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Harris: "A Crying Shame" Children Are Afraid To Go To School In Springfield, Ohio Because Of False Rumors Against Immigrants; Vp Harris Speaks To National Association Of Black Journalists; Harris: "In A Democracy, There Is No Place For Political Violence"; Harris: Spoke To Trump On Phone "To See If He Was Okay". Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 17, 2024 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Out a full-page ad in The New York Times against five innocent black and Latino teenagers, The Central Park Five, calling for their execution? Whether it is referring to the first black president of the United States with a lie, birther lies?

And look, the American people deserve and I do believe want better than this. I do believe that. I know, I know the vast majority of us as Americans know we have so much more in common than what separates us. I know that. I know that regardless of someone's background, their race, their gender, their geographic location, I know that people are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio. And it's got to stop.

And we've got to say that you cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the President of the United States of America, engaging in that hateful rhetoric that, as usual, is designed to divide us as a country, is designed to have people pointing fingers at each other. It's designed to do that.

And I think most people in our country, regardless of their race, are starting to see through this nonsense and to say, you know what, let's turn the page on this. This is exhausting and it's harmful, and it's hateful, and grounded in some age-old stuff that we should not have the tolerance for. So let's turn the page and chart a new way forward and say you can't have that microphone again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Madam Vice President, I'm switching gears again.

HARRIS: Okay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A quick question, I want to talk to you about gun control. So you've said you support an assault weapons ban and universal background checks. And we actually learned during the debate that you are a gun owner.

HARRIS: Mm-hmm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But in cities like Philadelphia, handguns are responsible for most homicides and violent crime. The most recent FBI data shows handguns were involved in 59 percent of murders in our country. How will you address the issue of the use of handguns, because a push for an assault weapons ban only addresses a significant but small part of the problem?

HARRIS: So, first of all, yes, I am a gun owner and Tim Walz is a gun owner, and we're not trying to take anybody's guns away from them. But we do need an assault weapons ban. Assault weapons are designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly and have no place ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, an assault weapons ban - yes.

HARRIS: ... and have no place - I'm going to get to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

HARRIS: And have no place on the streets of a civil society. We need universal background checks, which, to your point about handguns, is about saying that it is just reasonable to want reasonable gun safety laws that say we should do background checks that we ought to know. It's just reasonable. You might want to know before someone can buy a lethal weapon, if they've been found by a court to be a danger to themselves or others, you might just want to know. And the ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And respectfully, we do understand that, yes.

HARRIS: But you're asking about - you're asking ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm asking specifically about handguns because many of those handguns are purchased in places, yes.

HARRIS: Universal background checks apply to handguns.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

HARRIS: They do. And ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But in many instances, those handguns aren't even bought lawfully. Yes.

HARRIS: Which is why I also have been very adamant for years. In fact, I myself protested at a gun show probably 10, 15 years ago about the gun show loophole and why we need to close that. Because what ends up happening is that gun shows at flea markets, gun dealers are not under existing law in the past required to register their sales.

And so you are exactly right that a lot of homicides, for example, a good number of them, I have the statistic in front of my mind, are committed with illegally purchased guns. And that's why we need to address each entry point in the issue, including universal background checks, closing the gun show loophole, and what we need to do as a general matter to focus not only on reaction to crime, but prevention of crime.

So you're raising a very important issue that has many facets, including what we need to do in terms of reasonable gun safety laws, and what we need to do around crime prevention, what we need to do around crime deterrence.

[15:05:04] But listen, I have personally prosecuted homicide cases. I have held the hands of mothers who have come to me crying, who have said, I only want to talk to Kamala because they knew when they sat down, I would treat them with the dignity and respect that they were entitled and do about the loss of their child, often their son, to gun violence and the need to take it seriously and we must take it seriously in every way. Understanding it's not just about a sound bite. It's about a comprehensive approach that deals with the tragedy of, to your point, everyday gun violence in America.

It's real. It has had a profound impact in terms of trauma that, for the most part, has gone undiagnosed and untreated. The trauma that exists in communities around the violence of losing their children, losing a brother, losing a father, an uncle, all of that must be addressed. And we have to have a holistic response to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there things we haven't thought about yet, because every time we bring up this issue of gun violence, universal background checks comes up and an - a ban on assault weapons. Are there other solutions that you're also thinking about that will get at this issue?

HARRIS: Absolutely. For example, part of what we did with - so we - in - as vice president with the President, we were able to pass the first meaningful gun safety legislation in 30 years. And part of what that involved was millions and millions of dollars to put more mental health counselors in public schools, right? Because we know that there is an aspect of this that is about treating the trauma and dealing with it at its source before it ends up manifesting itself in a problem.

There is the work that we need to do that is about putting resources into communities around violence prevention. I've been a big advocate of that for years, which includes what we need to do around putting resources into community-based intervention that is not just requiring on the good people in the community to volunteer to do the intervention, but actually paying people to do it because it's a full- time job.

It's about understanding what we need to do to, again, understand that, to your point, we have to have a holistic response to this issue and prioritize it instead of reacting to the tragedy that, sadly, they are too predictable. Let's all agree, enough of that. We - there are very few solutions that we haven't thought of. We need to put the resources into them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madam Vice President, we want to move to the topic of reproductive access ...

HARRIS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... something that you have worked on and leading on, both for the administration, Democrats, and now the top of the ticket. You've said that, as president, you would want to codify Roe. If it came to your desk, you would sign a bill that did that.

HARRIS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roe protected access until fetal viability, which it also says is, quote, "at about seven months," but it may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks. So, do you similarly support also codifying Roe's restrictions, which allowed states to ban abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy and - unless necessary to save the mother's life?

HARRIS: We need to put the protections of Roe v. Wade back into law. And when that bill gets passed by Congress, I will proudly sign it into law. Understand what is happening in our country, over 20 states have passed what I call Trump abortion bans, because I understand how we got here. The former president handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade.

They did as he intended. And in state after state, laws have been passed criminalizing health care providers. I don't know if anyone here has heard most recently the stories out of Georgia. Tragic story about a young woman who died because it appears the people who should have given her health care were afraid they'd be criminalized after the Dobbs decision came down.

Laws that make no exception even for rape or incest, which means that you're telling a survivor of a crime of a violation to their body, that they have no right to make a decision about what happens to their body next, which is immoral. The - an approach that doesn't take into account that most people, I think, agree you don't have to abandon your faith or deeply held beliefs to agree. The government should not be telling her what to do with her body.

If she chooses, she will talk with her pastor, her priest, her rabbi, her imam, but it should not be the government or Donald Trump telling her what to do about her own body and her life.

[15:10:00]

So that's where I stand. We need to put back in place the protection of Roe v. Wade and put that into law ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And those restrictions better off (INAUDIBLE) ...

HARRIS: We need to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade and let an individual, in consultation with her doctor, make the decision based on what she can determine, because she's smart enough to know ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mm-hmm.

HARRIS: ... what's in her best interest instead of having her government tell her what to do, especially a bunch of people in these state capitals who think they're in a better position to tell her what to do than she is to know what's in her best interest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before we conclude, Madam Vice President, "joyful warrior" has been used to describe your campaign ... HARRIS: You didn't see that just a minute ago, though.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

HARRIS: Okay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And ...

HARRIS: I'm back to my joyful part.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And your opponent, Republicans, have at times weaponized you laughing in campaign ads, for example. Why is joy important to you to insert into this election? And what do you make of Republicans using that as a way to suggest that you're not a serious candidate?

HARRIS: Well, sometimes I think, and I'll say to whoever the young people are who are watching this, there are some times when your adversaries will try and turn your strength into a weakness. Don't you let them. Don't you let them.

I find joy in the American people. I find joy and optimism in what I see to be our future and our ability to invest in it. I find joy in the ambition of the people. I find joy in the dreams of the people. I find joy in building community. I find joy in building coalitions. I find joy in believing that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, but who you lift up. And I think we should all find joy and have a sense of optimism about who we are as Americans and what we mean to each other and what we can do to lift each other up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madam Vice President ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Madam - yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... did you - President Biden spoke to former President Trump after the attempt on his life this weekend. Did you - have you spoken to him?

HARRIS: I have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And earlier today, I assume?

HARRIS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How'd that go? You want to give us some intel?

HARRIS: Sure. I checked on to see if he was okay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

HARRIS: And I told him what I have said publicly. There is no place for political violence in our country. I am in this election and in this race for many reasons, including to fight for our democracy. And in a democracy, there is no place for political violence. We can and should have healthy debates, and discussion, and disagreements, but not resort to violence to resolve those issues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On January 6th, your vehicle was allowed to kind of passed a viable pipe bomb. We've seen ...

HARRIS: No, I was in the building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were in the building.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were in the building?

HARRIS: Uh-huh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we've seen what's happened with former President Trump. Do you have full confidence in the Secret Service to protect all of you?

HARRIS: I do. I do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you feel safe, you and your family?

HARRIS: I do. But, I mean, you can go back to Ohio. Not everybody has Secret Service. And there are far too many people in our country right now who are not feeling safe. I mean, I look at Project 2025. And I look at, you know, like the "Don't Say Gay" laws coming out of Florida. The members of the LGBTQ community don't feel safe right now. Immigrants or people with an immigrant background don't feel safe right now. Women don't feel safe right now.

And so, yes, I feel safe. I have Secret Service protection. But that doesn't change my perspective on the importance of fighting for the safety of everybody in our country and doing everything we can to, again, lift people up and not beat people down so they feel alone and are made to feel small and made to feel like they're somehow not a part of it or us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Madam Vice President, thank you so much for your time.

HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

HARRIS: I've appreciated it, thank you. Thank you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We've been listening to Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia speaking to journalists at an event held by the National Association of Black Journalists. This coincides or is a response to an event that the NABJ held with Donald Trump a few months ago, a vastly different event here, a much more measured conversation with the vice president. And they touched on an array of subjects, including her confidence in the Secret Service following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the second attempted assassination.

[15:15:06]

She actually said that she spoke with Donald Trump and told him, according to her, that there is no place for political violence in our democracy, also asking to see if he was okay. They also talked about her laughter being used as an attack against her by Republicans, the economy, the war in Gaza, reparations, attacks on immigrants in Ohio. She spoke extensively on that, as well as gun control and reproductive rights.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, that's right. And there will be questions, which we will ask our panel here. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is with us, Eva McKend, David Chalian and The Atlanta Journal- Constitution's Tia Mitchell as well.

To you guys here in studio first, I wonder if you thought it was substantive enough, and I will point specifically to a couple of examples. She was asked about her plans beyond the child tax credit for things like elder care to help families. She didn't actually end up really getting into specifics. And I know as journalists, we love specifics and candidates don't always. She was also asked about whether if - there might be a federal response or it might be necessary when it comes to Springfield, Ohio.

She did talk at length about how she feels about these issues, but maybe she didn't really commit to answering that question, Eva.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that in broad terms - like, she did actually say quite a bit. She talked about the low housing supply, how no family should pay more than 7 percent of their income on child care, increased wages for home health care providers. She talked about her plan for small business owners. So we did get quite a bit.

And I think ultimately the goal here is to try to draw contrast with the former president. There was a very different episode when the former president was in conversation with NABJ members weeks ago, right? There was a lot of theatrics.

And to me, she looked up there to be a serious leader who is thinking very passionately and thoughtfully about these issues. What surprised me is how much she talked about race. She doesn't really emphasize race or identity on the campaign trail, but she spoke at length about the situation in Ohio and then draw parallels to past comments that the former president has made that she suggested were racist. So that was that was surprising to me.

But I think that overall, you know, the goal here is to show that she values the time and the attention of black journalists to speak directly to black voters in this platform and then to also illustrate that she is a serious leader.

SANCHEZ: Yes. She described the situation in Ohio as a crying shame. She went on to say that when you have a microphone that big, you shouldn't use it to spew lies based on tropes. She said it's something not new. And she reflected on Donald Trump's track record in the past when it comes to housing for minority communities, his call for The Central Park Five to be executed, as well as the racist birther lie about former President Obama. What did you make of it, David? DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I mean, that - what you just went through was lifted from her debate, because we heard that on the debate stage that she referenced. She said, as I said at the debate last week, and then she went into this litany of charges against Trump for his - although I don't think she ever used the term racist in the way she described it, but clearly was suggesting that he continues to peddle these, as she called them, tropes and that it's not new.

I mean, I think her extensive remarks about Ohio and her bit at the end saying that she did call Donald Trump to check if he was okay after the second assassination attempt, I think those are your two pieces of news out of this. I think this is the most we've heard from her on the Springfield, Ohio situation.

And clearly she - to Eva's point - she wasn't looking to sidestep at that at all. She wanted to step right into that, call Trump and Vance out for their rhetoric and firmly plant herself in saying that, you know, she painted the picture of it being photo day at the elementary school and an elementary school needed to be evacuated and saying to the audience, do you remember what it's like on photo day? She clearly wanted to draw that contrast of what she thinks is irresponsible rhetoric coming from Trump and Vance on this.

To your point, Brianna, about how substantive or policy specific she is, you know, I - Hillary Clinton's on a book tour now, and she was asked by Kara Swisher, a colleague of ours, in an interview, if she would advise her to roll out more policy.

Hillary Clinton could not have been fast enough in saying, no, no, no, don't do that. Her advice is to not do that. Not - I don't think it's some sense of hiding the ball in any way from the American people. My sense of what Clinton was saying in that interview and what I think in talking to Harris advisors, that that's not necessarily where they think voters are in their decision making process and adjudicating the choice before them between Harris and Trump.

[15:20:06]

It's not necessarily about which detailed policy plans you lineup and think about are going to be the best. I think you'll get some more policy from her over the course of the next 49 days, but not a ton and not really detailed, because I don't think that's where they think voters are in making their choices.

MCKEND: They need a general sense of where she stands on key issues, and I think that's what we got out of this conversation.

KEILAR: Yes. And look, the governing environment is always different, we know that, where it is many months and even years into a presidential term from now.

CHALIAN: And we'll see, by the way, if that's the right bet.

KEILAR: Yes, that's right.

CHALIAN: But voters are going to say, no, no, no, at the end of the day, we wanted more policy specifics.

KEILAR: Actually, I wanted specifics.

CHALIAN: So that's just - yes.

KEILAR: Tia, to you, the answer to the first question about, which was sort of a - which I appreciated, a lift from the debate about four years ago, how are we compared to four years ago. And she emphasized that the Biden administration was left with a mess from the Trump administration. She said groceries are still too high and there's work to do. What did you think about how she answered that?

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes, I think that was an important answer. I'm here in Atlanta. Atlanta voters are being inundated with ads, one of them from the Trump campaign, goes after Kamala Harris specifically on the economy. And it basically ridicules her for saying, you know, Bidenomics is working, indicating that, you know, she's oblivious to the concerns that voters have about the state of the economy and the cost of goods, mainly groceries and gas, right now.

And so I think she wanted to respond to that head on, because we know that the attacks from Republicans on the economy are probably her biggest - arguably her biggest weakness. So I think what she's trying to do is frame it and say, look, yes, we know things are still not great in a lot of ways. We know that regular folks are still having concerns, still worried about the cost of goods.

But let's take you back to where we started from. Let's help you understand where we're at and where things have improved and she wants to highlight where she does think Bidenomics, you know, the Biden administration's goals and accomplishments have helped. Also, she wants to - she used that as an opportunity to talk about where she wanted to go, to talk about the things that she would try to accomplish that she says would help working class families if she were elected president.

SANCHEZ: Priscilla Alvarez is live outside of this event in Philadelphia. And she's been covering the Harris campaign.

Priscilla, there weren't a lot of contentious moments in this conversation, but there were some slightly tense exchanges, specifically on the war in Gaza. The Vice President there was asked repeatedly, and I believe Eugene Daniels of Politico tried to zero in with her, what specific policy differences she would have with President Biden that would potentially expedite a ceasefire and hostage deal. And she touted what's been done before, but she didn't specifically outline any real difference with Biden. What did you read into that exchange?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Boris. The - journalists tried to ask her multiple times whether there would be any policy change if she were to win in November, and she wouldn't answer that question, repeatedly going back to the need right now for a ceasefire deal in exchange for hostages. Now, this has been a vulnerability for her. It was a vulnerability for President Joe Biden at her rallies. She is still often faced with protesters in the crowd. But her allies and her advisers that I've spoken with have noted that she has injected a level of humanity into the conversations about the war in Gaza.

Remember, it was her remarks in Selma that stood out as a moment this year when she talked about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza in the middle of this Israel-Hamas war. But she has been asked multiple times since then whether there would be any difference with her if she were to win. And she has suggested over the course of these last few weeks and months that she is in lockstep with President Joe Biden on the policy with Israel, saying that they have a right to defend themselves, while also noting that Palestinians have suffered tremendously in Gaza.

She mentioned briefly when there were weapons that were held back from the war. That was one instance where there was a pause, as there was some tension between the U.S. and Israel. But again, when pressed, she did not answer if that was something that she would continue or we would see more of if she were to win.

So certainly that is an ongoing question, whether there would be any policy change.

[15:25:02]

But her advisers have also noted, time and again, that she is in lockstep with the President on its policy. Now, the ceasefire deal, she has been part of those conversations. She referenced conversations that she had with the Israeli prime minister, as well with President Joe Biden on this very issue.

But the deal has not come to fruition. It has been largely stalled. There remains questions as to whether or not that deal can come together at all. But she did not, again, give any sense of whether there would be any differences under a Harris administration, Boris.

KEILAR: All right. Priscilla, thank you so much. Everyone, thank you so much for the great conversation. We do appreciate it.

And next, music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs just appeared in court to face federal charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. The unsealed indictment against him revealing heinous details of alleged abuse, prostitution, kidnapping and bribery. And prosecutors say Combs kept video evidence of his crimes.

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