Kamala Harris with Roland Martin | October 14, 2024

 Auto-transcribed on Wednesday, October 23, 2024.media and text playback available on this page: https://aliceapp.ai/recordings/kl0pB1NcIn_7Y9ajiTOVCsLbS6UHFW8h

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Words: 	5,349 	
Duration: 	00:31:40 	
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Uploaded on: 	2024-10-23 02:05:21 UTC 	
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Speakers:

 Roland Martin - 27.69%

 Kamala Harris - 72.31%

Notes:

Summary by ChatGPT- Public policy impact on Black Americans: Kamala Harris explains that economic policies addressing historical barriers for Black communities also benefit everyone, as seen with Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.- Housing affordability and discrimination: Harris emphasizes the importance of addressing racial bias in home appraisals and supports first-time homebuyers through down payment assistance and incentives for building more homes.- Small business support: Harris advocates for increasing tax deductions for small businesses, especially in Black communities, to foster economic growth and opportunity.- Corporate tax and middle-class relief: Harris supports increasing corporate taxes but promises no tax hikes for those earning less than $400,000, focusing instead on middle-class tax cuts.- Voter suppression and rights: Harris discusses ongoing efforts to suppress Black voters, urging people to overcome barriers and vote, highlighting the significance of protecting voting rights in upcoming elections.

[00:00:00]  Roland Martin 
Vice President Roman Martin here. Ready to bring the funk?

[00:00:03]  Kamala Harris 
I'm trying, I'm trying.

[00:00:06]  Roland Martin 
Let's get right to it. Right before I walked out there, someone posted a clip and usually this the clip. I'm not going to sit here and say I'm gonna do anything specifically for African Americans, but folk don't talk about what you said right before when you said that public policy that benefits black folks if it benefits everybody else.

[00:00:22]  Kamala Harris 
Right.

[00:00:23]  Roland Martin 
Even we look at historically Civil Rights act, uh, Voting Rights act, it actually didn't just impact African Americans, it impacted everyone else. But, but talk about that because so many people have only clipped that one part without understanding the public policy implications.

[00:00:35]  Kamala Harris 
That's too bad. That's too bad. I'm sorry to hear that. Right. So you know that, that, I mean going back even before, but Dr. King was very clear, right? If you have certain policies that recognize one that not everybody starts out on the same base. If you have public policy, and I'm, um, talking about economic public policy specifically at this point, but if you have public policy that recognizes historical barriers, um, and what we need to do then to overcome first to speak truth about them and then overcome them, that in the process of doing that, not only are you directly dealing with the injustices and the legal and procedural barriers that have been focused on black folks, but by eliminating those barriers, everyone actually benefits.

[00:01:24]   
Right. Uh, and I know that to be true. So my policies include what I know is going to have, uh, a, ah, profound impact on black folks around economic policy. But everyone will benefit from them. I intend to create as president what I have named an opportunity economy that taps into the ambitions and the aspirations and the dreams of the American people and then addresses those in a way that recognizes, unlike my opponent who was handed $400 million on a silver platter and then filed bankruptcy six times, not everyone has access to those kinds of resources.

[00:02:01]   
But when you give people access to those resources, they thrive and we all benefit. Opportunity economy. That's why I say I'm going to make sure that we give first time home buyers with $25,000 down payment assistance. Because again, we know that when you look at the history of how black folks have been denied the opportunity for homeownership, be it redlining or what we know has still been happening around bias in home appraisals, that it is a barrier to achieving intergenerational success.

[00:02:38]   
But when we address it by doing things like helping folks get their foot in the door with the down payment assistance, they will have the ability to be on that track of intergenerational wealth building. My plan for extending and expanding the child tax credit. $6,000 for the first year of a child's life.

[00:02:57]   
Because our parents, just like any parent, have a natural desire to parent their children well, but not always the resources to do that. So $6,000 in the first year of your child's life helps you buy that car seat or crib where the clothes that are necessary to, to build the foundation for that important phase of their development.

[00:03:17]   
I want to do it gets them on the right track.

[00:03:19]  Roland Martin 
I do want to do the housing piece because what I think is not being talked about. Uh, the building of new housing stock.

[00:03:24]  Kamala Harris 
Yes.

[00:03:25]  Roland Martin 
Uh, and so because of the home foreclosure crisis.

[00:03:28]  Kamala Harris 
Yeah.

[00:03:29]  Roland Martin 
We literally built under 9 or 10 million homes in 20. 20, 20. We're underbuilt now as well. The fewest homes being built since the 1940s.

[00:03:38]  Kamala Harris 
Yes.

[00:03:39]  Roland Martin 
So that's a huge part of this problem with, uh, housing is that we don't have the stock. So talk about that piece there, because you got demand, but you don't actually have right now available homes.

[00:03:49]  Kamala Harris 
So. And I'm glad you actually presented the point the way you did because let's also go back to what you know, in my history on this in terms of being Attorney General, when I took on the big banks and because they were doing predatory lending. And a lot of the folks who were targeted with that predatory lending were black folks who are being told, oh, you don't need to worry about it.

[00:04:09]   
You're going to get, we're going to give you this money. And so you can buy a home without actually doing the analysis to figure out if they'd be able to afford to pay it back. Right. And folks trusted the banks that if you're going to loan me the money, then you must have determined I have the ability to actually be able to see it through.

[00:04:26]   
And the foreclosure rates for black homeowners.

[00:04:30]  Roland Martin 
During that crisis, 53% of Black wealth wiped out.

[00:04:33]  Kamala Harris 
That's exactly right. Roland and I took on and sued the big banks and ended up delivering $20 billion for the homeowners of California. The former President Obama recently mentioned the fact that I actually took on the Department of Justice and the administration saying, I'm not going to do a deal that brings crumbs to the table.

[00:04:53]  Roland Martin 
But not just when you're Attorney General, because even right now, the DOJ Civil Rights Division, the redlining lawsuits, mortgage discrimination.

[00:05:01]  Kamala Harris 
We have been taking all of it. Mortgage discrimination, also discrimination in home appraisals. We've taken on the fact that, you know, those stories about a black family is trying to get their home appraised. They want to get a second mortgage, they want to sell the house, whatever, and they bring in the appraiser.

[00:05:16]   
The appraiser looks around, looks at the family pictures, and appraises it for less than it's worth. The family knows that they're not stupid.

[00:05:22]  Roland Martin 
The black folks got to remove photos.

[00:05:24]  Kamala Harris 
So then they remove photos and everything else. Right? They remove all the strip, all the blackness, all of that. And then they ask, uh, uh, a, uh, white family that's a friend of theirs come in, they put up their pictures, and the house gets appraised for more racial bias. We're taking that on for the first time.

[00:05:40]   
And I want to give due credit to former secretary of hud, Marsha Fudge, for being a leader on that. These are the things we've taken on. And as president, to your point about supply, I'm going to create tax incentives for homebuilders and developers to build 3 million new housing units by the end of my first term.

[00:05:58]   
Because a big part of jacking up, uh, the prices has been there's low, the supply is not meeting demand, so the prices are higher. And when you couple that with $25,000 down payment assistance, we have the ability to give people the opportunity to achieve what generations before called the American dream, but which has been out of reach for too many people.

[00:06:21]   
My work around thinking about how it's going to directly impact black folks is knowing that when you look at racial bias in home appraisals, when you look at the, um, disproportionate rates of black home ownership to other people having home ownership, it's too low. And it's not because we don't aspire to have a home or buy a home.

[00:06:41]   
My work is about looking at small businesses, knowing they're the backbone of our economy, in the neighborhood, in communities, and giving folks an extension of a, uh, tax deduction. So it's not just $5,000 for a startup small business, but $50,000, because nobody can start up a small business on $5,000.

[00:07:00]  Roland Martin 
I'm glad you mentioned small business. I was talking to a black restaurant own, Houston, and we were talking about the corporate tax rate. And one of the things that he said was, he said, listen, I'm looking at her proposal. I'm looking at what was the place beforehand. He said, because when it got cut, it puts $500,000 in my pocket.

[00:07:18]   
Yeah, um, when I was In Georgia, um, Senator Warnocks Campaign 2022, a Black woman said, hey, she said, I get reproductive rights. She said, I'm not having any kids, but I do care about taxes. And so that's one of the things that I'm hearing from number of African American business owners who are saying, okay, what will vice president do if she's president?

[00:07:40]   
Deal with corporate tax rate. And so you talked about increasing it. Does it? But will that mean a certain cap? So let's save you 50 million, 100 million revenue, uh, or less. Will that go up or will that corporate tax rate apply to all, all businesses?

[00:07:54]  Kamala Harris 
So first of all, the corporate tax rate years ago was in the 30s. So I'm not doing that. But in terms of tax cuts for middle class families, my agenda is all about tax cuts for middle class families and no tax rate hike for anybody making less than $400,000 a year. But my approach is also about giving 100 million Americans a tax cut in terms of middle class tax cuts.

[00:08:19]   
Donald Trump, on the other hand, first of all, like he did before, he will do again and has pretty much pledged that he will give a tax cut for billionaires and the biggest corporations. Donald Trump has indicated that basically what I call a Trump sales tax will be in place, which is a 20% tax on everyday goods and services, which economists have estimated will cost the average American family $4,000 more a year.

[00:08:43]   
Goldman Sachs, including the small businesses. Of course, including small businesses. Not to mention what he is doing. If you look at Project 2025, what they're proposing in terms of cutting off, for example, we see Hurricane Helene, what we have seen happen in terms of Milton, cutting off the SBA ability to give small businesses that have experienced an extreme weather event a disaster, giving them, um, additional resources.

[00:09:09]   
This man don't want to help small businesses. He cares about the kinds of people who run the businesses he runs, big developers, billionaires. He's not looking out for middle class folks. You look at what he is proposing in terms of cutting. If you look at the cost that middle class families bear, healthcare costs, we have capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors.

[00:09:33]   
Black folks are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes under Project 2025, they would undo that $35 cap. You look at what he is planning to do, that is about undoing, getting rid of the Department of Education and Head Start programs. Who do you think that's going to affect? So there is first of all a danger in terms of understanding there are two choices in this Election and understanding what Donald Trump intends for middle class families.

[00:10:04]   
Two, look at it in the context of how he actually thinks and talks about black folks in America. And you and I have talked about this before. He is not looking out for folks. When he was a landlord and would not rent to black families sued for it when he took out a full page ad in the New York Times against those five teenagers, black and Latinos, who were innocent, saying they should be executed.

[00:10:36]   
The Central Park 5. When you look at the first black president of the United States and he had birther lines, and now you look at black immigrants, legal immigrants, in Springfield, Ohio, and he gets on a debate stage and says they're eating their pets. Come on, this man is dangerous. Not to mention Roland, let's fast forward to right now.

[00:11:01]   
He, his staff won't let him do a 60 Minutes interview. Every president for the last half century has done one. Anyone who's running for president, everyone has done it except Donald Trump. He will not debate me again. I, uh, put out my medical records. He won't put out, uh, his medical records. And you have to ask why is his staff doing that?

[00:11:24]   
And it may be because they think he's just not ready and unfit and unstable and should not have that level of transparency for the American people. There's a real choice in this election.

[00:11:36]  Roland Martin 
You mentioned Department of Education, uh, I was on a call a couple weeks ago, Jeffrey Canada, Steve Perry, Jalen Rose and others, um, who are supporters of school choice, parental choice. And what they've complained about is that you haven't heard a lot about education, um, in the last several months. They were talking about these educational outcomes of African Americans post Covid, and they said the numbers are depressing, it's bad.

[00:12:01]   
In terms of your focus with education, one, uh, do you support public charters? Do you support, uh, again, uh, how do we deal with those numbers? Because at the end of the day, if our kids are staying behind, that's just going to make it even more difficult for them when it comes to getting jobs.

[00:12:19]   
Uh, and so, uh, that education plan for America, your president.

[00:12:24]  Kamala Harris 
So I have supported public charters. But here's the thing that we have to just focus on in this election. First of all, Donald Trump would get rid of the Department of Education, which means that as a vehicle for funding a lot of what we need to do around public education for our children, um, it would mean get rid of Head Start.

[00:12:47]   
And we know how many of our children have benefited from that in the earliest stages of their development, which are the most critical to them. Being able to be successful as they go through the educational process. So there is a huge contrast between me and him. And frankly, I don't think he wants to talk about education, which is why it has not become an issue on the debate stage because he doesn't have a plan.

[00:13:09]   
Which takes me back to a fundamental point. He doesn't have a plan for much of anything. That is about the people who are going to be watching this interview. I invite everyone always and again, watch his rallies. He will talk full time about himself, he will talk about his personal grievances, and he will not talk about you and any plan that he has for you or your children or your future.

[00:13:33]  Roland Martin 
How does that make you feel when he trashes black Cities? So in 2020 he talked about voting in Fulton County, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, uh, there was a partial recount of Wisconsin, only in Milwaukee. The comments that he just made about Detroit, uh, basically being a living hell.

[00:13:51]  Kamala Harris 
Uh, and uh, Oakland, D.C., Chicago.

[00:13:54]  Roland Martin 
Pretty damn come on.

[00:13:56]  Kamala Harris 
Come on.

[00:13:57]  Roland Martin 
Pretty good damn ad. Y'all dropped out. I actually liked it. Uh, Jamil Hill and I talked about it, but uh, again he's singling out cities where there are significant African Americans and that's who he's talking about. Black people.

[00:14:10]  Kamala Harris 
Yes, yes. Uh, you know, there's this whole. I talked with somebody once who said, you know, if you just look at where the stars are in the sky, don't look at them as just random things. If you just look at them as points, look at the constellation. What does it show you? So you just outlined it, Roland.

[00:14:32]   
What does it show you? That the cities that he picks on in terms of black population or black mayor are both.

[00:14:43]  Roland Martin 
Come on, we're in North Carolina and this has been a battleground over voting rights. Federal judges eight years ago said there was laser like precision targeting African Americans. Yes, um, that is still a major issue. You got a Supreme Court with their decision regarding Section 2, Section 4, Voting Rights Act. And so, uh, what if Congress doesn't move?

[00:15:08]   
What can you do to shore uh, that up? Because that continues to be a, uh, major issue. And with so many African Americans now moving from northern locations of Midwest back to the south, we're seeing these problems in Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, uh, Texas and others.

[00:15:25]  Kamala Harris 
Well, to your point, you mentioned North Carolina, which has been well documented. Um, you look at, uh, even though I must say that North Carolina has a governor and a Roy Cooper who has tried to do everything he can to ensure that voting rights are intact, but he does not have a veto proof majority in the state House Dim.

[00:15:44]  Roland Martin 
Has lost the Supreme Court as well.

[00:15:45]  Kamala Harris 
So, well, and so, you know, I think that we should all, whoever's in North Carolina watching this, Josh Stein running for governor, it's going to be very important, pay attention to those state House races because those, if there is a, uh, if they can change the balance in the state house, then they will be able to push through more protections for voting rights.

[00:16:05]   
But to your point, in Georgia they passed a law preventing people from giving food and water to folks who are standing in line to vote, which is the height of hypocrisy because you know what happened to love thy neighbor, right? There is a full on intent by some to attack hard fought, hard won freedoms and rights, including the right to vote.

[00:16:24]   
And part of it, if you track it, is if you look at the successes that we had in particular in 2020 and in the height of a pandemic, when people just said they were going to vote, they knew and they understood how important it was thereafter. You saw in state after state attempts by state legislatures to make it more difficult for people to vote.

[00:16:47]   
And here's what I would say to your listeners. Don't let anybody take you out the game. There is an intent to make it more difficult. There is an intent to suggest to a lot of folks that their vote won't matter with the intention that people will not vote, which is an attempt to silence folks.

[00:17:10]   
And what we know is the greatest progress we have achieved is when we jump over those obstacles that have been purposely laid to do what we know is about progress. And this election is going to be no different. They've already started with the misinformation and the lies. We know that there is foreign interference.

[00:17:31]   
And I have to say to everybody listening to this, don't let them take your voice. Because I was part of the Senate Intelligence Committee when we investigated Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Black folks were targeted with misinformation because there was an assumption that you're already targeting a group of people who already have learned based on a lived experience, that things aren't necessarily designed to work for them and manipulate that in a way that suggests to people that their vote won't matter because if you do that, they won't vote.

[00:18:12]   
That was the intention.

[00:18:14]  Roland Martin 
You said, don't let them take you out of the game. What do you say to a young black woman, a young black man out there who is seriously considering the couch, who says my vote doesn't matter, who says that I have not seen policies that have changed my life uh, because that's there, uh, that thought process is there.

[00:18:37]   
Folks 65 and older vote the highest, but as you keep going down, as you get number, that number just goes even lower and lower and lower. So what do you say that that young brother sister is watching why they should vote, but why they should trust you to be the 47th president.

[00:18:53]  Kamala Harris 
So first of all, your vote does matter. It is because folks voted that we have capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month. That we are on the path to doing what I intend to do, saying that your medical debt cannot be on your credit score, putting $16 billion in HBCUs, having the lowest black unemployment in recent history.

[00:19:16]   
The work that we have done that has been about investing in black businesses. The work that we have done that has been about understanding the importance of having representation at every level, including a black woman on the United States Supreme Court for the first time, is because people voted and demanded that. And the reality of how this system works is that we each have many ways that we are powerful.

[00:19:43]   
And one of those ways, very significantly is through our vote. People sit down and they'll watch and say, okay, well those folks aren't going to vote anyway. I don't need to listen to them. That's how this works. I don't feel that way. I'm going to go everywhere. That's why I'm in rural parts of North Carolina and Georgia and other places where people say, oh, your votes aren't there, but my people are there.

[00:20:05]   
People are there.

[00:20:06]  Roland Martin 
That's how Obama won the state in 08 14,100.

[00:20:09]  Kamala Harris 
The point is that I'm saying that not everyone and the system doesn't necessarily work that way.

[00:20:14]  Roland Martin 
Mhm.

[00:20:15]  Kamala Harris 
The hard reality of the system is that often the people whose policies get pushed through are the people who actually demand what they want through their vote.

[00:20:25]  Roland Martin 
Squeaky Will gets the most grease.

[00:20:27]  Kamala Harris 
Often, often that is the way it works. And when, when people who are, and I'm not talking about myself, just anybody who's running for office, when they see young black people are voting, they're going to say, well I better know they're going to vote anyway. I better know what they want. I better listen to them, what do they want?

[00:20:47]   
Because I see that they turn out in big numbers.

[00:20:53]  Roland Martin 
Criminal justice, one of the things I keep hearing Biden Harris administration didn't get George Floyd justice act passed through. But what you have though is a very aggressive civil rights division that and I've covered all the stories. The number of former police officers they've actually sent to prison corrections officers, jailers. And I haven't heard some of the.

[00:21:13]  Kamala Harris 
Highest numbers in recent history. And certainly compare those numbers to Trump administration. Well, and you see a stark difference.

[00:21:21]  Roland Martin 
Yeah, he had one pattern practice investigation that 12 under this deal.

[00:21:24]  Kamala Harris 
Exactly right.

[00:21:25]  Roland Martin 
Uh, will you continue having that aggressive of a doj Civil rights Rights division? Because the work that's being done, I mean, it doesn't get a lot of attention and it talked about a lot, but it is actually happening. The work that Kristen Clark and others.

[00:21:38]  Kamala Harris 
Are doing, they're doing extraordinary work. And that is the work that would continue in a Harris administration. Let me tell you something. And again, because, Roland, I have to keep stressing not only the importance of every point, but the contrast between me and Donald Trump. Under Donald Trump as president, those cases were not happening with any vigor or commitment.

[00:22:00]   
And not only that, he took resources out of the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice. We put resources into the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice so they could do the job they're supposed to do. And that absolutely would continue under me and my leadership. And it's about looking at what people have done, what they say.

[00:22:23]   
Again, you know, the record of Donald Trump on these issues, you know, the record of where he is on things like stop and frisk. Right. And what the Project 2025 talks about. So there is a real contrast here on criminal justice, as there is on almost every issue that we have discussed.

[00:22:41]  Roland Martin 
FBI director said white domestic terrorism was a greatest threat. How do you get folks who are not black to understand that hate crimes are still real? These things are actually happening in the country, uh, and they have to be dealt with and addressed. Because when you talk about that, folks go, oh, no, these things are not happening.

[00:23:01]   
But the reality is they are. And African Americans still are number one when it comes to hate crimes, uh, being reported against us.

[00:23:08]  Kamala Harris 
Well, and I know that because I published the hate crimes report every year when I was Attorney General of California. And it is to your point about talking about it and making people clear that we have actually seen a spike in hate crimes across the board. And it does not help when you have somebody who is a former president and running to be president again, who is constantly fanning the flames of hate and division in our country.

[00:23:35]   
Constantly.

[00:23:38]  Roland Martin 
You often asked about Israel, Gaza, Ukraine. I never hear come up conversations about Africa. Uh, you travel there. Fastest growing, six of the top 10 fastest growing economies, very young continent. Uh, a lot of folks, uh, complain about Chinese investment. But in terms of if your presidency dealing with the continent in those countries, what would that look like?

[00:24:00]   
Because that's the future of this world. When you look at, again, those economies, and I've been to several countries and those presidents are saying, hey, we want to be able to.

[00:24:11]  Kamala Harris 
You came with me. Come on. Now.

[00:24:14]  Roland Martin 
I didn't go that trip, but if you win, I'll go on the next one.

[00:24:18]  Kamala Harris 
Well, let me tell you. So this has been. You're preaching to the choir. I've been, uh, listen, I believe so strongly, and that is part of the work I've done as vice president, that we've got to change the narrative around the relationship between the United States and the continent of Africa. For a long time, it has been one that has been about aid, as opposed to partnership or investment.

[00:24:47]   
Right, Partnership, uh, which includes U.S. investment. So the work I've done as vice president has been to begin to change that relationship. And including the delegation that I took to the continent, which was focused on, I brought billions of dollars and have worked on billions of dollars of US Investment in the continent and in countries on the continent of Africa, looking at what we need to do around.

[00:25:16]   
Also, I've been partnering with technology companies around digital inclusion, so ensuring that folks have access to fintech, to financial banking and sectors. But to your point, the median age on the continent is 19. By 2050, one in four people on Earth will be on the continent of Africa. That is so, so, so exciting if we see it in terms of global policy, for the opportunity it presents to invest in partnership and to do the work that is about understanding the mutual benefit.

[00:25:54]   
So that is very much on my agenda as a priority. It has been as vice president, and it will continue to be, um, if I am, and when I am elected.

[00:26:02]  Roland Martin 
President, I mentioned those countries. When we talk about immigration, it has been African Americans in some quarters, extremely contentious. And I've said, wait a minute, there are people who are coming from African agents who are coming from, uh, Haiti, who are coming from Bermuda, uh, who are coming from different countries. And you have these battles happening in Chicago and New York.

[00:26:27]   
What do you say to African Americans specifically about immigration? And, um, how are you going to deal with that? Uh, because those are reasons folks are being sent to various cities to create the tension. Uh, but, but it's talked about. It's there. It is, it is a real concern. So what do you say to African Americans specifically who say, shut it all down, folks can't come in, close the border, who sound in many ways like MAGA folks.

[00:26:58]  Kamala Harris 
So, first of all, I have prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs, and human beings. I have had a career, including now, of prioritizing that we must have a secure border. And in fact, on the issue of immigration, let's be clear. Some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress, together with others, had a bill to secure the border even more.

[00:27:30]   
And Donald Trump got wind of it, and because he thought it would hurt his political chances in this election, told him not to put it up for a vote. He killed the bill that would have put 1,500 more border agents at the border, which is why the border agent union, uh, supported it.

[00:27:47]   
That bill would have stemmed the flow of fentanyl, which is affecting people of every race and background and geographic location in our country. That bill would have given more resources to prosecute transnational criminal organizations. Donald Trump told him, cancel that bill because he wants to run on a problem instead of fix a problem.

[00:28:07]   
I'm about fixing problems, and that includes, when I am elected president, bringing back up that border security bill, and I will sign it into law. We also must have an immigration system that is humane and orderly. We have to increase the number of asylum judges. We need to make sure that people who are fleeing harm, that we give them a chance to explain their situation in a meaningful way.

[00:28:38]   
Because America also is a place that we have said we will receive people who are fleeing persecution. They got to make their case, and then they got to be on a path where they earn the right to be here and become citizens, which means we need to have a comprehensive immigration policy that includes requiring people to earn and work hard to earn their citizenship.

[00:29:07]  Roland Martin 
The last question, since your folks are dancing back here, so I see them all in my periphery, so y'all can relax. Cedric, um.

[00:29:16]  Kamala Harris 
Congressman, huh?

[00:29:17]  Roland Martin 
Well, you know, he's a Saints fan, too, but we won't talk about that. Um, why do you want this? Why do you want to be president? Um, there's somebody who's saying, why should I trust her with the power of being commander in chief?

[00:29:35]  Kamala Harris 
I love our country, Roland. I believe. I believe in the American people. And I know we are people who have the character that have ambition, that have aspirations and dreams. And I intend to be a president who meets people with opportunities for them to not just get by, but get ahead. I believe in our country and the importance of its strength in terms of what that means to the world.

[00:30:09]   
As vice President of the United States, I have met over 150 world leaders, presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, and kings. I know the importance of America retaining respect as a power around the globe. And that's why I am putting in the hard work of working to earn every person's vote so we can actually turn the page on what has been otherwise.

[00:30:43]   
Years of an attempt to divide us as a nation, to have Americans point their fingers at each other, years of belittling people and promoting fear. People are exhausted with that, ready to turn the page. They're ready for a new generation of leadership that's about charting a new way forward. And that's what I intend to do with a sense of optimism and being clear eyed about the challenges that folks face and the opportunities that we have to address those challenges in a way that strengthens our nation.

[00:31:20]  Roland Martin 
I will surely appreciate it. And let me wish you, uh, a happy early birthday.

[00:31:24]  Kamala Harris 
Thank you.

[00:31:25]  Roland Martin 
I'm not going to say the age because I'm not trying to have all these sisters get an attitude. I can't believe you did that.

[00:31:29]  Kamala Harris 
But, you know, for your well being, I would advise you not to do that.

[00:31:35]  Roland Martin 
But it'll be published anyway, so we appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

[00:31:38]  Kamala Harris 
I appreciate you. Thank you.