The 59-year-old Vice President and 2024 presidential candidate sat down with host Alex Cooper to talk about key policy issues, reacted to claims made by her opponent Donald Trump and more.
Kamala Harris joined host Alex Cooper for a special guest appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast Sunday to talk all things policy as the 2024 presidential election nears.
The 59-year-old Vice President and 2024 presidential candidate sat down with Cooper, where the pair addressed claims made by her opponent, Donald Trump and his VP candidate, J.D. Vance, as well as Roe V. Wade and more.
During the interview, Harris hit back at some of the attacks on her character — including those childless cat lady comments — shared her plans for the country and revealed how she deals with doubt as she works towards becoming the country’s first female, Black and South Asian president.
TooFab has compiled the 5 biggest takeaways from Harris’ Call Her Daddy interview here.
1. Railing Against Trump’s “Protector of Women” Promise and His Claims About the Execution of Babies
During the sit-down, Harris railed against the reversal of Roe V. Wade, and the steps former president Trump did to make that happen, calling his promise to be the “protector” of women laughable.
“So he, who, when he was president, hand selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe V. Wade and they did just as he intended and there are now 20 states with Trump abortion bans, including bans that make no exceptions for rape or incest, which we just discussed, which means that you’re telling a survivor of a crime with a violation of their body, they don’t have a right to make a decision about what happens to their body next, which is immoral,” Harris said.
“So, this is the same guy that is now saying that, this is the same guy that said women should be punished for having abortions. This is the same guy who uses the same kind of language he does to describe women? So yeah, there you go.”
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She also shut down Trump’s claims that babies were being executed after birth in some states — a something he often cites as part of his reasoning behind wanting about abortion to be a a state-by-state issue.
“That is not happening anywhere in the United States. It’s a bold face lie. Just a boldfaced lie that he is suggesting. Can you imagine he’s suggesting that women in their ninth month of pregnancy are electing to have an abortion? Are you kidding?,” She said. “That is so outrageously inaccurate and it’s so insulting to suggest that that would be happening and that women would be doing that. It’s not happening anywhere. This guy is full of lies. I mean, I just have to be very candid with you.”
2. Detailing the Current Status of Abortion Access in the U.S. Following the Overturning of Roe V. Wade
Discussing the current state of abortion access in the U.S., Harris touched on how the policy in place impacts real people, with many women having to travel to other states to get an abortion after the reversal of Roe V. Wade made abortions illegal or nearly inaccessible in their respective states.
“On public policy I often tell my team, look, I don’t want to hear about public policy, it’s a fancy kind of speech or paper. Tell me how it will affect a real person. So let’s talk about how it will affect a real person. The majority of women who receive abortion care are mothers. So, if she is in a state, and by the way, every state in the south except for Virginia, has an abortion ban,” she explained.
“So imagine she is in a state with an abortion ban (1 out of 3 women in our country are, by the way) and she’s a mom. So she is going to have to figure out one, god help her if she has affordable childcare, god help her if she has paid leave, and then she is going to have to, go to the airport, stand in a TSA line, sit on a plane next to a perfect stranger, to go to a city where she has never been, to receive the care she needs.”
Harris continued, “She’s going to have to probably get right back on that plane because she’s got those kids. Her best friend’s probably not with her because that’s who is taking care of the kids. To get back in that TSA lane, to get back on a plane to go home.”
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That’s all if, Cooper aptly pointed out, the woman in question can afford the plane ticket or the bus ride to access this care.
Harris continued to hammer home that no matter what your religious belief or moral standpoint, the government shouldn’t be the ones in charge of making decisions about a woman’s body.
“Here is the thing, you don’t have to abandon your faith or deeply held beliefs to agree, the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do. If she chooses, she’ll talk to her priest, her pastor, her rabbi, her imam, but not the government telling you what to do and that’s what is so outrageous about it,” Harris said. “A bunch of these guys up in these state capitals are writing these decisions because they somehow have decided that they are in a better position to tell you what’s in your best interest than you are to know what’s in your own best interest. It’s outrageous.”
3. Addressing J.D. Vance and Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Comments About Her Not Having Children
Cooper later brought up the criticisms leveled at the VP for not having children.
Sharing a quote by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders that read: “My kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble,” Cooper asked Harris for her response when Sanders and others like J.D. Vance take shot at the fact that she doesn’t have any children of her own.
“I feel sorry for her and I’m going to tell you why because I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who one, are not aspiring to be humble, two, a whole lot of women out here, who have a lot of love in their life, family in their life, and children in their life and I think it’s very important for women to lift each other up,” Harris, who shares step-children Cole and Ella with husband Doug Emhoff, said.
“One of the things that I have really enjoyed about where the discussion has gone, one of the places it’s gone is about, I feel very strongly, we each have our family by blood and then we have our family by love. And I have both. And I consider it to be a real blessing. And I have two beautiful children: Cole and Ella, who call me ‘Mamala,’ we have a very modern family, my husband’s ex-wife is a friend of mine.”
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She continued, “And also I’ll tell you, look, I’m a child of divorced parents, and when I started dating Doug, my husband, I was very thoughtful and sensitive to making sure that until I knew that our relationship was something that was going to be real, I didn’t want to form a relationship with the kids and then walk away from that relationship. My own experience tells me that children form attachments and I wanted to be thoughtful about it. So I waited to meet the kids and they are my children and I love those kids to death.”
“Family comes in many forms and I think that increasingly, all of us understand that this is not the 1950’s anymore,” Harris added. “Families come in all shapes or forms and they are family nonetheless.”
Addressing the now-viral “childless cat lady comments” Vance made when referencing women in this country who have not had children, Harris called them “mean and mean-spirited.”
“And I think that most Americans want leaders who understand that the measure of their strength is not based on who you beat down, the real measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up,” she added.
4. Her Plans for the Future, Helping Young People Financially and Expanding Student Loan Forgiveness
In addition to reproductive rights and the safety of women in America, Harris also addressed the growing financial crisis, especially in regards to young people and their ability to get ahead financially in this country — with many unable to buy a home, pay off loans and hit major benchmarks their parents did at the same age, some 30, 40 years ago.
“First of all, it’d a very real issue and we need to take it seriously and I do take it very seriously. So there are a number of issues that contribute to that feeling. One is housing is too expensive and we need to increase the housing supply, so part of my plan is to work with home builders in the private sector to create tax incentives to build by the end of my first term 3 million more housing units. Second piece is $25,000 down payment assistance for first time home buyers because a big issue in terms of the barrier to being a homeowner is just having enough to actually put that down payment down, to get your foot in the door,” Harris explained.
“The other piece of it is we need to give tax credits and really understand that middle class and working people need a break and so part of my plan is to give 100 million more people who basically are middle class, working people tax cuts, including for young parents, a $6,000 tax cut for the first year of their child’s life, which helps them buy a crib or a car seat or clothing and just get through that first year which is such an important and critical stage of their child’s development.”
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Part of that plan includes fighting for student loan debt, so that the younger generation drowning in debt can have the means to do things like buy house, start a business and more.
“We are fighting and I’m going to continue to fight for student debt relief. I mean, student loan debt is a huge issue and to your point, it’s a barrier to people being able to even think about starting a family, buying a home, and we just need to give people relief,” she continued. “Part of the work that we’ve done, when I’ve been Vice President, is to forgive student loan debt for millions of people by this point, I think over 5 million, including doubling the amount of student loan forgiveness for public servants like nurses and teachers and firefighters, but we have to do more.”
Harris added, “Debt is a big issue. The other piece I’ve been pushing for is helping people in terms of medical debt not being on their credit score because you know, if you rack up debt because you have medical bills and it can be used against your credit score which is going to impact your ability to get an apartment lease or a car loan or a small business loan.”
5. Dealing With Doubt and Attacks to Her Character
With doubt coming from every corner as Harris works to break more glass ceilings by becoming the first female president and the first female Black and South Asian president, the VP said the biggest advice she uses herself and implores others to take on is “don’t hear no.”
“So, I have been told that many times. And through the course of my career, I’ve been told you know, at one point, you’re too young. I’ve been told, no one like you has ever done that before, oh they’re not ready for you, oh (and this is the one that kills me) it’s going to be a lot of hard work. Right, as though we don’t like hard work,” Harris began. “And here is my response: I don’t hear no. I don’t hear no. And I urge all of the daddy gang, don’t hear no. Just don’t hear it.”
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When it comes to attacks on her character — par for the course in an election as contentious as this one, Harris said she tries not to let others define her.
“I think it’s really important not to let other people define you. And usually those people who will attempt to do it don’t know you,” she maintained.
