Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris recently sat down for the traditional presidential election “60 Minutes” interview. CBS interviewer Norah O’Donnell went in hard with questions about Harris’s political identity, Newsweek reported.
O’Donnell questioned Harris about her “socialist or progressive perspective.” The question came after President Donald Trump roared at a recent Florida rally that America would never have a socialist president, especially “a woman”.
O’Donnell said to Harris during their sit-down interview, “You’re very different in the policies that you’ve supported in the past. You’re considered the most liberal U.S. senator.
Harris replied with a laugh, “Somebody said that and it actually was Mike Pence on the debate stage.”
But O’Donnell persisted, “Yeah. Well, actually, the nonpartisan GovTrack has rated you as the most liberal senator. You supported the Green New Deal, you supported Medicare for All. You’ve supported legalizing marijuana. Joe Biden doesn’t support those things. So are you gonna bring the policies, those progressive policies that you supported as senator, into a Biden administration?”
Harris answered, “What I will do, and I promise you this — and this is what Joe wants me to do, this was part of our deal — I will always share with him my lived experience as it relates to any issue that we confront. And I promised Joe that I will give him that perspective and always be honest with him.”
But when O’Donnell asked if Harris had a “socialist or progressive perspective,” Harris burst out laughing.
“No. No. It is the perspective of a woman who grew up a Black child in America, who was also a prosecutor, who also has a mother who arrived here at the age of 19 from India. Who also likes hip hop (laugh). Like, what do you want to know?” Harris replied.
Of course, Harris’s laughter prompted a round of memes and Twitter posts.
One person tweeted, “Great answer Senator Harris to a ridiculous question. Trump is a liar and he doesn’t have any right to define a Biden Harris administration.”
Another user posted, “Shame on @60Minutes, and especially Nora O’Donnell. They tried to appease Trump by being hostile to Biden/Harris. Fortunately, Biden & Harris were professional enough to answer all the questions with the dignity that they will bring to the office.”
“60 Minutes” promoted the interview via Twitter, tweeting, “If elected, would Kamala Harris advocate for Medicare for All, a plan Joe Biden doesn’t support? ‘I would not have joined the ticket if I didn’t support what Joe was proposing,’ says Senator Harris.”
“Seriously… the media ignored Kamala’s policies for the entire primary & now are adopting Donald Trump’s fear-mongering framework for her record,” a Twitter user said. “Kamala supports Joe’s plan of building on the ACA with a public option, to eventually get to universal healthcare. PeriodT.”
During the “6o Minutes” interview, Harris discussed her ethnic background. She was the first woman and first Black person to become district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California. She’s also the second Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, CBS reported.
O’Donnell asked Harris, “Do you think having the first woman of color, the first woman, as vice president may change things?”
“I do,” Harris replied. “It helps change the perception of who can do what because that is still part of the battle after all. And you imagine some young person then seeing, ‘Oh, things can be different. I don’t have to conform to whatever I’m supposed to do or relegated to do. I can imagine what can be and be unburdened by what has been.'”
Harris wasn’t the only one to discuss race on “60 Minutes.” Presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden spoke of racial injustices and the need for “revolutionary, institutional changes.”
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“I think we have to fundamentally change the way in which we deal with institutional racism,” Biden told “60 Minutes.”
“For example– one of the hardest things, beyond police issues, there’s the issue of accumulation of wealth. There’s an awful lot of Black Americans who are equally as– they’re as qualified as white Americans based on the same status they’re in in terms of economic opportunity but they don’t get a chance,” Biden said. “So, for example, if we just made every corporation pay minimum 15 percent tax … That raises over $400 billion. I can send every single qualified person to a four-year college in their state for $150 billion. I can make sure every single person who qualifies community college can go and we still have a lot of money left over. That’s what I mean by significant institutional changes.”
