(somber music)
- [Kamala] My career has
been about making decisions
that impact people's lives.
I've known throughout my career
that when I make a decision,
it will directly impact
a human being's life.
- By the way, thanks
for agreeing to do this.
I know we've got a lot going on.
You've made a lot of tough
decisions in your life.
I hope agreeing to be the
vice presidential candidate
wasn't one of the toughest ones.
- It wasn't tough at all, not at all.
I'm just so looking forward to what
we're going to be able to do.
- Well, you and I are
going to have a lot to do,
but I think we can do it.
I talked to you about how
Barack and I worked it,
and he asked me, is there
anything that I wanted,
once I agreed to do it.
And I said, yeah I do.
I'd like to be able to be
the last person in the room
in every important decision you make,
and that's what I'd like you to do.
I'd like you to be the
last, because I'm confident
you will tell me the truth
about what you think,
even if you disagree
and I'm confident that your
judgment is really good.
What are some of the toughest
decisions you've had to make?
- Probably one of the toughest decisions
is the decision that I
made to pull California
out of the negotiations
with the five biggest banks
of the United States around
the foreclosure crisis.
- Well, I just walked out of the Oval
and was heading down to the office
and I got a call from Beau.
He said, Dad, we're going
to go after the banks.
And he mentioned you.
- Yeah.
- As you guys were partners,
a much, much bigger decision for you,
but how tough was that decision?
- So your son, who took such pride
in everything about you
and the relationship
that the two of you had,
he's the attorney general of Delaware,
I'm the attorney general of California.
During the foreclosure crisis, California
often had seven of the top 10 cities
in the nation hardest hit.
- Yeah, I remember.
- I felt compelled to take that decision
and make that decision.
And Beau said, Kamala,
I'm standing with you
because it's the right thing.
And, in Delaware, thank God,
wasn't as impacted as some other states
with the foreclosure crisis.
But Beau said on principle, even though
he would take political heat,
even though he would have to spend
significant political capital,
he said, I'm standing with you.
And I'll never forget that.
We talked practically every day.
- That's how I got to know you.
- Yeah, I know.
- You didn't know I got
to know you that way.
I've heard you talk about
the way you were raised
and your sister and how
you guys were together.
- My mother, you know, would come home
and she'd make dinner and
she's spend some time with us
and then we'd go to bed,
and she'd sit at that kitchen table
figuring out how to make it all work.
And so, when I talk about that thing
that wakes us up in
the middle of the night
and wakes up so many people
in the middle of the night,
those are the issues that
we need to focus on, right?
Which is the things that
cause people to lose sleep
because they're worried
about how they're going to
get through the end of the month
and feed their kids and pay their rent.
And that's what motivates me.
You know, on the issue of home ownership,
I was in high school when my mother
was able to afford to buy our first home.
I'll never forget it.
We were so excited because
she was so excited.
You know, we were renters,
we rented my entire,
you know, up until that point.
The issue of home ownership in America
is so much bigger than
a financial investment.
It really represents your hard work
and the pride that you put into your work
and the fact that you
worked hard to do this.
It's your piece.
- My dad came back to
Scranton after the war.
At one point, I remember
he made what I call
and a lot of parents have done it,
the longest walk a parent can make
up a short flight of stairs to say,
Honey, we're not going to be able
to go to that school next year.
You can't play on that little league team.
Dad doesn't have a job now.
And I remembered that happening
and we were going home and
living with my grandpop
and my uncle in the home
that my mom was raised in.
I thought about how much
pride it must've cost
my dad to walk into my grandpop Finnegan's
pantry and say, Ambrose,
can you take the kids
and Jean, my mom, for a year, live here,
and I promise I'll make it up?
And we moved to a place
called Claymont, Delaware,
but it took my dad, we moved
when I was in third grade,
and it wasn't until seventh grade
we were able to buy a home
in a new "development".
- My mother passed away from cancer
and my mother was the
most influential person,
human being in my life.
You know, when you're
going through an illness
with someone you love so dearly,
and you know, you're going
through taking them to chemo.
And you're going through that process
not knowing what the next
day or the next moment
is going to hold.
And on top of it, that
anybody in our country
would also have to worry
about whether they might
lose their house to pay
their medical bills,
to take care of the person they love,
is immoral and inhumane.
- You know, you think
of all the people today
who because of the negative way in which
this president has
walked away with dealing
with the COVID crisis.
- [Kamala] Yeah.
- COVID, he didn't cause, but my god,
the way it's been responded to.
- Yeah.
- And I don't think he gets it,
what that means to a parent.
How can they maintain
their sense of dignity
when they look at a
child who may have a need
physically or otherwise,
and know they can't figure
out how to deal with it.
And he's in court trying to take away
the one piece of insurance
that 20 million people got
and 100 million people with
preexisting conditions have.
We could be doing so
much more to make sure
that you had the testing equipment,
protective equipment
that the first responders
and the nurses and the docs need
to be able to take care of these people,
the ability to test and trace.
I mean, I just don't get how there's not
just more significant understanding
of the incredible pain that
is occurring in America
and the economic chaos
that's caused from that.
- You know, there's so
much about this pandemic
that has accelerated what
was a problem before.
People who were doing badly
before are doing worse now.
People who, before the pandemic
were hardworking, had a job,
again, had dignity, are now,
because of this pandemic
driving up or standing
in food lines for hours.
And when you have a president
of the United States
who is just dismissing
it like it's some thing
he can just flick away
or magically wave a wand
instead of stepping up to say
my people are in crisis and I need
to step up to take care of them.
He doesn't have it in him.
- We were already, I think,
in trouble before COVID.
How many single parents out there
even before the crisis, the
COVID crisis and economic crisis
were trying to figure out how can I
keep my job and take care of my child?
- Yeah.
- There should be automatic leave
for people to be able to provide
for the needs of their family.
- That's right.
- There should be childcare available
and no one should have to pay more
than a small percentage of their income
to be able to get that childcare.
The idea that you can't
get paid leave in America,
it's just wrong.
- And it's been highlighted
during this crisis.
Is a mother or father
going to self-quarantine
when they're not getting paid sick leave
or paid family leave,
versus paying the rent
or putting food on the table?
- This administration made sure
the Mar-a-Lago crowd went
to the head of the line.
- Yeah.
- You got 40% of the money
not going to small businesses.
They've run out of that unemployment.
You're fighting for it.
The House has passed the legislation
to make sure it goes forward.
What are they thinking?
- I believe they don't believe
in the intelligence and the
ethics of the American people.
People like to work.
They want to work.
They want to earn their living.
And for them to suggest
that the American people
instead want to game the system
is an insult to the intelligence
and the integrity of the American people.
- You want to make this economy grow,
you want to get it back, you
gotta give people a chance.
- Right.
What we have seen again is that
this pandemic has highlighted
the racial disparities
that existed before.
African Americans before the pandemic,
20% more likely to have asthma,
40% more likely to have
high blood pressure.
Black women three times
more likely to have lupus,
which is an autoimmune disease.
And we know that this virus,
it preys on people with
preexisting conditions.
And so we've seen Blacks and Latinos
twice as likely to die from this virus.
One of the great things
I love about our plan
is that it takes into
account racial disparities.
It acknowledges it so that we make sure
that we're putting
resources in the communities
that need them, and do it in a way
that everyone comes out equal.
- You're on the Judiciary Committee.
When I got there as a young man
I was put on Judiciary and
ended up being chairman
of that committee for a long time.
One of the things I was really proud of
was the first time I was able to get
the Voting Rights Act extended 25 years.
We thought, boy we've made it.
- Yeah.
- Then along came that famous case,
- Shelby V Holder.
- Shelby V Holder.
One of the things that
I'm worried about is
there is a whole new effort
of Jim Crow out there.
- Yes.
- You have over, I think
it's over 33 states roughly
that have passed laws,
something like 80-some laws
that make it harder to vote.
- In North Carolina, the
Court of Appeals said
that law was designed
with "surgical precision",
those were the words of the court,
to prevent Black voters from voting.
- There's still a significant effort
in this administration
to make it more difficult
for Americans to vote.
When you and I get elected, God willing,
we're going to push hard to make voting,
Election Day, a national holiday
so people don't have to take off work.
- Absolutely!
- There should be same-day registration.
We're the greatest democracy in the world
and voter turnout is being pushed
by the other team to be lowered.
What are they afraid of?
I think they're afraid of
people showing up and voting.
- I think they're afraid of the people,
because when the people vote
they vote in favor of things
like affordable child care
and paid sick leave, they vote
in favor of working people,
they vote in favor of the dignity of work.
- With all that's going on,
you have a pandemic, you
have an economic circumstance
as bad as it was during the Depression,
you've got a situation
where systemic racism
has been stripped bare
for everyone to se it,
and you've got a climate
crisis that is real
and this president
pretends it doesn't exist.
You look out there at this generation,
from millennials down to Generation Z,
they've been through hell.
- Yeah.
- [Joe] They had 9/11, then
they had The Great Recession.
- That's right.
- That we inherited in our administration.
Now they have this and a lot
of their plans got put on hold.
They're graduating from
school without graduations.
They're not having their,
I know it sounds silly,
but it matters, their proms,
their graduation ceremonies.
But more importantly,
the jobs they thought
they were going to go
to that they've spent
all this time and money to get to.
I mean, think of the people,
all the debt that exists
that people borrowed
to get to and through school.
- That's right.
- I don't think any
family that has an income
less than $125000 should have to pay
for a four-year public
state college education
and or for community college.
- You have that also
in our plan for HBCUs.
- Yes well, we're going to give
$70 billion to HBCUs for people.
You went to one of the greatest.
- I am a very proud graduate
of an HBCU, Howard University.
But we have so many incredible HBCUs.
One of the things about the plan also is
it really is about supporting
education after high school,
and then the individual can decide
what that education can be.
And for some it'll be a four year college,
for some it'll be a community college,
for some it'll be
- An apprentice program.
- Right, and that's the great thing.
It's about education after high school,
and then all of those
tracks being available
based on what a student wants
to do, but supporting that.
- Right now, six out of 10 jobs in America
require more than a high school degree.
Jill has a great expression:
any country that out-educates
us is going to out-compete us.
- [Kamala] That's right.
- This is about the future.
This is the United States of America.
Anytime we've ever set
our mind to something,
we've never failed, as long
as we've done it together.
- That's right.
- And this constant effort to split us
just seems to me to be
so counterproductive.
- That's right.
- Everybody thinks that
we've led the world
because we're the most
powerful nation in the world.
And that's true, we are.
But we've not led by the
example of our power.
It's been the power of our example.
- Yes.
- I really believe that the vast majority
of the American people are truly decent.
- Yes.
- I think they're angry right now.
I think they're fed up,
I think they're looking
for some authenticity and some honesty.
- We're better than this.
- We are.
I'm really excited you're
willing to do this with me.
- I am very excited about it.
We're going to get this done, Joe.
- Yeah, I think we are.
I think the country is.
It's going to be hard,
but I think they're going to be with us.
- I do too.
- Thanks.
