Kamala Harris, explained in 7 moments

Intro [CHANTING] Kamala! Kamala! [CHANTING] Kamala! Kamala! Kamala! 38-year-old Kamala Harris was swept into office as San Francisco's district attorney. And as she did, she made history. 1. Smart on crime For too long, we've asked these very simplistic questions about criminal justice policy that offer only two choices. Either you're soft on crime, or you're tough on crime. And instead, I suggest we should be smart on crime. What was smart about the “smart on crime” campaign, you're telling the progressives, I'm not just going to throw everybody in jail. You're telling people who want more of a tough-on-crime approach that like, I still believe in this. She was prosecutor coming out of the the “tough on crime” nineties. At a time when American drug policy was incredibly punitive. The idea was that “tough on crime” isn't working, what we need is the numbers, rather than the emotions that are driving a lot of our policing. Let's build metrics into our measure of how effective we have been with our criminal justice system. The metrics by which she judges her success. As a prosecutor, it's the numbers. The cases that you won. I did an analysis of who our homicide victims were who were under the age of 25 when they were killed. And I learned that 94% of them were high school dropouts. Perhaps untraditional for me to ask the question, but I did. She was raised primarily by a single immigrant mother who was a scientist. It's kind of like, what can you prove, not what do you feel. Nobody is looking to their DA for soaring speeches about the future of democracy. But I also think women, in order to be taken seriously, particularly in politics, you do have to show that you have a command of the facts, the figures, the numbers. That you're not emotional. And so that aspect of national politics has not come very easily to her. Kamala Harris, a candidate for California's attorney general. 2. Not entirely clear Your opponent, Ron Golden, said that he is for the legalization of marijuana recreationally. Your thoughts on that? Um, I... he is entitled to his opinion. It was very difficult to pin her down about what she thought about things. Kamala Harris’s stance on teacher tenure is not entirely clear. She would try to say, you know, I'm a prosecutor, I have to remain neutral about these things, I really shouldn't take a position. I have many clients in that matter, so I cannot talk with you about what we're doing in terms of the case. Very seldom is she first on an issue. She kind of checks out the temperature first, sees how others around her are kind of reacting, and then she jumps in. I’d want to be very well informed about exactly where it's going, or what the potential of my opinion would be before I just express something off the cuff. She also enters public life at a time when you really didn't see any women of color in prominent positions in elected life. It was a different time, in a largely white political system. She had those ambitions from, I think, a very young age, to make it in politics, to be highly successful, to make lives better for people. But I think she also knew that, as a woman, a woman of color, in positions that had always been held by white people, she wasn't always going to be the one who was out on the front edge. She's not a trailblazer — in a policy sense. California's attorney general Kamala Harris announced that she will indeed run for the US Senate. Our new US senator Kamala Harris! 3. America’s advocate Can you think of any laws that give government the power to make decisions about the male body? Um. I’m happy to answer a more specific question. That the government has the power to make a decision about a man's body? Oh. I thought you were asking about medical procedures that are unique to men. I can... I'll repeat the question. Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body? I’m not... I'm not thinking of any right now, Senator. Kamala Harris really thrives as a politician, and this makes sense in the context of her background, when she is the one asking the questions. They have not asked me to open an investigation, but... Perhaps they’ve suggested? I don’t know, I wouldn't say suggest... Hinted? I don't know. Inferred? You don't know. Okay. In your March 24th summary, you wrote that, quote, after reviewing the special counsel's final report... I will say that no one— Sir I'm asking a question. What a lot of Americans saw was a senator who just seemed exciting, who seemed willing to hold these men accountable, not let them kind of worm their way out of the questions she was asking. That was really important for Kamala Harris when she served on the Judiciary Committee. She knew how to turn conversations into really serious examinations and cross-examinations of the folks who were brought before the committee. Almost like a perfect recipe there for her to introduce a version of herself to folks who might not know her outside of California. I can— I do want you to be honest— I'm not able to be rushed this fast. It makes me nervous. I think the fact that those clips went viral shows that there's an appetite, right? She is positioning herself as America's advocate. You had donors just busting down her door after that, saying, you need to run for president. I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States. Her campaign announcement in Oakland, I think there were 20,000 people there. I mean, it was just sort of insane. Expectations had become so high for her after those moments. 4. 2020 Well, Senator Harris says she's proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she'll be a “prosecutor president.” But I'm deeply concerned about this record. The 2020 primary happened in a political moment where the energy on the left, among progressives, was very strong. The 2020 campaign was when her background as a prosecutor was really a liability. She tried to reposition herself as a “progressive prosecutor,” because that was sort of the hot fad. And it never quite fit. I am an advocate for what we need to do to not only decriminalize, but legalize marijuana in the United States— I want to, I want to— I would never have described Kamala Harris as a progressive. She called herself the “top cop” in San Francisco, and then later, when she was elected attorney general. Like, she used [that] language. You know, her career sort of predated this idea of what a “progressive prosecutor” is. She really had trouble packaging her background in law enforcement as palatable to the base. What you saw often was a candidate who just seemed to be trying to say what she thought would catch fire with the base at that point. Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan? A lot of Democratic voters didn't feel they were engaging with a candidate who maybe actually believed that. And people walked away not entirely sure what she believed. She ran out of money and she struggled to break through. Although I am no longer running for president, I will do everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump and fight for the future of our country. Joe Biden is officially the Democratic Party nominee for president. And I commit that I will, in fact pick a woman to be vice president. Post-summer 2020, we were in this George Floyd moment. Biden was talking about passing the torch, eventually, to a new generation of leaders. And the idea that he would be picking a Black woman, somebody who was younger than he was, suggested that he would be picking, essentially, an heir to the Democratic Party. I have no doubt that I picked the right person to join me as the next vice president of the United States of America, and that’s Senator Kamala Harris. And the road ahead will not be easy. But America is ready, and so are Joe and I. The first year-and-a-half of her vice presidency.... not great, to put it mildly. 5. Root causes We've been to the border. We've been to the border— You haven't been to the border. I... and I haven't been to Europe. She was given the assignment of leading diplomatic efforts with Mexico and some Central American countries to address root causes of migration to the southern border. This is a no-win issue. Especially early in a vice presidency. You know, what, Kamala Harris is going to solve El Salvador? Do not come. To the extent that there are even metrics to determine one’s success in this role, they're probably not going to become clear for another decade at best. She was definitely becoming a team player for the Biden administration, but she was also kind of turning her back on a lot of her previous platform, as a child of immigrants, but also as someone who had been a huge champion of immigration policy and immigration reform. And she gets interviewed by Lester Holt. One of the first major media interviews that she gave, really introducing herself to a lot of Americans for the first time. Very basic and anticipated questions such as, have you yourself been to the border yet? She could not seem to give a straight answer. I'm here in Guatemala today, I...at some point... In the aftermath of that, there were not a lot of major media appearances for her. That one interview became, sort of, the anchor that a lot of Americans had when it came to, what do you know about this person? 6. Overturn The difference, obviously, between now and 2020 is the Dobbs decision. The moment where the Kamala Harris that voters are seeing right now really started to come into being was in 2022, when the Dobbs decision leaked. A woman's right to abortion has been overturned and will lead to nearly total bans on the procedure in about half the states. The significance of that is profound in terms of what it means for the rights of individuals, and in particular for the right of an individual to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do. Through my reporting, what I found was that she was virtually the only major official in Washington who understood the salience of that issue. Suddenly, she sees for herself a role in this administration, being a spokesperson for the Biden White House on the issue of abortion. It's something that is very sincere to her beliefs. This is about people having the freedom to make the decision that is in their own best interest. I think that was hugely essential for her growth as a politician and just trusting her own instincts. In America, freedom is not to be given. It is ours by right. Now we're seeing her in more comfortable settings, especially in the last year. College tours, small businesses, talking about economic opportunity, loan cancellation, climate. And it's those kinds of forums where she really does shine. We are not going back. 7. We are not going back [CHEERING] The speech that she gave in Wisconsin was really interesting, where she almost stumbles into a new rallying cry for the campaign. The folks who were in that high school auditorium latched on to that line and started chanting it back to her. [CHANTING] We’re not going back! And she realizes in the moment that she has stumbled upon a new phrase. We’re not going back! It is specific enough to resonate with people, it’s general enough to not necessarily have to define it too carefully, it kind of describes not just her campaign, not just this moment, but can describe a little bit of just how spoiled and rotten the vibes were in the country before Biden dropped out, because it's an opportunity for a lot of folks to be re-inspired and reawakened. The word “authenticity” is often so fraught with racial and sexist undertones, but you look at the rallies, the talks that she's doing right now, this is a person who's having fun. I think the most important thing — [YELLING] I love you Kamala! — I love you back! That ease and confidence with which she is currently carrying herself is reflective of someone who knows that the story of her career, basically, is not a net negative for her. I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week. You've seen her kind of embrace her biography as a person, as a woman of color, and she's realized that her personal story is actually powerful and it helps her relate to people, and it helps voters relate to her. She's a complex woman who has complex ideas, and is very cautious, steady, not going to rock the boat a whole lot, and down the middle, a consensus person. [CHANTING] Kamala! Kamala! [CHANTING] Kamala! Kamala! Kamala! And I’ll tell you, on the subject of my mother, and I keep saying this, but it's true, you know, she said, since we were young, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last. Really quickly before you go, we have something we're excited to tell you about. Vox has launched a membership program. It's the best way to support our journalism. As a Vox member, you'll gain greater access to our award-winning newsroom and have your curiosity sparked by our new member-only benefits. Please consider becoming a member today. Go to vox.com/memberships to join.