Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: Joining us now for more from Bloomberg's Washington, DC bureau
Speaker 2: are two special guests, Martin Luther King, the third Chairman
Speaker 2: of the Drum Major Institute and son of the late
Speaker 2: doctor Martin Luther King Junior, and Andrea Waters King, president
Speaker 2: of the Drum Major Institute. Welcome to you both. Thank
Speaker 2: you for being here on Bloomberg on this election day. Martin,
Speaker 2: if I could just begin with you, a Kamala Harris
Speaker 2: has not throughout her campaign leaned into the historic nature
Speaker 2: of her candidacy, not only that she would be a
Speaker 2: woman potentially elected president, but a black and South Asian
Speaker 2: woman at that. What does it mean to you as
Speaker 2: you have spent so much of your life fighting for equality.
Speaker 1: Well, I think it demonstrates that people are very concerned
Speaker 1: about the issues, not necessarily the ethnicity and the fact
Speaker 1: that we've had a black president and not a woman
Speaker 1: that is extraordinarily important. However, I think extand on the
Speaker 1: issues is what people How is my life going to
Speaker 1: change under your leadership? And I think she's demonstrated what
Speaker 1: she intends to do if she becomes president of the
Speaker 1: United States.
Speaker 3: Arred Do you agree, because the potential to make history
Speaker 3: is very compelling to some voters here when you back
Speaker 3: off this race, that's been a major backdrop since Kamala
Speaker 3: Harris reached the top of the ticket. Or is it
Speaker 3: in fact kitchen table issues that drive people today?
Speaker 4: I think it's a combination of both. Obviously, as a
Speaker 4: black woman and as the mother of a black daughter,
Speaker 4: it is something that we are extremely proud of to
Speaker 4: have the vice president hopefully soon to be president heading
Speaker 4: our country. Also, we're also at a time when women
Speaker 4: have progressively lost rights, and so I think that you're
Speaker 4: seeing women coming together and standing together and in fact,
Speaker 4: we really might be the deciding vote in this election today.
Speaker 2: Well, it certainly could be women that ultimately make or
Speaker 2: break this thing for Kamala Harrison, although will depend on turnout,
Speaker 2: and that is what both of these candidates Andrea have
Speaker 2: been really fighting for in the final stretch here. Are
Speaker 2: you confident that voters are going to be getting off
Speaker 2: the couches and participating in this election.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. We have spent so many weeks and months ourselves
Speaker 4: out with the canvassers. We were just in North Fulton
Speaker 4: on Friday, and I'll tell you The excitement that we
Speaker 4: are seeing is something that since the announcement of this
Speaker 4: candidacy up until now, is something that's continuing to grow.
Speaker 4: And we saw that in the numbers of early voting,
Speaker 4: certainly in Georgia making breaking records, and we also are
Speaker 4: seeing that in early voting around the country. I do
Speaker 4: think that we're going to continue that's going that will
Speaker 4: uphold today.
Speaker 3: Mister King, I wonder your thoughts over the past couple
Speaker 3: of months some of the rhetoric that we've heard on
Speaker 3: the campaign trail. We just opened with comments that Kamala
Speaker 3: Harris made before the NABJ. Donald Trump had some comments
Speaker 3: to the NABJ as well that questioned her racial identity,
Speaker 3: and it's a narrative that he has pushed through the
Speaker 3: course of this cycle. Some have called it corrosive, some
Speaker 3: have called it dated, Some say it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Well, I think that it should
Speaker 1: be irrelevant the ethnicity again of a person, it should be.
Speaker 1: We maybe haven't gotten there with some people, but as
Speaker 1: it relates to you know, black men, specifically black men,
Speaker 1: I believe we are going to support overwhelmingly the candidacy
Speaker 1: of the vice president to help her become the president,
Speaker 1: along with a vast coalition of others.
Speaker 2: But Donald Trump has spent a great deal of time
Speaker 2: vying for the vote of black men and talking about
Speaker 2: how he is doing better with them than Republicans have
Speaker 2: in the past. And considering, mister King that you said
Speaker 2: issues are ultimately what matters here? What issue is it
Speaker 2: that there is a disconnect with at least some black
Speaker 2: men and Kamala Harrison the idea she has put forward.
Speaker 1: So I think when you talk about the prospect of
Speaker 1: supporting UH small and disadvantage businesses, when you talk about
Speaker 1: getting UH a loan that might be forgive forgivable. I
Speaker 1: think when you talk about UH the fact that reducing prices,
Speaker 1: I mean black men, like every man wants to be
Speaker 1: able to take care of their families. Every woman wants
Speaker 1: to be able to take care of their families. And
Speaker 1: when you talk about these bread and butter issues, I
Speaker 1: believe there is an opening there, there's support. I just
Speaker 1: think that at the end of the day, the vast
Speaker 1: majority of black UH people are going to be supportive
Speaker 1: of the vice president.
Speaker 4: May I also add, we also are talking about someone
Speaker 4: who said that he won the last election, and we
Speaker 4: also are talking about someone who said that he had
Speaker 4: audiences that the largest in inauguration history, or audiences that
Speaker 4: were larger than the March on Washington, no matter what
Speaker 4: photo evidence stated to the Montrerie. So let's talk about
Speaker 4: the facts when they come out. Let's not necessarily take
Speaker 4: Donald Trump at his word.
Speaker 3: Well, Andrea at Waters King, tell me how you would
Speaker 3: describe then, some of the racial rhetoric that we've heard
Speaker 3: on the campaign, culminating with that massive Trump rally at
Speaker 3: Madison Square Garden that had jokes that we couldn't tell
Speaker 3: on the air.
Speaker 4: Not only jokes that we wouldn't tell on the air,
Speaker 4: those are things that we teach our children that are wrong.
Speaker 4: You know, I worked for many years monitoring hate groups
Speaker 4: and hate crimes such as the klu Klut's Clan, Neil Nazis,
Speaker 4: and skinheads, and it is very alarming for me to
Speaker 4: see the very rhetoric that we were researching at the
Speaker 4: time actually now being said from the anals of some
Speaker 4: of the highest levels of power in our land. And
Speaker 4: also to not only see this type of these words
Speaker 4: that are being saying, but also seeing those things being
Speaker 4: passed into laws. So it is very troubling, which is
Speaker 4: why I think that we're going to see, and we
Speaker 4: have seen, such a strong standing for unity in this country,
Speaker 4: for a path forward, for turning that page on the
Speaker 4: hate and the visiveness of the past.
Speaker 1: And let me add one thing, because the question is
Speaker 1: what is sustainable? Most people understand when we are building
Speaker 1: a world of peace and justice and righteousness. If you're
Speaker 1: advocating vitriol, it is not sustainable. My dad would say,
Speaker 1: we must learn non violence, or we may face non existence.
Speaker 1: We don't want to face that. We're going to face building.
Speaker 1: What my father and mother would say is the beloved community.
Speaker 2: Well and so much, sir. Of what they were fighting
Speaker 2: for was the right to vote. And obviously many more people,
Speaker 2: in part because of their work, do have the right
Speaker 2: to vote today. But given in the lead up to
Speaker 2: this election some of the legal action we have seen
Speaker 2: questions around who can and cannot be purged from voter
Speaker 2: rules this close to an election, how ballots can be counted,
Speaker 2: which ballot are valid if there are mistakes. Do you
Speaker 2: have concerns about the right to vote being rolled back
Speaker 2: for at least some segments of the population.
Speaker 1: I certainly always have concerns I've always wondered why we
Speaker 1: purge people from voting, but yet we can drive as
Speaker 1: drivers forever and you're never removed from the driving roles.
Speaker 1: If you understand the analogy. The fact is you may
Speaker 1: not vote one year or two years, but you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be removed. You still have that right. But yet we
Speaker 1: orchestrate the kind of results that we want to see.
Speaker 1: And I think those who say, let's support the John
Speaker 1: Lewis Voting Rights Bill, which all people need, not any
Speaker 1: one ethnic group, that's the right course. And the hope
Speaker 1: is that Kamala Harris wins and in fact the legislative
Speaker 1: bodies will pass that legislation.
Speaker 3: For once and for all, or if there's an expectation
Speaker 3: that Democrats will say control of the House. Do you
Speaker 3: see some hope for the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill
Speaker 3: in Washington if that happens.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. We have been working for that federal legislation for
Speaker 4: years now, and we have confirmation from soon to be
Speaker 4: President Kamala Harris that that is something that she will
Speaker 4: push forward. I think, with the power of the House
Speaker 4: behind her, that that will become an ultimate reality. And
Speaker 4: you know that people have talked about the fact that, yes,
Speaker 4: there's been record turnouts, that does not mean that we
Speaker 4: do not need to secure federal voting rights once and
Speaker 4: for all. Our daughter has progressively lost rights since the
Speaker 4: day that she was born. The crowning achievement of voting
Speaker 4: that was her grandparents' legacy has been eroded. Yes, we've
Speaker 4: had great organizers, but we should not continue to fight
Speaker 4: that battle. Voting rights are birthrights and should be in
Speaker 4: this country.
Speaker 3: I want to thank you both for an important conversation
Speaker 3: with us in our Washington Bureau. Martin Luther King the
Speaker 3: Third or Andrea Waters King, thank you for joining us
Speaker 3: today on Bloomberg TV and radio.