't Washington, right when you're 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.840 found wanting and she had already piled up a number 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.400 of gaffes and mistakes, people can turn on you pretty quickly, 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.680 and if you're an abusive, difficult boss, right staffers in 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.000 Washington can usually put up with that if they believe 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:37.240 they're on the fast track to power. But if she's 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.920 seen as not having a political future, that's when, you know, 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.960 the most the most clever positioning staffers will ship gears 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.120 and look elsewhere. And that's kind of where Kamala Harris 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:51.240 was until we now find ourselves in this moment where 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.800 all of a sudden she's now the darling of the 0:16:53.840 --> 0:17:00.360 Democratic left. And certainly earlier, just just a few weeks ago, oh, 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:02.600 a lot of these same people that are out there 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:06.439 praising her now were privately sharing their concerns about her 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.960 possible campaign, whether or not she could compete with Donald Trump. 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:13.120 Out of the gate, there was a reluctance from Barack 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.600 Obama to endorse Kamala Harras now he has come around. 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.800 But what do you think that reluctance? What was behind that? 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:21.720 Do you think? I think a lot of people were 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.800 very surprised to see that Obama wasn't out first out 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.640 of the gate to endorse Kamala Harris, because he has 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.119 been a longtime supporter of her throughout her political career. 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.600 I think that primarily the reason why he didn't endorse 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.119 her publicly right away is because he didn't want to 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:43.200 be seen as someone who was sort of pushing Biden 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.640 out and lifting Kamala up. There was already so many 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.800 stories about how he was secretly working to get rid 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:52.879 of Biden. He didn't want the same stories to be 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.879 written about him secretly putting Kamala into place. But don't 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:00.080 be fooled by that. I think that Obama is a 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.040 a huge Kamala proponent. He was obviously a big supporter 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.040 of hers when Biden was searching for a vice president, 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.880 And I think that Harris has long had the Obama 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:14.399 support and never never worried about not getting it. I 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:16.920 think that Obama kind of wanted to make it look 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:19.119 as if she was winning on her own steam. But 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.000 it was clear that there was already a lot of 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:25.000 background work done before the decision by Biden was made. 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:26.359 You know, what do you think? 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.720 There was also reports that part of Joe Biden's reluctant 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.920 to step aside as a candidate apparently, you know, he's 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:36.639 fine to be president of the United States commander in 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:39.960 chief but is not equipped to be a candidate, which 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:43.240 is a really interesting spin we're being told right now. 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.399 But you know, part of the reporting at least was 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:48.840 that he didn't feel like Kamala Harris had what it 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.600 takes to win the presidency, to win the election. What 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.879 has their relationship been like between the two of them. 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:59.479 Well, Joe Biden wanted to buddy. He really thought that 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:03.200 he could picked Comlin, that she would be fully supportive 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:05.600 of him, and that he would have a friendly, buddy 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.760 like relationship like he felt that he had with Barack Obama. 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:11.919 But it turned out Kamala Harris was not there to 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:16.320 be buddies with Joe. She was definitely not friends with Jill. 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.320 So she became very kind of standoffs. She was sparcely 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:25.520 protective of her own political brand. Biden's staffers almost threw 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:27.159 up their hands when they were trying to deal with 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:31.040 her because she was so so defensive and so careful 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:35.520 about protecting her political future rather than just volunteering and 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:39.159 taking one for the team. By their several instances of 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:42.240 Biden and his staff asking her to take the lead 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:44.400 on certain issues and she would decline, they would ask 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.359 her to go on the Sunday shows to cover something, 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:50.439 and she would decline. So they ended up throwing up 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:52.560 their hands and kind of letting her do her own 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.160 thing because it became very clear she was not there. 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.080 Her number one goal was not there to support Biden. 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.560 It was to sort of protect her own brand during 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:04.240 this entire project. 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:07.920 And there's also been reports that, you know, she doesn't 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:12.199 really dig in on the research and dig in on 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:14.560 the issues. Can you tell us, can you give us 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:17.440 any sort of insight into that? Right? 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.679 Staffers would talk about how you know, they you know, 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.800 for instance, when she did that interview with Lester Holt 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:28.080 after visiting Guatemala as part of her Borders Are Duties, 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.280 you know, the famous question when are you going to 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.600 the border, and she laughs off the question and jokes 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:37.679 that she hasn't been to Europe, and that was widely 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:41.720 seen as a mistake. You know, her staff had prepared 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.040 her for that answer, they had given her briefings on 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:48.359 that answer, and yet she, you know, ended up skipping 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.919 over her prepared answer and delivering something else entirely. And 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.920 that's just one example of how they, you know, staffers 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:57.520 wouldn't get frustrated with Harris because they would prepare her, 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:00.800 but she never took the issues seriously. I guess, what 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:01.800 do you see from her now? 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.960 I mean, it does seem like, you know, and watching 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:10.360 the few sort of you know, public speeches and things 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:12.840 she has done since you know all you know, basically 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.919 the coronation. She's not officially the Democrat nominee, but you know, 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:19.800 she's essentially the presumptive nominee at this point. Got a 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:26.399 quick commercial break, stay with us. Does it look like she's, 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:28.840 you know, kind of paying attention to the NAXI. I mean, 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.040 it seems like a little bit more serious. You know, 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:35.480 she's not doing some of the weird laughter stuff. I guess, 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.280 what have you seen from her so far as a 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:41.199 presidential candidate and what you've read and what you know 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.360 about her, any anything, any insight on that. 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.840 In the past couple of months, Lisa, she's been very 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:51.639 disciplined and very focused. I think bad Kamala Harris was 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:56.679 already sort of preparing for this moment. Her campaign events 0:21:56.680 --> 0:21:59.800 were very scripted, and she was very disciplined, and I 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:02.320 think I think a Kamala heiress as a candidate has 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:04.960 learned a lot of lessons from twenty twenty, that you know, 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:09.440 not necessarily that you can't necessarily just thrive on your own, 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:12.840 you know, terrorism, because it's not quite there. You're not 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.000 you know, you're not seen as the next Obama. You 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:18.760 have to be the the Kamala Aires. You have to 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:21.240 define yourself and you have to stay on message and 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.520 you can't get distracted. So I think that she has 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:28.280 sort of demonstrated a little bit more discipline than her 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:31.920 previous attempts at campaigning. And we'll have to see whether 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:37.960 she runs a kind of a very defensive, basement scripted 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:42.119 campaign or whether there's moments where she can actually emphasize 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:43.520 her true personality. 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:49.080 What do you think are her biggest vulnerabilities from studying 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:51.320 her background and just studying her as a person with 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:54.679