The life of Kamala Harris

Brut America

She's never been shy about stepping into the political arena — making history again and again throughout her career. Now, she could be the first Black woman and the first Asian American vice president of the United States.   This is the story of Kamala Harris.

Transcript

00:00I believe Joe is right when he says that this election is a fight for the soul of America.

00:07This is a moment in time where we have to look in a mirror and ask ourselves, who are

00:11we?

00:13And I think we all know we are better than this.

00:18We are better than this.

00:30How do I describe myself?

00:45I describe myself as a proud American.

00:56My parents met when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley, back in the civil rights movement.

01:03And you know, I joke, me and my sister joke, we grew up surrounded by a bunch of adults

01:06who spent full time marching and shouting.

01:20Our mother was the kind of parent who, if you ever came home complaining about something,

01:26the first thing she'd do is look at you and say, so what are you going to do about it?

01:32So I decided to run for president of the United States.

01:50There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate

01:55her public schools, and she was bused to school every day.

02:00And that little girl was me.

02:13I had this one leotard, long sleeves, and then we did, we sewed fringe down the bottom

02:19of the arm, the sleeve.

02:34Back in the day, I'd go down to the National Mall to protest the United States investment

02:41in apartheid South Africa.

02:44And I interned in the United States Senate.

02:47I chaired the Economic Society, I was on the Howard debate team, and I pledged my dear

02:53sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha.

03:22In my career, the conventional wisdom was that people were either soft on crime or tough

03:53Our justice system needs drastic repair.

03:57Early intervention leaves room in our prisons for the violent criminals who should be there.

04:02I did it in San Francisco.

04:04As Attorney General, I can do it across California.

04:22There is work that we have done there, there's work that we have done around racial profiling,

04:40and in particular implicit bias and racial bias in the criminal justice system, and in

04:44particular in law enforcement that needs to be addressed.

05:02That's not my question.

05:03Not my question.

05:04I will repeat.

05:05Excuse me, I'm asking the questions.

05:08Hold ourselves to.

05:09Can you please answer the question?

05:10Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male

05:16body?

05:19I'm not thinking of any right now, Senator.

05:40The future of our country depends on you and millions of others lifting our voices

05:52to fight for our American values.

05:55That's why I'm running for President of the United States.

06:10On the issue of, and in the conversation with Vice President Biden, it was through the lens

06:22of that, which is that these segregationists pushed policies and really built their careers

06:30and reputations off of policies that were about segregation of the races in our country.

06:36And it had real consequence.

06:37The policy perspective that was opposed to busing had real consequence.

06:43I was that little girl, and there are many others around the country who were those little

06:48girls and boys who were bused.

07:07It should not require a maiming or torture in order for us to recognize a lynching when

07:28we see it and recognize it by federal law and call it what it is, which is that it is

07:32a crime that should be punishable with accountability and consequence.

07:52So that's what this election is about.

07:55It's about saying we know we matter.

07:58We know the powers with the people.

08:00Yes, we have not achieved the ideals of our country yet.

08:03We all know that too.

08:06But we know that if we stop fighting, we will never get there.

08:10And so we fight.

08:12That is the strength of who we are as a nation.

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