Stepping up her appeals to Black voters, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on a popular Black radio program Tuesday, saying she is still open to slavery reparations and criticizing former President Donald Trump for allegedly pushing Covid testing had sent to Russia “when black people were dying. back home.
In an extended live radio town hall in Detroit hosted by radio host Charlamagne Tha God, Harris faced pointed questions from the host and his guests, some of whom said they felt black voters were being taken for granted by Democrats while receiving “very little in return.”
Harris, who has tried to stem Democrats’ small but steady erosion of support from voters of color, spoke about her upbringing in Oakland, California, in the Black church and at Howard University, but said she knew she ‘every vote had to be earned’. .”
While she often tells supporters on the campaign trail that she is the underdog, she said Tuesday: “I’m going to win, but it’s tight.”
Harris opened a new line of attack on Trump, connecting his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, an issue seen as particularly troubling to educated white progressives, with the well-being of black Americans.
Drawing on a new book by famed journalist Bob Woodward, Harris blasted Trump for allegedly sending Covid-19 testing equipment to Putin when machines were in short supply at home. NBC News has not been able to independently verify the report.
She said Trump is someone who ‘admires'[s] dictators” and during the height of the pandemic “sent Covid tests that no one could get for his personal use to the president of Russia, while black people were dying by the hundreds every day.”
“The number of people who lost their grandparents and parents, do you remember what that was like?” she continued. “People were looking for the resources and needed tests, and Donald Trump secretly sent Covid tests to the president of Russia.”
She attempted to denigrate Trump — which could be an attempt to take away some of the bravado that appealed to male voters since she primarily targeted black men.
‘The man is really very weak. He is weak,” she said. “It is a sign of weakness to want to please dictators and seek their flattery and favor. It is a sign of weakness that you would humiliate the American military and the American military. It is a sign of weakness that you do not have the courage to stand up for the Constitution of the United States and the principles upon which it rests. This man is weak and unfit.”
She also suggested that she is okay with people saying Trump supports fascism.
“Donald Trump wants to take us backwards,” Harris said.
“The other one is about fascism,” Charlamagne interjected. “Why can’t we just say it?”
“Yes, we can say that,” she said, laughing.
Harris also stood by her early support for studying the idea of slavery reparations, which she embraced during her first presidential election campaign in 2019.
During that campaign, she took a number of progressive positions, which she has since distanced herself from.
But when asked directly on Tuesday, Harris replied: “On the issue of reparations, this needs to be studied. There is no doubt about that.”
As a senator, Harris supported a bill that would have created a federal commission to study the policy and develop recovery proposals.
“I want to be president for everyone, but I have a clear view of the history and the disparities that exist for specific communities, and I don’t shy away from that,” she said.
Asked about her time as a prosecutor and criticism that she worked to jail black men for drug possession, Harris defended her record and said she had not sought jail time for offenders charged only with marijuana possession.
“I will work to decriminalize it because I know exactly how those laws have been used to disproportionately impact certain populations, and Black men in particular,” she said of her efforts to change the laws surrounding marijuana.
Trump’s campaign responded to the attacks in the interview by pointing to polls showing a majority of black voters think the country is on the wrong track.
“During the interview, she suggested imposing reparations that could cost the US $10 trillion to $12 trillion,” Janiyah Thomas, Trump’s black media director, said in a statement. “In Kamala’s America, Black Americans know that we come last – after illegal immigrants. , the war in Ukraine and now in the Middle East.”
Harris has a long, but not always eye-to-eye, relationship with Charlamagne, whose real name is Lenard McKelvey, a prominent figure in her own right who appeared with her on the campaign trail in 2019 but has also criticized her at times and failed to do so . afraid to pressure her in interviews.
He didn’t ask her about a recent moment of friction over trans issues that eventually circulated widely in pro-Trump circles.
“When you hear the narrator [of a Trump ad] Suppose Kamala supports taxpayer-funded gender reassignment for prisoners, in that one sentence I thought, “No, I don’t want my tax dollars going there.” That ad was effective,” he said last month.
The ad references a position Harris took in 2019 when she told the American Civil Liberties Union that she supported gender-affirming care for prisoners and people in immigration detention centers. Her campaign has abandoned that position.
In the interview, Harris also defended herself against criticism that she can be careful in the way she speaks, sticks to talking points and often repeats herself in interviews and speeches.
When asked what she says to critics who say she’s sticking to the talking points, Harris said, “I’d say, ‘You’re welcome.'”
She went on to say that repetition is necessary to reach distracted voters who don’t yet know her, and that her approach shows “discipline.”
Both the Trump and Harris campaigns shared a clip of the moment on X, suggesting that both apparently took it as proof of their points.
On a lighter note, Harris said she approved of Maya Rudolph’s impression of her on “Saturday Night Live,” even though some pro-Harris voices, like radio host Howard Stern, say they don’t like seeing people make fun of her.
“I have nothing but admiration for the comedy,” she said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
