Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to work in progress.
Speaker 2: Friends.
Speaker 1: I don't often get to record episodes in person anymore
Speaker 1: because once the pandemic began, we all started doing this
Speaker 1: on zoom. But today I am coming to you all
Speaker 1: from my favorite place in the United States of America,
Speaker 1: the White House, And we have so many exciting things
Speaker 1: to talk about. Why we're here. No, for everyone who's
Speaker 1: going to ask on social like aren't you used to it?
Speaker 1: Buy now?
Speaker 2: I will never get used to this. This is the
Speaker 2: coolest thing ever.
Speaker 1: But I'm sitting down with our incredible Press Secretary Koreane
Speaker 1: Jean Pierre, and there's plenty for us to discuss about
Speaker 1: what you do here. But what I really want to
Speaker 1: tell the people at home is that, like me, you
Speaker 1: are a wildly huge fan of the Olympics.
Speaker 3: I loved the Olympics so much since I was a little, little,
Speaker 3: little little Track and field is my thing, gymnastics, ice
Speaker 3: skating in the winter Olympics, and I was a track
Speaker 3: and field runner in high school, so I did the
Speaker 3: fourger intimeter hurdle. So watching the Olympics was like my deal,
Speaker 3: the ideal. I loved it, loved it so much.
Speaker 1: I really, I really went into a depression when when
Speaker 1: it ended.
Speaker 3: I think everybody is. I think the whole world did. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And it was a connector. It like connected. It was
Speaker 3: like humanity sportsmanship. It was just beautiful to watch and
Speaker 3: we needed it, Yeah, we did. It's a really nice
Speaker 3: reminder that we all live in a global community and
Speaker 3: we all actually can both compete within reason and root.
Speaker 1: For each other.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: That's a nice person kind of ethos.
Speaker 2: That's what's so special.
Speaker 3: Every four years and I think I think the Winter
Speaker 3: Olympics is every two years. I forget now and you
Speaker 3: have an opportunity the best of the best just come
Speaker 3: together in this amazing sportsmanship and they compete and I
Speaker 3: don't know, it's just and everyone gets to root for
Speaker 3: whoever they love, what country they represent, and it's a
Speaker 3: beautiful thing. It's a there's something about it that's honorable.
Speaker 3: It makes you feel very patriotic. Yeah, And it is
Speaker 3: not about Republican Democrat if you're looking at the USA
Speaker 3: piece of this, it's not about the party you belong to.
Speaker 3: It's lifting up these incredible young people who have trained
Speaker 3: all of their lives to be exactly where they are.
Speaker 3: The best of the best, and then when they embody
Speaker 3: that themselves and they are embodying this amazing person that
Speaker 3: they all are, and you see that and it shine
Speaker 3: and what they have to give up to get there. Oh,
Speaker 3: the stories, the stories get me, the stories get made.
Speaker 1: Well, it's hitting me in real time that you you're
Speaker 1: talking about Olympians, but you could also be talking about
Speaker 1: what you do. You could be talking about advocacy, being
Speaker 1: a public servant at this kind of level.
Speaker 3: You know, you.
Speaker 1: Essentially have won the Gold Medal of journalists when you
Speaker 1: become the White House Press Secretary, don't you.
Speaker 3: Think, I mean, it is an honor and a privilege
Speaker 3: to be the White House pre secretary and to speak
Speaker 3: on behalf of this president and the behalf of this country.
Speaker 2: In many ways, when you think.
Speaker 3: About how what we do in that briefing room every
Speaker 3: day when we have a briefing, is that we are
Speaker 3: exercising democracy, not just here in this country but globally.
Speaker 3: It is being televised, right that briefing is being televised
Speaker 3: around the world, and everyone wants to hear what the
Speaker 3: White House, what the President of the United States is
Speaker 3: thinking about X issue? Why issue, How we're responding to
Speaker 3: whatever issue is happening, not just domestically but globally, and
Speaker 3: it matters, and so it is true, truly tremendous. It
Speaker 3: is amazing being at that brief room. Can we can
Speaker 3: you can? I nerd out first? I guess because we
Speaker 3: are in this room right now.
Speaker 2: Can we just talk about that?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 1: I've taken all the photos of everything in this room so.
Speaker 3: That your listeners watchers know we are in room one eighty.
Speaker 3: Room one eighty is literally one of my favorite rooms
Speaker 3: on this campus. I'm so glad we're doing this interview
Speaker 3: here because it's connected to the question that you asked me.
Speaker 2: So, the White House campus.
Speaker 3: Is on eighteen acres of property, and there's the Eysenower
Speaker 3: Executive Office Building, which is a building that we're in.
Speaker 2: The White House is literally right there.
Speaker 3: And Room one eighty used to be right now. White
Speaker 3: House staff can book this room, but room one eighty
Speaker 3: used to be the Vice President's office.
Speaker 2: Presidents have used this room.
Speaker 3: And we are sitting in the room where doctor Martin
Speaker 3: Luther King sat in Martin Luther King Junior sat in
Speaker 3: this room back in February ninth, nineteen sixty five, ahead
Speaker 3: of the Voting Rights Act, and he had worked very
Speaker 3: closely at the time in nineteen sixty five Humphrey was
Speaker 3: Vice president, but when Humphrey was Senator, worked really closely
Speaker 3: with Humphrey on the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 3: And obviously Black Americans, African Americans in the South could
Speaker 3: not vote, and they would do these voting registration events
Speaker 3: and it would become bloody, they would get attacked. And
Speaker 3: in February, in February of nineteen sixty five, doctor Martin
Speaker 3: Luther King came here. He met with Vice President Humphrey
Speaker 3: and then had the opportunity in promptum meeting with President LBJ. Johnson,
Speaker 3: and the Voting Rights Act passed in August. But in
Speaker 3: between there you had bloody Sunday on March seventh of
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty five.
Speaker 2: And obviously we all know our history here.
Speaker 3: That's where John Lewis was a young twenty three year
Speaker 3: old and who became an icon of the civil rights movement.
Speaker 3: Led helped to lead a march across the past this bridge,
Speaker 3: and if you look around this room, all of that
Speaker 3: is depicted in photos. In pictures, you have the bust
Speaker 3: of doctor Martin Luther King. You have these amazing quotes.
Speaker 3: Our lives begin to end the day we begin, we
Speaker 3: become silent about things that matter, Doctor Martin Luther King.
Speaker 3: You have Lyndon B. Johnson a quote I can't see
Speaker 3: it from here. And then you have there are those
Speaker 3: who say to you, we are rushing this issue of
Speaker 3: civil rights. I say, we are one hundred and seventeen
Speaker 3: years late.
Speaker 2: That's Vice President Humphree. I mean this is this room. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is this room.
Speaker 3: So I'm glad that we're in here because it speaks
Speaker 3: to the greatness of this country when we all come
Speaker 3: together for the better good. And I think if you
Speaker 3: fast forward to what this president has been able to
Speaker 3: do this byan Harrison administration.
Speaker 2: Me being in the role that I'm in, which.
Speaker 3: Is a historic as a historic first people are able
Speaker 3: to see a black woman at that podium, standing behind
Speaker 3: that lectern, and it changes what.
Speaker 2: A White House Press secretary is supposed to be. Right.
Speaker 3: You think about the Vice president, Vice President Kamala Harris,
Speaker 3: the President picking her as her running mate, and she
Speaker 3: is a first in her role. You think about Kataji
Speaker 3: Brown Jackson. You look across the cabinet secretaries and how
Speaker 3: diverse that is. This is the most diverse administration ever ever,
Speaker 3: And I think this speaks to who we are. This
Speaker 3: speaks to who we are as a country, and this
Speaker 3: speaks to where the future and where we can be.
Speaker 3: And that has been just going back to your question,
Speaker 3: that is what's been so honorable and a privilege to
Speaker 3: be part of this administration. When we started this conversation,
Speaker 3: you said, you know it's your favorite place. The White
Speaker 3: House is your favorite place, and how it never gets
Speaker 3: boring or you're never tired of it. And I've always said,
Speaker 3: if I ever get tired of coming through those gates
Speaker 3: and walking through the West Wing lobby, then I should
Speaker 3: not be here. It is always a joy and a privilege.
Speaker 3: And I always pinch myself when I am sitting in
Speaker 3: my office in the West waiting, thinking, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: I'm here and daughter of immigrants and who never thought
Speaker 3: I would be where I am today.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, that was a very love it. I want
Speaker 2: to solve I love it. But that's that's the story.
Speaker 2: It's all connected. It is all who we are, it's
Speaker 2: our history.
Speaker 1: There are people who will rightfully criticize things about this
Speaker 1: country and what I always want to say in response
Speaker 1: is yes, and we have work to do, certainly. But
Speaker 1: the magic of the American experiment, American democracy founded on
Speaker 1: these ideals of equity, equality, that this was a place
Speaker 1: where anyone could come and build a dream. They are
Speaker 1: perfect ideals, and we have imperfectly stumbled ever closer to
Speaker 1: them because we're people. And what excites me about the
Speaker 1: way you tell a story like that is it's a
Speaker 1: reminder of what we're all working for and tying it
Speaker 1: into our beginning talking about loving the Olympics. It really
Speaker 1: is a reminder that if you zoom out, if you
Speaker 1: get outside of the party argument and you look at
Speaker 1: the country, the health of the country, we know that
Speaker 1: the more of us that get represented, the better everybody does. Exactly,
Speaker 1: And I don't think it's an accident that you and
Speaker 1: I get to sit here. You know, you talk about
Speaker 1: being the daughter of immigrants. My dad came to this
Speaker 1: country in the nineteen seventies, didn't become a citizen until
Speaker 1: I was thirteen. My mother's mother came to this country
Speaker 1: on a boat through Ellis Island. And to you serve
Speaker 1: at the pleasure of the president, I answer any call
Speaker 1: that comes from this complex, from any office in it,
Speaker 1: as an advocate, as someone who tries to translate policy
Speaker 1: into the personal for folks out there, because calms turns.
Speaker 2: Out or my job.
Speaker 1: And we are sitting in this room, and I am
Speaker 1: looking at you, sitting under this Humphrey quote. I say,
Speaker 1: we're one hundred and seventy two years late. And behind you,
Speaker 1: for our friends at home who can't see us, is
Speaker 1: the window that overlooks the entrance to the west wings.
Speaker 1: It is fifty feet from us. I am looking at
Speaker 1: you sitting in front of the view of the door
Speaker 1: you walk into your office every day. And it's profound.
Speaker 2: Because it gives you chills. Yes, it is profound. It
Speaker 2: is profound.
Speaker 1: We just looked at, you know, the anniversary of suffrage,
Speaker 1: which benefited women who look like me, but not women
Speaker 1: who look like you. And when we when we see
Speaker 1: the way. I've been thinking about this a lot lately,
Speaker 1: thinking about you know how some of the suffragettes that
Speaker 1: I was raised to think of as my heroes also
Speaker 1: were traders to other women in my life and my generation,
Speaker 1: friends like you, women like my best friend Nia, and
Speaker 1: I have to hold the both and and it isn't
Speaker 1: lost on me that any time we fall for the
Speaker 1: illusion of making partial progress or thinking will be protected
Speaker 1: by proximity to power. Harm is done in the wake.
Speaker 1: So white women got the right to vote, but look
Speaker 1: at how long it took us to get Roe v. Wade,
Speaker 1: to get to nineteen seventy three to have autonomy over
Speaker 1: our bodies. People of color didn't get the right to vote.
Speaker 1: What we got instead were Jim Crow laws. In the South.
Speaker 1: We see the modern day version of those laws being
Speaker 1: enacted right now and literally right now. Yes, now, it's
Speaker 1: unbelievable to me, you know, learning from Stacy Abrams and
Speaker 1: Mark Elias about states that are requiring you to have
Speaker 1: an original birth certificate to register to vote. When there
Speaker 1: are lots of folks our parents or our grandparents' agent.
Speaker 2: Which we have, that they don't have it. It doesn't exist.
Speaker 3: And it sounds familiar, right I started off talking about
Speaker 3: this room, what was going on in nineteen sixty four,
Speaker 3: voting registration events. It's happening again, and some of it
Speaker 3: it's more blatant, right, not as.
Speaker 2: In your face, but in many ways it is in
Speaker 2: your face, yes, and.
Speaker 3: So it is, and we have to educate ourselves and
Speaker 3: understand what's happening, and we have to protect the people
Speaker 3: around us. We have to protect all of us, and
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: We are in a there's a lot at stake right now.
Speaker 3: There continues to be a lot at stake, and we
Speaker 3: have to make sure that we're paying attention to what
Speaker 3: is happening, not just around the country but in your
Speaker 3: own community, in your own community.
Speaker 1: And that is part of why I think I want
Speaker 1: to repeat how important it is that you do what
Speaker 1: you do every day, because, as you said, for the
Speaker 1: White House Press Secretary to get up in front of
Speaker 1: the world and talk about democracy and answer questions that
Speaker 1: are important, that are difficult or timely, that are local,
Speaker 1: that are global, it is an exercising of democratic power.
Speaker 1: Is an example setting on repeat, and I think when
Speaker 1: you put it in the context of what we see
Speaker 1: in the history of this room from the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: in these modern fights we're having to have about you know,
Speaker 1: equity and democracy, you realize why democracy really has to
Speaker 1: be a verb.
Speaker 2: You have to act it every day to kick action.
Speaker 2: Going yeah, yeah, it's so true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's so interesting too, because so thinking about LBJ,
Speaker 3: thinking about the fact this is president Johnson obviously signed
Speaker 3: the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four, the Voting
Speaker 3: Rights Act of nineteen sixty five, and very recently the
Speaker 3: President went to the LBJ Library. We got to see
Speaker 3: those very original legislation that was you get to touch them.
Speaker 2: Are they are they're just protect Yeah, they're definitely.
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure for the president he could put on
Speaker 1: like white gloves and touch up.
Speaker 3: I can't even speak for the president if you got
Speaker 3: to see it, but we got to see it as staff,
Speaker 3: and we walked around the museum and the library and
Speaker 3: it was pretty amazing. And it's all connected, right, we're
Speaker 3: all circling here and connecting. And that that day he
Speaker 3: went there to speak about reforming of the ways to
Speaker 3: reform SCOTUS because of what's been going on there. And
Speaker 3: nobody is above the law, right, you got the rule
Speaker 3: of law, and this is something that continues. Right, how
Speaker 3: do we continue to protect our democracy? How do we
Speaker 3: continue to respect the rule of law? And this is
Speaker 3: something that we have been doing in this administration obviously
Speaker 3: this president for some time for years now, and you're right,
Speaker 3: we have to continue to protect that at every level,
Speaker 3: at every level, and because if we don't we lose
Speaker 3: that thing that you were talking about when you think
Speaker 3: about this country and possible abilities, you lose that you
Speaker 3: lose what that means that what you can accomplish.
Speaker 1: There and now for our sponsors, and I think it
Speaker 1: isn't lost on anyone particularly, you know, when you come
Speaker 1: from these great immigrant stories in their individual ways, but
Speaker 1: that sort of universal experience of wanting to come to
Speaker 1: this country because of what it means. You know, we
Speaker 1: have so many people who come here to get away
Speaker 1: from autocrats, to get away from dictators, to get away
Speaker 1: from court systems that are legal only in terminology but
Speaker 1: not in practice. And so to feel our democracy slide
Speaker 1: in that direction is very scary.
Speaker 2: And I am.
Speaker 1: I am bolstered by how many people are paying attention
Speaker 1: now in ways that perhaps I don't think we were
Speaker 1: eight years ago when we were so shocked to lose
Speaker 1: to you know, an authoritarian candidate, which I will move
Speaker 1: on from. Because you are friends at home.
Speaker 2: I want to read you something.
Speaker 1: This is very important. We're having a history lesson on
Speaker 1: work in progress today. So as you know, my friend
Speaker 1: Krein is the White House Press secretary. What that means
Speaker 1: is that she is an official federal employee.
Speaker 2: She is a federal employee.
Speaker 1: She is not here on behalf of you know, a
Speaker 1: president or a campaign. She is limited under the Hatch
Speaker 1: Act and cannot discuss the election or the campaign. But
Speaker 1: something I find interesting as a civilian. You don't have
Speaker 1: to respond to those, but it does feel very important
Speaker 1: to atiscate for listeners.
Speaker 2: You just go ahead and sit back.
Speaker 1: If any of you have studied what happened under the
Speaker 1: administration of the former guy, I don't like to utter
Speaker 1: his name.
Speaker 2: It feels like bad luck to me.
Speaker 1: The US Office of the Special Council did release a
Speaker 1: report that over a dozen top administration officials who worked
Speaker 1: for I'll say it, President Trump violated said Hatch Act.
Speaker 1: There were more than one hundred legal complaints filed. This
Speaker 1: creates danger to our institutions because what is means is
Speaker 1: it creates a taxpayer funded campaign apparatus within the upper
Speaker 1: echelons of our executive branch. This is a huge.
Speaker 2: Breach of conduct.
Speaker 1: So when we talk about the fact that unlike that
Speaker 1: Press secretary, this lovely Press secretary will not commit quote
Speaker 1: repeated and egregious hatch.
Speaker 2: ACKed violations, this is why it matters so.
Speaker 1: Friends, if you did, oh, I would love it.
Speaker 2: Put me up on that podium.
Speaker 1: I will school some people. So if you didn't understand
Speaker 1: just just what a legal violation, what happened in that
Speaker 1: you know, former admin, looks like now you do read
Speaker 1: up on it some more. You're welcome. We're going to
Speaker 1: leave that there, but you will all understand at home
Speaker 1: why there are certain conversations even though we are leading
Speaker 1: into an election, that I can't have with my friend
Speaker 1: here because she's not a violator of the law. I
Speaker 1: actually want to zoom out from the election, the White House,
Speaker 1: your job, which you know I'm obsessed with, but I
Speaker 1: actually want to go into the direction of that story
Speaker 1: of your parents, because you mentioned how wild it is
Speaker 1: for your immigrant parents to watch television and see their
Speaker 1: daughter the first black woman to be a press secretary
Speaker 1: at the White House, the first black gay woman to
Speaker 1: be a press person of white color, that you are
Speaker 1: so many first and by the way, may also say, like,
Speaker 1: you know, the first black woman to stand up there
Speaker 1: with her beautiful natural hair. Because we're out here still
Speaker 1: having conversations about the Crown Act.
Speaker 2: Also look that up. Yes, friends at home, please.
Speaker 1: Please, it is so monumental. And it's interesting, right because
Speaker 1: folks that have traditionally held power will often say to
Speaker 1: women or women of color or people of color, well,
Speaker 1: why does your identity have to be everything you talk about?
Speaker 1: It's like, well, you won't let me forget what my
Speaker 1: gender or race is because y'all are trying to legislate
Speaker 1: against my equity all the time, So perhaps you should
Speaker 1: focus on it less.
Speaker 3: And they're trying to gaslight at the time about that too,
Speaker 3: now all the time.
Speaker 1: But still again, the both and it's not perfect, but
Speaker 1: there's possibility. It's why your family came here. Can you
Speaker 1: share a little bit of what your parents have told
Speaker 1: you about their American dream and paint a picture for
Speaker 1: our audience about when they came here and what your
Speaker 1: young childhood life was.
Speaker 2: So I love that question because the American dream looks.
Speaker 3: Different for everybody, and some people never obtained the American dream.
Speaker 3: And I also want to put that out there because
Speaker 3: it is very tough. I mean, while people, many people,
Speaker 3: immigrants come here for a better life. We are a
Speaker 3: country of immigrants, an opportunity to give our children, our
Speaker 3: families a better way of life. You dream about opportunities
Speaker 3: that you certainly didn't have where you came from. And
Speaker 3: so there is that American dream, but it can be elusive.
Speaker 3: And I am my parents' American dream, and they very
Speaker 3: much still live check to check, I want to be
Speaker 3: very honest about that. But watching me be where I
Speaker 3: am today in the White House is a dream come
Speaker 3: true for them because one of the reasons they came
Speaker 3: to this country is to make sure that their kids
Speaker 3: had a better education, and that happened, and it is
Speaker 3: it is. You know, my mom gets emotional every time
Speaker 3: she watches me on TV. I remember bringing her to
Speaker 3: the White House state dinner, the very first one that
Speaker 3: we had with France, which was December, which was in
Speaker 3: December of twenty twenty one, I believe, or I can't
Speaker 3: remember twenty one, twenty twenty two, sorry, twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: and she met the President for the first time. She
Speaker 3: cried and he was so phenomenal. President Biden opened up
Speaker 3: his arms and she put her head in this chance
Speaker 3: and she was just weeping, and she thanked him. And
Speaker 3: it was after that night, either that night or the
Speaker 3: next morning, she said to me, that was the best
Speaker 3: night of my life because it all came together for her.
Speaker 3: You know, my parents are from Haiti. When they left Haiti,
Speaker 3: it was a dictatorship and they wanted better. They wanted
Speaker 3: better for themselves, better for their children. So they came
Speaker 3: to the States. We went to France first, so actually
Speaker 3: lived right outside of Paris for a little bit. Then
Speaker 3: came to the US and my dad became a New
Speaker 3: York City cab driver.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's that story that you hear over and over.
Speaker 3: My mom was a home health care aid and they still,
Speaker 3: you know, did those jobs for a very long time
Speaker 3: and very much still live.
Speaker 1: Check to check.
Speaker 3: You know, my mom looks for her pension and you know,
Speaker 3: her Social Security check every month. We try to help
Speaker 3: her navigate through the medical system, right, We tried to
Speaker 3: help her navigate through through now that she is a
Speaker 3: senior citizen, helped her navigate through that and make sure
Speaker 3: she's being taken care of. Same with my dad, and
Speaker 3: you know, now we're taking care of them.
Speaker 2: But it is I think of them and.
Speaker 3: What they told me I was a kid that I
Speaker 3: would come home crying because I was made fun of,
Speaker 3: teased for you know, the way I looked or you know,
Speaker 3: the way I dressed, whatever it was because we didn't
Speaker 3: have much growing up, and my parents would say, don't
Speaker 3: listen to them, and they would tell me how special
Speaker 3: I was. They would tell me I can do anything
Speaker 3: it is that I wanted to do.
Speaker 2: And they were my biggest.
Speaker 3: Cheerleaders, obviously, my biggest supporters, and I would not be
Speaker 3: here without them. And it was tough growing up. It
Speaker 3: was really really tough and having my parents there and
Speaker 3: they would never it's so it was very interesting. I'd
Speaker 3: come home and I would be crying and I would
Speaker 3: be really upset or I would tell them what happened
Speaker 3: once they got home, and they never went into the
Speaker 3: issue or the problem, right, They never like dived into it,
Speaker 3: and they were just kind of they just like brush
Speaker 3: it off. It's okay, we know how special you are.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter what they say. You are the best
Speaker 3: of the best, you know. And they made me feel
Speaker 3: really proud of who I am and who I became
Speaker 3: to be obviously as an adult. And my mom, I
Speaker 3: talk about her a lot because I watched her be
Speaker 3: a fighter through every job that she had, everything that
Speaker 3: she did for her kids, everything that she did for
Speaker 3: her family, and she had such strength and grace and
Speaker 3: that's hopefully what I embody, you know, strength, grace, and
Speaker 3: appreciation for people, respect for people, respect for myself, and
Speaker 3: just continuing just working hard until you get to the
Speaker 3: yes or until you get to the accomplishment that that
Speaker 3: goal that you set for yourself. And she was one
Speaker 3: of the most impressive people that I've ever met. And
Speaker 3: the first hero hero that I ever had was my
Speaker 3: mom and that continues even now. I watch her sometimes
Speaker 3: and I'm like, how do you continue to fight?
Speaker 2: You're always fighting? Uh. And it is the most the.
Speaker 3: Most the most honorable thing, the most beautiful thing that
Speaker 3: I've ever witnessed. And so that's it's very much it's
Speaker 3: like a third of who I am, Right, there are
Speaker 3: many reasons not who I am, but a third of
Speaker 3: how I got here, Yeah, right, which is that foundation,
Speaker 3: how I grew up, what I saw as a kid,
Speaker 3: my experiences. It's very much a big part of who
Speaker 3: I am today. And I never forget that. I never
Speaker 3: forget that, and I try to, you know, empower that
Speaker 3: into my daughter and uh, and it's important for me
Speaker 3: to do that too.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I read you know, your your memoir is so beautiful.
Speaker 2: At Home.
Speaker 1: Green's book Moving Forward is amazing, and you you talk
Speaker 1: so much about your journey and that book, and one
Speaker 1: of the things that really stuck out to me, you said,
Speaker 1: you've felt like a third parent, oh your household, which
Speaker 1: I think is a very common experience for daughters of
Speaker 1: immigrants and oldest daughters certainly. And I wonder how some
Speaker 1: of those things that can certainly shape us in tough ways,
Speaker 1: how do you see that sort of third parent role
Speaker 1: now as the accomplished woman that you are. How do
Speaker 1: you make space for the ways that it was difficult
Speaker 1: but also likely made you this powerhouse of an adult.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, I had to become an adult at a
Speaker 3: very young age. Because my parents were working six seven
Speaker 3: days a week. I barely saw them, you know. I
Speaker 3: remember there would be a time where I would go
Speaker 3: to bed and I would try to wake up early
Speaker 3: to see them, but they were already gone. And because
Speaker 3: they were working twelve fifteen hour days, and I had
Speaker 3: a younger brother, a younger sister, and I took care
Speaker 3: of them.
Speaker 2: You know, we had babysitters and neighbors.
Speaker 3: Who watched watched over my siblings, but you know, I
Speaker 3: played a role in making sure that they were okay.
Speaker 3: They were being fed, they got ready and to go
Speaker 3: to school, and I became an adult. You don't even
Speaker 3: realize it at the time. At the time, you're just
Speaker 3: doing your part for the family. You don't realize that
Speaker 3: you're growing up very fast and you're missing out on
Speaker 3: a lot of the fun, a lot of the kids
Speaker 3: stuff that kids do, And so.
Speaker 2: I didn't have that.
Speaker 3: I think now that I have a kid, that part
Speaker 3: of my childhood informs me as a mom. And what
Speaker 3: I mean about that, mean about that is oh mean
Speaker 3: by that is you know, I try to I'm very
Speaker 3: very mindful and my kid having a childhood, I'm very
Speaker 3: very mindful in what I share with her and what
Speaker 3: she experiences. I'm very very mindful of how important it
Speaker 3: is for her to hang out with her girlfriends or
Speaker 3: hang out with her buddies and have those structures, time structure,
Speaker 3: And it might sound minor, but because of my experience,
Speaker 3: it plays a role into her experience and how I
Speaker 3: mother her, would be a parent to her because just
Speaker 3: obviously luckily for her two moms, but it is really
Speaker 3: important to me and how I my part of the
Speaker 3: co parenting, how I make sure that she has a
Speaker 3: fulfilling childhood because I want her to have that.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like in certain ways because you missed
Speaker 1: round one childhood play?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: That Now raising a daughter on your own, yeah, you
Speaker 1: get to almost relive your childhood as her friends.
Speaker 4: It's like, oh, yeah, now I get to do Oh
Speaker 4: this is what this was like I was a kid, right,
Speaker 4: I do get to have some fun and ride around,
Speaker 4: like bike.
Speaker 2: Riding and doing fun things and I don't know.
Speaker 3: You know, you know, double dutch or whatever it is
Speaker 3: doing the things that I wasn't able to do as
Speaker 3: a kid, and you know, hide and go seek all
Speaker 3: the fun things.
Speaker 2: And like you become like.
Speaker 3: This adult child with your kid rightly because you're having
Speaker 3: fun with them and you're experiencing things that you wanted them,
Speaker 3: you would have wanted to experience yourself for them.
Speaker 1: Yes, And it's so interesting to me thinking about it
Speaker 1: being in this stage. You know, we're so many of
Speaker 1: the people in our lives, you know, have kids of
Speaker 1: their own yea, or in relationships with people with kids.
Speaker 1: We are also the generation that has the most access
Speaker 1: to information that's right, mental health research. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think our parents knew about reparenting your inner child.
Speaker 1: But we do, and we I think it's so cool
Speaker 1: that we get to be conscious of it when it's happening.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: And you just said something mental health. That is something
Speaker 3: as a kid I couldn't when I was you know,
Speaker 3: when I was sixteen years old coming out to my mom.
Speaker 2: It was you know, it.
Speaker 3: Didn't go well, right, and then you deal with all
Speaker 3: the emotional baggage from that, and you don't talk about
Speaker 3: going to therapy or we didn't talk talk about going
Speaker 3: to therapy or dealing with your.
Speaker 2: Own mental health.
Speaker 3: And now today it is something that is so important,
Speaker 3: that is so key and people just functioning and.
Speaker 2: Dealing with loss.
Speaker 3: You think about coming out of COVID and the pandemic
Speaker 3: and what these kids had to deal with, and that
Speaker 3: is one of the things that I'm you know, one
Speaker 3: of the platforms that both the First Lady and the
Speaker 3: President talk about is mental health. And when you hear
Speaker 3: it at the top, right, when you hear it from
Speaker 3: an administration, a White House administration, then.
Speaker 2: It feels safe for all of us to talk about.
Speaker 3: And yeah, it's it's so important because we didn't talk
Speaker 3: about that growing up.
Speaker 2: I didn't talk about that growing up, especially in immigrant household.
Speaker 2: You don't talk about.
Speaker 1: That stuff well because you're working so hard to assimilate
Speaker 1: and be good exactly, and you know, not have a problem.
Speaker 1: Don't look over here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and you don't want to stick out. I
Speaker 2: don't want to stick out.
Speaker 1: Back in just a minute after a few words from
Speaker 1: our favorite sponsors, do you think hearing it from the
Speaker 1: top down in the way that you're discussing, because I
Speaker 1: feel very similarly, you know, in whether it's entertainment, you know,
Speaker 1: my day job world, or my partner doing this advocacy
Speaker 1: in sport. I believe, I know we all do. We
Speaker 1: believe that vulnerability can really be a key to new
Speaker 1: and healthier community.
Speaker 4: Do you.
Speaker 1: Think it was what you learned in those vulnerable spaces
Speaker 1: or perhaps examples set by people you know like President
Speaker 1: and doctor Biden? What inspired you to be so vulnerable
Speaker 1: in your book? Because I'm asking this, you know, a
Speaker 1: as an interviewer, but also as a person who is
Speaker 1: considering how much I want to share of my own life,
Speaker 1: because when you do these jobs and you are a
Speaker 1: public figure, to be reduced to a fraction of yourself
Speaker 1: is painful. But to share your deepest secrets with everyone
Speaker 1: is so exposing, and you took my breath away in
Speaker 1: really special ways because in the book you shared about
Speaker 1: really difficult experiences, but they're common for a lot of women,
Speaker 1: from you know, suicidal ideation or attempting to sexual abuse.
Speaker 1: You you just put it out there. I am so
Speaker 1: in awe and also wondering how you decided and knew
Speaker 1: it was the right choice.
Speaker 3: So I think for me, and it's a good question
Speaker 3: because sometimes I'm like, wow, I really put it.
Speaker 2: All out there the bookshelves.
Speaker 3: So I believe it was a way of owning my story, right,
Speaker 3: And I think of power, I think that's exactly right,
Speaker 3: and it's too it's reclamation of power a thousand percent,
Speaker 3: but also being a leader and leading and showing that
Speaker 3: it's okay to be vulnerable, and also telling people I
Speaker 3: see you too. If people see me, then I hopefully
Speaker 3: they also feel like they're being seen, if that makes
Speaker 3: sense at all. And so there were a couple of things.
Speaker 3: It was certainly reclaiming myself my life by telling my truth,
Speaker 3: but also sharing because I felt like at the time
Speaker 3: I had a leadership role. People were looking towards me
Speaker 3: and I was, you know, a leader for so many
Speaker 3: people that I felt like it is important to put
Speaker 3: that out there and I want people to heal, and
Speaker 3: maybe by sharing my story, hopefully others will heal or
Speaker 3: get on the path of healing.
Speaker 2: And I think it matters for people.
Speaker 3: Know, it goes back to what you were saying about
Speaker 3: being the first and being the first of so many.
Speaker 3: Representation matters, It really matters. And I think it's connected
Speaker 3: to the book as well. It's like representation is so important.
Speaker 3: And when people see you and you break that visual
Speaker 3: whatever mindset of what a particular role is supposed to
Speaker 3: look like, and you break that and you're and it
Speaker 3: opens up to you and you're saying to yourself, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know what, I can do that role because look
Speaker 3: at her, look at him, look at them, look at
Speaker 3: that person, and you can break how that's visualized for people.
Speaker 3: And I think if you tell your story, it also
Speaker 3: you don't know what people are suffering from or dealing with.
Speaker 3: And so if you're a public figure and you're out
Speaker 3: there and people see you, because we were not all perfect,
Speaker 3: people look at you and they're like, and you're a gorgeous,
Speaker 3: beautiful woman, and people say, oh, she's so much perfect.
Speaker 2: But you've had your trials relationship.
Speaker 3: O kay, right, And I think if people know that,
Speaker 3: then they're like, holy cow.
Speaker 2: Yeah right.
Speaker 3: It's like, you know, Sophia has made it and she's
Speaker 3: wonderful and she's a wonderful person, but she has a
Speaker 3: story to tell and we all that helps me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I find to your point, the willingness to
Speaker 1: share in that way when you said someone might see
Speaker 1: that and begin to heal. I think so often, whether
Speaker 1: you've been through trauma or abuse or whatever it might be,
Speaker 1: you get convinced by the lie that something happened to you,
Speaker 1: that maybe you deserved it. And when you realize how
Speaker 1: universal these experiences are, we can start doing some of
Speaker 1: what happens in an incredible building like this, and we
Speaker 1: can look at the root causes of these systemic problems
Speaker 1: and say, Okay, if we have a mental health crisis,
Speaker 1: if we have a problem with violence against women, how
Speaker 1: are we going to solve those problems? How can we all?
Speaker 1: And to your point about representation, we've got to have
Speaker 1: diversity of thought and experience in the room, because that's
Speaker 1: how none of the problems get left in the corner
Speaker 1: where someone didn't see them because someone didn't have them.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people bark about the way
Speaker 1: we talk about diversity and representation, and what I always
Speaker 1: want to encourage them to realize is that the more
Speaker 1: of us there are in a room, the better the
Speaker 1: outcomes for everyone, including the people who used to be
Speaker 1: the only ones in rooms.
Speaker 3: Life exactly exactly. And it's very interesting too. I mean, look,
Speaker 3: I talked about how diverse this administration is. I talked
Speaker 3: about my role here. Obviously we've gone back and forth
Speaker 3: about being the White House pre Secretary, but I honestly
Speaker 3: don't think that I would be the White House pre
Speaker 3: Secretary if it wasn't for President Biden, Doctor Biden. And
Speaker 3: I say this because you have to have people who
Speaker 3: believe in you as.
Speaker 2: Well, who see you in the way that they see you.
Speaker 3: And I think that matters. Representation matters, but you also
Speaker 3: have to have those allies, those mentors, people who look
Speaker 3: up and say, no, you should be exactly where you are,
Speaker 3: or you should be even elevated even more. And I
Speaker 3: don't think I would be in this position if it
Speaker 3: wasn't for them. They wanted to make sure that their
Speaker 3: White House pres secretary represented yes, and their voice.
Speaker 2: But also you know, you know.
Speaker 3: The country and meet the moment that we are in,
Speaker 3: and I think that matters too, Right, It matters that
Speaker 3: Lyndon Johnson LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act, signed the
Speaker 3: Civil Rights Act. Right, it matters that, you know, doctor Martin,
Speaker 3: Luther King and so many other civil rights icon they
Speaker 3: came together to get that done. And it takes that,
Speaker 3: It takes that effort to get that done. And so
Speaker 3: you fast forward to today and all of the work
Speaker 3: that where we still need to get done in the
Speaker 3: historic work that we have gotten done, and it takes
Speaker 3: all of us, all of us to come together and
Speaker 3: make that happen.
Speaker 1: So when you talk about the President and the First
Speaker 1: Lady having that kind of faith in you, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to give some of the folks at home
Speaker 1: a little bit of the background of how this happens
Speaker 1: because prior, you know, to being in the administration, you
Speaker 1: were a senior advisor, You were a national spokeswoman for
Speaker 1: move on dot org, which is an incredible, incredible advocacy group,
Speaker 1: and then you became a senior advisor to the president's
Speaker 1: campaign in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how and then I was I don't think many
Speaker 2: people knew this.
Speaker 3: I became for the last three months of the twenty
Speaker 3: twenty campaign, I was the chief of staff to the
Speaker 3: running mate, which was oh wow.
Speaker 2: Then Senator at Kamala Harris. So it's like full circling
Speaker 2: in many ways.
Speaker 3: And then when I came into the White House, I
Speaker 3: went into the press shop.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, so you have this wonderful history of advocacy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know that.
Speaker 1: I think we'll get into a bit about what you
Speaker 1: learned at home and what you learned in your early career.
Speaker 1: Can you tell folks at home how does one become
Speaker 1: a press secretary?
Speaker 2: What is your job?
Speaker 1: We see you in the briefing but what happens here
Speaker 1: all day? For the people that say, I think I
Speaker 1: want to do that, but like they don't.
Speaker 3: Really know what happens outside of the daily brief Oh
Speaker 3: there's so much more that happens outside of the briefing room.
Speaker 2: But I see the hum.
Speaker 1: Around your office at the times.
Speaker 2: I know, but I a lot that happens.
Speaker 3: So in a regular day, I wake up pretty early
Speaker 3: in the morning and I start taking in the news,
Speaker 3: whether it is you know, the print, online, TV. I
Speaker 3: just start kind of consuming what's out there, what's the
Speaker 3: news of the day, What's happened, what are what are
Speaker 3: the things that reporters care about, in particular, the White
Speaker 3: House Press Corps cares about, because those are the reporters
Speaker 3: that we deal with. I have twelve amazing people on
Speaker 3: my team who are part of the White House Press Office,
Speaker 3: and they all have their own kind of issues that
Speaker 3: they manage that they're working on. They're constantly working on stories.
Speaker 3: And I come into the office, I have meetings. I
Speaker 3: have meetings all throughout the morning, and the first meeting
Speaker 3: that I have starts at seven thirty am in the morning,
Speaker 3: and so we do that, and then I spent about
Speaker 3: four or five hours prepping for the briefing, and I
Speaker 3: have people to your point, you know, zipping in and
Speaker 3: out of my office coming through prepping me and getting
Speaker 3: me ready for whatever news of the day issues that
Speaker 3: reporters care about. And then I do a briefing that's
Speaker 3: up to between thirty minutes to an hour. Sometimes I
Speaker 3: have a guest, sometimes I don't, and so that takes
Speaker 3: a big chunk of my day. But I also have
Speaker 3: to prep the president sometimes, travel with the president, work
Speaker 3: through work with other departments, across the admitting on particular
Speaker 3: issues that they're dealing with U and so, and I'm
Speaker 3: in a lot of meetings that I have to, senior level,
Speaker 3: senior level meetings that I'm in because we have to
Speaker 3: it's not just about the day, but it's about what
Speaker 3: are we doing three months from now, two weeks from now,
Speaker 3: next week, And so there's a lot of planning, a
Speaker 3: lot of prepping, a lot of you know, there are
Speaker 3: fires that you have to just get rid of takeout.
Speaker 3: And so I always tell my team they are on
Speaker 3: the front lines.
Speaker 2: They are on the front lines of what.
Speaker 3: Is happening in the world literally in the country and
Speaker 3: certainly in the world with the incoming of questions and
Speaker 3: things coming from.
Speaker 2: Reporters, and so we are on the front lines.
Speaker 3: I call them superheroes because they're pretty amazing and what
Speaker 3: they're able to do. But also, you know, the person
Speaker 3: that I that I have to that I have to
Speaker 3: report to as the president directly, you know what's in
Speaker 3: the news, what's going on, what's happening, and so it
Speaker 3: is a it is a twenty four to seven job,
Speaker 3: of course, and it is an I always say this
Speaker 3: because it's very true. It is an honor and a
Speaker 3: privilege to be in this job because I would never
Speaker 3: thought that I would be doing this when I was
Speaker 3: growing up.
Speaker 2: Is going to your question here. I thought I was
Speaker 2: going to be a doctor.
Speaker 3: My parents, being immigrants, they wanted me to be a doctor,
Speaker 3: a lawyer, engineer, those are the things, right that they thought.
Speaker 2: I relate the joke in the heavy Italian needs. There
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 1: I would get that you can be a doctor or
Speaker 1: a lawyer, or a lawyer or a doctor.
Speaker 2: Love it, I love it.
Speaker 1: I was like the grandparents.
Speaker 2: I love it, I love.
Speaker 3: It, and for them that was success. And I thought
Speaker 3: that's what I was going to do.
Speaker 2: And then I.
Speaker 3: Decided coming out of college that I didn't want to
Speaker 3: be a doctor.
Speaker 2: That that wasn't my passion.
Speaker 3: So what I tell young people that come up to
Speaker 3: me and asked me about how I got to where
Speaker 3: I got to the secret to my success? Whatever question
Speaker 3: did I get? I always say to them, follow your passion,
Speaker 3: Follow what you're passionate about. And sometimes you'll be in
Speaker 3: a place where you're.
Speaker 2: Like, well, am I going to pay my bill? How
Speaker 2: am I going to get to New York?
Speaker 3: How I'm going to get to LA How I'm going
Speaker 3: to get to wherever you want to get to to
Speaker 3: live those dreams or dc in this instance, and I
Speaker 3: say to them, worry about it, obviously, but don't worry
Speaker 3: about it at the same time.
Speaker 2: Right, if you're passionate, you'll find a way.
Speaker 3: You'll find a way to get through that and really
Speaker 3: continue to build on that dream that you have for yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll be back in just a minute. But here's
Speaker 1: a word from our sponsors. Well, and something I think
Speaker 1: is really amazing. And again I want to be very
Speaker 1: respectful of what you're allowed to be not allowed to
Speaker 1: say as a federal employee. But it is not lost
Speaker 1: on me that you grew up in a home with
Speaker 1: a mother who was a care worker. Yeah, and that
Speaker 1: you currently work for a presidential administration that has done
Speaker 1: more for care workers, the care economy, and people in
Speaker 1: need of care than any administration in history. I mean
Speaker 1: a couple of things I'll.
Speaker 5: Just say because I don't know if you again, I
Speaker 5: don't know if you're allowed to, but that would be
Speaker 5: your miss go for it as a citizen journalist not
Speaker 5: to But you know, our current administration, President Biden and
Speaker 5: Vice President Harris have put these issues squarely into not.
Speaker 1: Just an agenda on healthcare, but the economic agenda. They
Speaker 1: have invested in the dignity of care workers, which includes
Speaker 1: affordable childcare, paid family leave, paid medical leave, elder and
Speaker 1: disability care, living wage jobs for care workers, which you
Speaker 1: know to be so important for our friends at home.
Speaker 1: In April of twenty twenty three, they signed one of
Speaker 1: the most sweeping executive orders, actually the most in history,
Speaker 1: over fifty directives made to make care more accessible and affordable,
Speaker 1: which meant that another one hundred thousand American families have
Speaker 1: more affordable childcare and more of the issues I listed
Speaker 1: a moment ago. And I don't know if in your
Speaker 1: conversations in this complex the care economy and care workers
Speaker 1: come up a lot, or if it happens to be
Speaker 1: a coincidental confluence of who you are and who they are.
Speaker 1: But I guess I wonder again, not to get into
Speaker 1: the politics of it, as we have an impending election,
Speaker 1: but I wonder how your mom's caregiving experience, how it
Speaker 1: shaped your relationship to your public service, but what it
Speaker 1: feels like to work in an administration On a day
Speaker 1: when those executive orders get signed.
Speaker 2: It's mind blowing.
Speaker 3: Truly, It truly is mind blowing because to your point,
Speaker 3: I think many of us come into this life of
Speaker 3: public service for many reasons and my guesses, and I
Speaker 3: can only speak for myself, my experience as growing up
Speaker 3: as a kid, as a young adult has certainly led
Speaker 3: me to this space because I wanted to make people's
Speaker 3: lives better because I saw what my parents were going through,
Speaker 3: whether it was healthcare, whether it's just a minimum wage
Speaker 3: that they could afford, buying a home, you know, buying
Speaker 3: a car, paying student loans, helping us pay our student loans,
Speaker 3: going through school, and I watched them really suffer. I
Speaker 3: watched them go through a lot of heartache, and you know,
Speaker 3: trying to just put us in the best schools that
Speaker 3: they can. And I think I talk about this, I've
Speaker 3: talked about this. I remember they sent us to Catholic
Speaker 3: school and the reason we went to Catholic schools because
Speaker 3: the public school system was not great where I grew up.
Speaker 3: I went to public school for one year, and my
Speaker 3: parents worked really hard to get me into public school.
Speaker 3: And I remember there'd be times where I would be
Speaker 3: sitting in the in the principal's office because they didn't.
Speaker 2: Pay they couldn't pay that month, and I had to.
Speaker 3: But they understood that I couldn't stay home because there
Speaker 3: would be nobody home and my parents had to work.
Speaker 3: So they allowed me to come to school, but I
Speaker 3: had to sit in the principal's office until my parents
Speaker 3: could pay the tuition. I mean, those are the story
Speaker 3: is that not just my parents have, but many others have. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And so working in this administration, you think about elder care, childcare,
Speaker 3: paid leave, the cancer moonshot. We just went to New
Speaker 3: Orleans to announce a major initiative coming out of that.
Speaker 2: You think about all.
Speaker 3: Of these initiative that matter personally to me and to
Speaker 3: so many others. But this is why I came into
Speaker 3: this space. This is why I'm working for this administration.
Speaker 3: I told the President recently he would be the only
Speaker 3: person that I would ever do this job for because
Speaker 3: I believe in the work that he wanted to get done.
Speaker 2: And you think about.
Speaker 3: The first four months, for example, of this administration. We
Speaker 3: got something called the American Rescue Plan.
Speaker 2: Ye got that done.
Speaker 3: Only Democrats in Congress signed, voted for that. The President
Speaker 3: was able to sign. No Republicans signed onto that. And
Speaker 3: what that did was. You think about the economy. It
Speaker 3: turned the economy back on its feet. Are the strongest
Speaker 3: economy in the world, leading economy in the world. And
Speaker 3: you think about that moment what was happening. There was COVID,
Speaker 3: There was a pandemic, a once in a century pandemic
Speaker 3: that was devastating the economy.
Speaker 2: Schools were closed, businesses were closed.
Speaker 3: And we needed to get things back up. That American
Speaker 3: Rescue Plan put a few hundred bucks in people's pockets.
Speaker 3: There was a child tax credit which helped, you know,
Speaker 3: eliminate some of the poverty that we were seeing communities
Speaker 3: like mine.
Speaker 1: I mean in poverty reduction, a reduction in childhood poverty
Speaker 1: of overs.
Speaker 3: A couple of hundred bucks in people's pockets that matter.
Speaker 3: Shoot everything right, so that you think about communities that
Speaker 3: are overlooked, black and brown communities, poor communities. This is
Speaker 3: a president that made sure that there was equity at
Speaker 3: the center of that so that they were able to
Speaker 3: get that vaccination, that they were able to.
Speaker 2: Get what was needed to get them back on their feet.
Speaker 3: Nineteen Now there's more than nineteen million applications for small
Speaker 3: businesses because of the American Rescue Plan, because of the
Speaker 3: president's economic policies and putting equity at the center of it. Yes,
Speaker 3: so we turned that around, and that's why many of us.
Speaker 2: I could speak speak for many of my colleagues.
Speaker 3: That's why we're here because of that public service and
Speaker 3: what we get to do, whether it's the economy, whether
Speaker 3: it's these different policies that deal with childcare, elder care,
Speaker 3: paid leave as you just mentioned. I mean we just
Speaker 3: recently the President made a huge announcement with the Vice
Speaker 3: President and the first ten drugs that Medicare is now
Speaker 3: able to negotiate so that big farmer doesn't cheat us.
Speaker 2: Yes, billions of dogs, six billion dollars.
Speaker 1: That matters to cap insulin for people at thirty five dollars.
Speaker 2: That matters, matters to people.
Speaker 1: I read the testimony of a young delegate who went
Speaker 1: to the convention for the first time this year, and
Speaker 1: you know, he's a college kid and applied and he
Speaker 1: was taught talking about how he and his mother both
Speaker 1: have Type one diabetes and how what the Biden Harris
Speaker 1: administration has done to ensure their access to the medicine
Speaker 1: they need to stay alive. Is the reason he's gotten
Speaker 1: politically active as a young person, and I just thought
Speaker 1: that's it.
Speaker 3: You know, polics is personal, right, Politics is politics personal?
Speaker 1: Yes, And you know, when you talk about the economy,
Speaker 1: one of the things that was so inspiring to me
Speaker 1: to see the domino effect of the American rescue plan,
Speaker 1: you know again, COVID global crisis, once in one hundred
Speaker 1: years pandemic, the world shut down, and to see some
Speaker 1: of our pure nations experiencing inflation at eighteen twenty one percent,
Speaker 1: and President Biden and Vice President Harris brought ours down
Speaker 1: so quickly that we actually began to stabilize the entire
Speaker 1: global economy. We not only got our inflation to a
Speaker 1: historic low without causing a recession, which again, for my
Speaker 1: friends at home, google it, this is a real thing.
Speaker 2: This is math.
Speaker 1: It's the first time we've been able to do that
Speaker 1: without causing a recession in history, and other countries' inflation
Speaker 1: rates are coming down because of our economy.
Speaker 2: Leadership matters, It matters so so much. Leadership, and it's the.
Speaker 1: Sort of thing that excites me because now to see
Speaker 1: that they've stabilized the economy in this once in a
Speaker 1: hundred year crisis, and now they're going after the price
Speaker 1: gouging of the big corporations. They're going after, you know,
Speaker 1: creating fair prices for pharmaceutical companies. And the DOJ is
Speaker 1: suing this crazy housing software that's been jacking up everybody's rent.
Speaker 1: I am like, go off, mister president, Madam Vice President.
Speaker 2: I love y'all. Like I can't speak to what the
Speaker 2: DOJ does. Wow, you can.
Speaker 6: But I am the civilian on this podcast and I
Speaker 6: read about it yesterday and I'm very thrilled and like,
Speaker 6: it is such an incredible thing to see action being
Speaker 6: taken on behalf of people.
Speaker 2: And again we need to talk about the student own.
Speaker 1: I forgive this predatory, predatory death. It doesn't it doesn't
Speaker 1: actually have to exist.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to exist, and it thrills me.
Speaker 1: To see all of this, and I, I guess I
Speaker 1: just wonder, you know again, you represent so many intersections, yea,
Speaker 1: as I know I do in my own right, and
Speaker 1: I just I know how meaningful it is for me
Speaker 1: as an advocate, you know, as a surrogate for this
Speaker 1: campaign and others, as someone who comes here on my
Speaker 1: free time, you know, spends my own money to be
Speaker 1: here to speak, to show up and testify in front
Speaker 1: of Congress because I believe in my duty as an
Speaker 1: American to my fellow Americans. For you to be inside
Speaker 1: of this administration like you actually work here. I'm clearly
Speaker 1: the biggest fan of.
Speaker 2: This place, but you and we appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Is it the wildest thing to see this much sweeping,
Speaker 1: incredible historic policy for the people while you work here.
Speaker 3: So two things I want to say. Two things I
Speaker 3: want to say. First of all, thank you for your
Speaker 3: leadership and your advocacy. And it is amazing what you
Speaker 3: do on your own time on the issues that you
Speaker 3: believe in, and you use your voice, you use your platform.
Speaker 2: It is not easy to do and I understand that.
Speaker 1: I know I'm a pain in the ass, but I
Speaker 1: can't know.
Speaker 3: But it matters, like we need more Sophias, like we
Speaker 3: really do. We need more people like you to be
Speaker 3: out there using their platform to lift up.
Speaker 2: The people who can't right, the people.
Speaker 3: Who don't have the ability to lift themselves up on
Speaker 3: issues that matter. And you know, I talk about equity.
Speaker 3: I talk about making sure we don't leave different communities
Speaker 3: that are historically left behind behind And this is I mean, look,
Speaker 3: I start off saying why I decided to work for
Speaker 3: the Biden Harris administration. Why I decided to work for
Speaker 3: this particular president is because I believed in his leadership
Speaker 3: and believed in what he wanted to do and knew
Speaker 3: because of his experience because he was senator, because he
Speaker 3: was Vice president, that he knew how to get this done.
Speaker 2: And you're right.
Speaker 3: There has been a sweeping amount of legislation that people
Speaker 3: had told us that we could not get done. Yeah,
Speaker 3: from the American Rescue Plan to the bipartisan infrastructure legislation.
Speaker 3: And the last administration, infrastructure was a joke. Every two
Speaker 3: weeks it was infrastructure.
Speaker 2: It was a joke. And now we got it done
Speaker 2: any bipartisan way. Because of who.
Speaker 3: He is, he was able to reach across the aisle
Speaker 3: and get this done and it's no longer a joke.
Speaker 3: We got the Packed Act, which helps our veterans right
Speaker 3: and their families, Yes, and got that in a bipartisan way.
Speaker 3: We got the chips and science that we're talking about
Speaker 3: bringing manufacturers, manufacturer manufacturing back here to this country, which creates.
Speaker 2: Good paying job.
Speaker 3: I mean that matters things made in America. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is about investing in America, and it's so important
Speaker 3: We already talked about the health the health care side
Speaker 3: of things with the Inflation Reduction Act. Also the biggest,
Speaker 3: biggest climate climate change kind of legislation investment into beating
Speaker 3: climate change, dealing with climate what we're seeing right now.
Speaker 2: He got that done.
Speaker 3: And so you know it is you started off saying this,
Speaker 3: that this he's going to go down as one of
Speaker 3: the greatest presidents of our lifetime because of what he's
Speaker 3: been able to do in four years. Yes, in four years,
Speaker 3: and it's because of his experience. It's because he's been
Speaker 3: here in Washington, d C. For a long time, but
Speaker 3: also understood relationships and understood what mattered to people and
Speaker 3: who he is fundamentally at his core, how he grew
Speaker 3: up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and in Delaware and knowing what
Speaker 3: it's like to sit around a kitchen table and having
Speaker 3: to make those difficult decisions. I know as a kid,
Speaker 3: you know who was as adults had to become adult
Speaker 3: as a young kid. You sit around the kitchen table
Speaker 3: and you're looking at the expenses, You're looking at your
Speaker 3: opening up that says past you on the envelope, and
Speaker 3: you're trying.
Speaker 2: To figure out Holy cow, how we're.
Speaker 3: Going to pay to make sure the lights stay on,
Speaker 3: you know, how to make sure that we have enough
Speaker 3: clothing or enough enough to make sure that my brother
Speaker 3: and my sister are able to You know, it's winter
Speaker 3: this year.
Speaker 2: You know we're going to get a big storm, right,
Speaker 2: winter is coming.
Speaker 3: How do make sure that they have a coat and
Speaker 3: boots so that they can go to school? I mean,
Speaker 3: this is the things food around the table, and so
Speaker 3: these are the hard, difficult decisions. So I get it,
Speaker 3: and I think that's why for me, just talking for
Speaker 3: myself personally, how I'm able to talk about these issues
Speaker 3: in a real way because I've experienced it, and I
Speaker 3: know this president has experienced it, and I know it's
Speaker 3: all coming from this administration. The Bien Harris administration is
Speaker 3: coming from a place where we understand what it is
Speaker 3: like when you don't have when you don't have the
Speaker 3: medication that you need, the life saving medication that you
Speaker 3: need to survive to just survive.
Speaker 2: And so it is.
Speaker 3: It's it has been quite remarkable being able to be
Speaker 3: at the front lines of what we've done at this
Speaker 3: administration and to be able to to lift up what
Speaker 3: we've been able to do it is.
Speaker 2: It has been quite remarkable.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just imagine you almost feel so incredibly proud.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I'm so proud.
Speaker 1: You have such incredible you have an incredible ability to
Speaker 1: reflect on how change happens the nation. And you know,
Speaker 1: we are on the precipice of change with our president
Speaker 1: saying I've done my duty here and it's time to
Speaker 1: pass the torch. You know, we we are in this
Speaker 1: incredible season of you know, transformation and leadership. And to
Speaker 1: see him do that, not only for such a wonderful
Speaker 1: and tremendous vice president, but for a black woman, Yeah,
Speaker 1: a black South Asian woman. It's it's monumental to me
Speaker 1: as a woman.
Speaker 3: And it is, yeah, it is. It's emotional, it's incredible.
Speaker 3: But it's not surprising.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right. If you think about.
Speaker 3: The last three and a half almost four years, if
Speaker 3: you think about his commitment, if you think about him
Speaker 3: saying he was going to be a transition type of president,
Speaker 3: if you think about him picking then Senator Kamala Harris
Speaker 3: to be his vice president, it is not surprising.
Speaker 2: It is not, and you know.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 3: It is rare that you meet someone who meets the
Speaker 3: moment and understand their place in this moment and is
Speaker 3: the embodiment of patriotism. Yeah, it's the definition of what
Speaker 3: patriotism is.
Speaker 2: And that is Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: I love that when you think about it, big moment
Speaker 1: for years, thanks for it, big all it's big. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you think about the country and you think about
Speaker 1: the world. How do you come back into your own
Speaker 1: body in a moment like this and think from here
Speaker 1: out as you look at the next few months, in
Speaker 1: the next few years, what feels like you're work in progress?
Speaker 3: Wow, it's this is gonna probably sounds weird, But I
Speaker 3: think the next four or five months now wherever we are,
Speaker 3: it's probably gonna be the most important couple of months
Speaker 3: that we have experienced, only because there is so much
Speaker 3: more to get done. Only because now we know, right,
Speaker 3: we have four months to get this done, four months
Speaker 3: to get that done, and so we want to and
Speaker 3: I believe, and I'm speaking for him here a little bit.
Speaker 3: I think he wants to continue to keep that commitment.
Speaker 3: So there's still, to your point, a lot of work
Speaker 3: in progress. We still have to figure out how do
Speaker 3: we lower costs for Americans. Sure, we still have to
Speaker 3: figure out how do we beat these cooperations who are
Speaker 3: trying to take advantage of of everyday people and there
Speaker 3: are ways that we can do that. Right, there's still
Speaker 3: a global leadership that we have work to be done there,
Speaker 3: and I know that's something that is something that the
Speaker 3: President has led on. So I think there's like a
Speaker 3: anxiety and eagerness, you know, to be like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: we still have a lot.
Speaker 2: More to get done.
Speaker 3: And for me, yeah, just for you, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: for Green like working Pross, like what else in the
Speaker 3: next couple of months.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be about work, could just be lfel.
Speaker 1: I mean, listening to you rattle all this off, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you're working. Progress needs to be a vacation at a cocktail.
Speaker 2: But I don't know what you feeling.
Speaker 3: And man, you know, look, I have this amazing little
Speaker 3: human that I get to co parent with co parent,
Speaker 3: and I want to do right by her, and that
Speaker 3: is a major work in progress for me is how
Speaker 3: do I continue to do that work? And so that
Speaker 3: is big and that is something that I certainly will
Speaker 3: I will be doing for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3: Because you're a parent throughout your life obviously doesn't stop
Speaker 3: at eighteen it continues I have I have a long
Speaker 3: way to go before eighteen hits anyway, So that's really
Speaker 3: important my family. More broadly, I think I'm still growing
Speaker 3: and learning about myself and want to contell I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm still very much a work in progress and
Speaker 3: will continue to be in things that I want to
Speaker 3: learn and grow into and be And it's to be
Speaker 3: it's going to be exciting. You know.
Speaker 2: I've been in the space for three and a.
Speaker 3: Half years right, very much focused on the work. And
Speaker 3: I always tell people in you're a White House pre secretary,
Speaker 3: there's no prime there's no personal life, right that you
Speaker 3: I go to the grocery store and people see me
Speaker 3: as the last pre secretary. You don't see me as
Speaker 3: career Jean Pierre. So it is going to be a
Speaker 3: transition of Okay, how am I no longer the Whitales
Speaker 3: pre secretary and now I'm Krue Jean Pierre again?
Speaker 2: And what does that look like for me? And so
Speaker 2: I think it's something that I have to think about.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to find out. Oh gosh, thank you,
Speaker 2: thank you,