Key Highlights From Vice President Kamala Harris' NABJ Interview

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Vice President Kamala Harris' interview with the National Association of Black Journalists highlighted key points of her proposed presidential policy.

On Tuesday (Sept. 17), Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with a panel of members from the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Democratic presidential nominee answered questions from Gerren Keith Gaynor of theGrio, Politicocontributor Eugene Daniels, and NPR Fresh Air co-host Tonya Mosley at public radio station WHHY's headquarters. The interview was held in front of a live audience, similar to the appearance by former President Donald Trump last month at the NABJ convention in Chicago, Illinois.

"It's a crying shame. I mean, my heart breaks for this community," Vice President Kamala Harris says about Springfield, Ohio, which has faced bomb threats following false conspiracy theories about immigrants eating pets there.

She says one of the bomb threats led to an… pic.twitter.com/rjw8h1Gs4U

— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 17, 2024

Harris got the opportunity to again address Trump's repeating of false claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating dogs and cats, which he did at their presidential debate in that city last week. “It’s a crying shame, what’s happening to those families, those children in that community," she said, adding: “I know that people are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio, and it’s got to stop. And we’ve got to say that you cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the president of the United States of America, engaging in that hateful rhetoric that, as usual, is designed to divide us as a country.”

Here is Kamala Harris' full answer when asked if she would support executive action on creating a commission to study reparations: pic.twitter.com/ADMYExLIJr

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 17, 2024

Harris was also asked about her support for reparations for Black Americans, asking if she would take executive action to create a commission on the subject or leave the process to Congress. "I'm not discounting the importance of any executive action," she said. "But ultimately Congress, because if you're going to talk about it in any substantial way, there will be hearings, there will be a level of public education and dialogue." Harris previously backed the Senate version of H.R. 40, a bill introduced by the late Representative John Conyers of Michigan to establish that federal commission.

The vice president also tackled questions on gun control and abortion and shared her thoughts about questions from some Black men about her trying to get their vote. “I think it’s very important to not operate from the assumption that Black men are in anybody’s pocket," she said. "Black men are like any other voting group. You gotta earn their vote. So I’m working to earn the vote, not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black.”

"Black men are like any other voting group. You've gotta earn their vote. So, I'm working to earn the vote, not assuming I'm going to have it because I am Black."

— Kamala Harris at the NABJ on economic policies aimed at supporting Black men pic.twitter.com/nhY4lo1f9C

— The Recount (@therecount) September 17, 2024

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