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5 takeaways from Kamala Harris's interview on MSNBC


5 takeaways from Kamala Harris's interview on MSNBC
Screen shots via MSNBC

Stephanie Ruhle and Kamala Harris

She emphasized that Donald Trump is no friend to ordinary people and that women don't need his so-called protection. And yes, she did work at a certain fast-food chain.

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LGBTQ+ issues didn’t come up in Kamala Harris’s interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle Wednesday — Harris’s first solo interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee — but much more did. Here are five key takeaways from the one-on-one.

Women don’t need Donald Trump to protect them. They need him — and everyone else — to trust them on reproductive health issues.

Ruhle asked Harris about Trump’s recent bizarre and condescending comments at a rally in Pennsylvania. “I am your protector. I want to be your protector,” he said. Women will no longer have to think about abortion, he added, because the legality of the procedure is now up to each state, which is where it belongs. He didn’t acknowledge that women are suffering and even dying in states where they can’t obtain an abortion.

“I don’t think the women of America need him to say he’s going to protect them,” Harris said. “The women of America need him to trust them.”

“Donald Trump is also the person who said women should be punished for exercising a decision that they rightly should be able to make about their own body and their future,” she noted. “So I think we would all agree that, as a result of that perspective that he has about women, he also then chose three members of the United States Supreme Court who did as he intended, undid the protections of Roe v. Wade.”

No, Trump doesn’t care about the middle class, the working class, or anyone but rich people.

“The facts remain that Donald Trump has a history of taking care of very rich people,” Harris said while discussing her economic plans, which include expanding the child tax credit, financial assistance to first-time home buyers, and raising taxes on corporations and the very wealthy.

“And I’m not mad at anybody for being rich, but they should pay their fair share — but tax cuts for the billionaires and the top corporations in our country, and then not really paying much attention to middle-class families,” which is what Trump did as president, she said. “My perspective on the economy is, when you grow the middle class, America’s economy is stronger.”

Trump is not a serious person.

“He’s just not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues,” Harris said in a discussion about his plan to impose tariffs widely. “And one must be serious and have a plan, and a real plan, “that’s not just about some talking point ending in an exclamation at a political rally but actually putting the thought into, what will be the return on the investment, what will be the economic impact on everyday people?”

The cost of Trump’s tariffs on imports would be passed on to consumers, she said, and “would be a 20 percent sales tax, in essence, on basic necessities for the average American worker, average American family, totaling almost $4,000 a year.”

Picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate was a gut decision.

When Ruhle asked about Harris’s most recent gut decision, the nominee responded, “Probably the biggest gut decision I’ve made most recently is to choose my running mate. There were lots of good, incredible candidates, and ultimately that came down to the gut decision.” Walz has proven to be very popular.

Yes, she did work at McDonald’s.

“Because your opponent almost every day seems to be talking about this,” Ruhle said. “So I just want to ask you, yes or no, at any point in your life, have you served two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun?”

Harris said yes.

“Part of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald’s is because there are people who work at McDonald’s in our country who are trying to raise a family — I worked there as a student, I was a kid — who work there trying to raise families and pay rent on that,” she added. “And I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility then is to meet those needs.”

Watch the full interview below, and find a transcript here.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.