1 00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:08,640 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Dan Moraine, journalists and 2 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:12,360 Speaker 1: author of the biography Kumela's Way an American Life, spoke 3 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:16,040 Speaker 1: to me today about Harris's prospect of securing the nomination 4 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:19,480 Speaker 1: and running for the US presidency. He told me that 5 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:22,560 Speaker 1: despite Donald Trump saying that Harris would be easier to 6 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 1: beat than Biden, people who underestimate Comana Harris quote end 7 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:28,400 Speaker 1: up losing. 8 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 2: For a person who will be on the most public 9 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 2: of stages running for the President of the United States. 10 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:40,880 Speaker 2: She doesn't tell you very much about herself her personal views. Yeah, 11 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:43,200 Speaker 2: I mean, we know what her political views are. That's 12 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:45,760 Speaker 2: not a secret. But she can be a very close booket. 13 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:51,600 Speaker 2: She's a fascinating character, you know, a true California somebody 14 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 2: who only could have come from California. I think her 15 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:57,280 Speaker 2: mother was an immigrant from India, her father an immigrant 16 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 2: from Jamaica. They met at that most California of institutions, 17 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:05,480 Speaker 2: the University of California at Berkeley in the nineteen sixties. 18 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 2: She is truly a product of California. Can't imagine any 19 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 2: other state that could have produced quite like Kamla Harris. 20 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:18,720 Speaker 1: That's very interesting. Would you think her background. Then, as 21 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,279 Speaker 1: you say, we know much more about her public life 22 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: then her background as a prosecutor. Then is the ag 23 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:27,039 Speaker 1: the attorney general for California. Do you think that's going 24 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:29,679 Speaker 1: to help or hurt her presidential campaign? How will it 25 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:31,480 Speaker 1: shape this campaign? 26 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:37,360 Speaker 2: Well, I think it can only help her campaign. You know, 27 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:40,679 Speaker 2: she was a prosecutor. She put people in prison. She's 28 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:46,160 Speaker 2: running against a candidate who's been convicted of thirty four felonies. 29 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 2: Prosecutor versus a fellow seems to me to be a 30 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:53,720 Speaker 2: pretty stark contrast. You know, she will be portrayed as 31 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 2: being a California liberal. She certainly is liberal, and she's 32 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:01,880 Speaker 2: certainly in California. But she spent a lot of her 33 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:06,480 Speaker 2: career putting people who had committed serious crimes in prison, 34 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 2: and the focus of much of her work as a 35 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:17,000 Speaker 2: prosecutor was to go after sex trafficking crimes against children. 36 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 2: I think it's kind of hard to attack that now. 37 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,920 Speaker 2: You know, she opposed the death penalty, the death penalty. 38 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:30,919 Speaker 2: Her stand on the death penalty probably caught well, certainly 39 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 2: cost her some support. When she was district attorney in 40 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:38,400 Speaker 2: San Francisco, the main prosecutor in the city county in 41 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:43,440 Speaker 2: San Francisco. I'm not sure that that issue is necessarily 42 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:46,560 Speaker 2: going to resonate quite so much in twenty twenty four. 43 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:48,120 Speaker 2: We'll see. 44 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:49,880 Speaker 1: Do you think she's going to be able to unite 45 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: the Democratic Party behind her. It's still not a certainty 46 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:56,000 Speaker 1: that she will become the Democratic Party nominee. 47 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 2: Right well, she's got so much momentum built up up 48 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:06,960 Speaker 2: this first day. It's been quite impressive. The last report 49 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 2: I saw was that she had raised sixty million dollars today, 50 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:17,480 Speaker 2: which is just a phenomenal sum if that's true. So, 51 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:23,120 Speaker 2: of course somebody could mount a challenge to her. It's possible, 52 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:29,079 Speaker 2: but I think she has a huge amount of momentum 53 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:31,680 Speaker 2: right now. It would be very tough to knock her 54 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 2: off as as the Democratic nominee in. 55 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: Terms of her best qualities, of what her team might 56 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 1: put forward. What sort of president do you think she 57 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:42,360 Speaker 1: might make. 58 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:48,440 Speaker 2: It's a question for every vice president you know. Can 59 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 2: a vice president be a Harry Truman, who was Franklin 60 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:56,120 Speaker 2: delan Or Roosevelt's vice president. Nobody thought very much of 61 00:03:56,240 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 2: him when he was vice president. He didn't have much 62 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,480 Speaker 2: of a role at all in the Roosevelt administration, and 63 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:07,080 Speaker 2: yet he became a very consequential president. So will Kamala 64 00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 2: Harris be a Harry Truman? You know, we will see. 65 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:18,719 Speaker 2: But you know, people who underestimate Kamala Harris tend to lose, 66 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:24,920 Speaker 2: and so I wouldn't underestimate her in terms of her position. 67 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:28,880 Speaker 2: She's going to be a Biden Democrat. She's going to 68 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:32,880 Speaker 2: be supportive of Israel. She's certainly going to be supportive 69 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 2: of the war in Ukraine. She's she's going to be 70 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:43,360 Speaker 2: very supportive of NATO. So she would continue the Biden 71 00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:48,480 Speaker 2: tradition in those ways. I have no doubt. 72 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:51,360 Speaker 1: What do you think drives Kamala Harris. How do you 73 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:55,039 Speaker 1: think she's going to deal with Donald Trump? He said 74 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:57,520 Speaker 1: that Harris would be easier to defeat than Biden. 75 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:02,239 Speaker 2: Again, I think people who underestimate Kama Harrison of losing, 76 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,680 Speaker 2: and she would not be the first man to underestimate 77 00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 2: she can be formidable. She can be a very good candidate. 78 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:14,039 Speaker 2: You know, I moderated a debate that she had when 79 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 2: she ran for Attorney General against a very accomplished prosecutor 80 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 2: and the head of the district, the district attorney of 81 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:25,719 Speaker 2: Los Angeles County. So by all accounts he should have 82 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:30,200 Speaker 2: won that race. He was very accomplished, but she she 83 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 2: bested him in that debate. I covered a debate, the 84 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:36,720 Speaker 2: one debate she had when she ran for the United 85 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:41,480 Speaker 2: States Senate twenty sixteen. And you know, she's very good 86 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:43,880 Speaker 2: on her feet. So if Donald Trump thinks that she 87 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,360 Speaker 2: would be a pushover in a debate, I'm not so 88 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:49,120 Speaker 2: sure that he would be correct. 89 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: That was the journalist an author of the biography Kumala's 90 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:55,680 Speaker 1: Way in American Life, Dan Moraine, speaking to me earlier.