Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris answers questions during a moderated conversation with members of the National Association of Black Journalists hosted by WHYY September 17, 2024 in Philadelphia. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
A week after debating former President Donald Trump in the City of Brotherly Love, Vice President Kamala Harris returned to Philadelphia Tuesday for a wide-ranging interview with a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists at WHYY’s studio.
Harris told the audience that there were “very few solutions we haven’t thought of” when it comes to gun violence in the U.S.
Harris said she and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are both gun owners. “We’re not trying to take any guns away from anyone but we do need an assault weapons ban,” she said.
In addition to an assault weapons ban, Harris said, she supports universal background checks, and closing loopholes where gun show dealers don’t always have to register gun sales.
Politico journalist Eugene Daniels questioned Harris about the economy, asking “whether or not voters are better off now than they were four years ago.” In response, Harris pointed to several of the Biden-Harris administration’s successful policy initiatives, including caps on the price of insulin and prescription drugs, creating jobs and the low unemployment rate among Black Americans.
But, she added, there was still work to be done. “Is the price of groceries still too high? Yes,” she said, emphasizing her plans for an “opportunity economy” that includes giving first-time homebuyers $25,000 toward a down payment.
Harris was asked about polling that suggests Black men, especially young Black men, are considering voting for Trump, the GOP nominee for president.
“I’ve often been asked this question in a way that I’ve had to respond by first saying that I think it’s very important to not operate from the assumption that Black men are in anybody’s pocket,” Harris said. “Black men are like any other voting group: You got to earn their vote. So I’m working to earn the vote, not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black, but because of the policies and the perspectives I have. I understand what we must do to recognize the needs of all communities.”
Young Black men, she added, “are really the backbone of our economy overall, and when they do better economically, we all do better.” She pointed to her plan to provide $50,000 in tax credit to small businesses as one example of a policy that would affect young Black men, who may not have access to resources they need to become successful entrepreneurs.
Harris also reiterated her support for reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade — which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned in 2022 — and codifying them into law. She said Trump was responsible for the abortion bans passed in states since Roe was overturned.
“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,” she said. Women should be able to decide what is best for them, she added, when it comes to their own bodies, “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.”
Harris’ roughly 30-minute interview with the NABJ panel was a far cry from an interview with Trump during NABJ’s July conference in Chicago. During that interview, Trump falsely claimed Harris “happened to turn Black” over the course of her political career, insulted and was generally combative towards his interviewers. Some NABJ members had objected to Trump’s appearance, citing his past behavior toward Black women journalists.
The Trump campaign said Tuesday that “Harris admitted today that she has failed Black Americans,” during the interview. “She told the NABJ that after three and half years of her failed policies, grocery prices are too high and the American Dream is unattainable for young Americans,” Janiyah Thomas, the Trump campaign’s Black Media Director said in a statement.
Harris also addressed Trump and running mate J.D. Vance’s comments that falsely described Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.
“The American people deserve, and I do believe, want, better than this,” Harris said. “I know that people are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio, and it’s got to stop.”
She also criticized Trump’s past comments about Black people, including calling for the execution of five young Black men convicted of a Central Park assault, who were later exonerated, and falsely claiming former President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S.
“I think most people in our country, regardless of their race, are starting to see through this nonsense,” Harris said. “And to say, you know what, let’s turn the page on this.”
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