Vice President Harris joined “The Breakfast Club” once again early Tuesday, this time to highlight how she is reaching undecided voters, including Black voters.
It was her second time in two weeks on the show, following a town hall Charlamagne tha God hosted in Detroit with the vice president. Unlike that appearance on the show, Harris on Tuesday fielded questions from the hosts only.
The interview began in a lighthearted manner, with Harris asking the hosts, including Charlamagne, if anyone was hearing an echo.
Charlamagne jokingly replied, “The feds might have the phones tapped.” Without missing a beat, Harris responded, “And the Russians, don’t forget them.” The entire cast began laughing.
Harris said she is “in the zone,” with just one week left until Election Day, working to reach voters in battleground states and remind voters of the power of their vote.
Charlamagne pointed out that Harris’s opponent, former President Trump, has been running anti-transgender ads with his and co-host DJ Envy’s voices without their permission. He asked Harris how to combat misinformation at this time — and if it’s even possible.
“Truth is always going to prevail over the misinformation and the lies, but it takes work,” Harris said. “He has spent tens of millions of dollars trying to hit me with a bunch of disinformation and misinformation on this, and he’s living in a glass house because the policies he’s speaking about were also his policies.”
The interview also dove into the controversial rally Trump held at New York’s Madison Square Garden this weekend, with Charlamagne praising Harris for reaching out to Black and Latino voters the same day.
Harris admitted that it happened to be a “real coincidence” that she was on the ground with Black and Latino leaders in Pennsylvania the same day, but that it highlighted a “stark difference” between her and Trump.
She used the opportunity to highlight her plan to create an opportunity economy task force specifically for Puerto Rico that would focus on the island’s critical needs, including fixing the power grid and helping with job creation and sustainability.
Loren LaRosa pressed Harris on what her message is to Black men, amid concerns around the voting bloc’s lack of support for Harris.
“People keep trying to push this whole Black men and not supporting Kamala Harris —,” she began before Charlemagne cut her off.
“That’s a lie!” Charlamagne shouted.
But LaRosa said even if it’s a lie, “people are still saying it.”
But Harris said Charlamagne is right.
“The brothers aren’t saying that,” she said. “I was just at a barbershop in Philly talking with very incredible and distinguished men who are leaders in their community in small business and education. And these men, these Black men, were talking about not only their support for me but most importantly their support for my perspective on what we can do that lifts up the community and taps into the ambitions and the aspirations.”
Harris added that at her rallies, people of all races, genders and ages are present.
“The Black men in particular who are at these rallies have recently been saying to me, don’t listen to that [narrative]. They got to stop with all the noise, we support you,” Harris said.
Still, polls show Harris’s support with Black men — particularly young Black men — to be tenuous, at best.
But Charlamagne pointed to a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll that found 85 percent of Black men support Harris, meaning she is outperforming President Biden from 2020.
“Folks know I have a genuine commitment based on hard work that I have already done to lift up the community,” Harris said before delving into the racist tropes presented at the MSG rally, Trump’s ad calling for the death penalty against the Central Park Five, his refusal as a landlord to rent to Black families, the “birtherism” conspiracy around former President Obama and rhetoric on Haitian immigrants in Ohio.
“What is your message to these undecided voters?” DJ Envy asked Harris in response.
“There is going to be a new president on January 20th of next year, and it’s either going to be Donald Trump or it’s going to be me, and I would ask people to imagine the Oval Office — it’s either going to be Donald Trump sitting behind that desk writing out his enemies list of who he’s going to seek revenge and retribution on, or it’s going to be me working on behalf of the American people as I always have done,” Harris said.
She later added, I just love, I love the American people … the contrast point is really about that they deserve better. They deserve better. They deserve a president who actually cares.”
