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tv   Who Is Kamala Harris  BBC News  August 24, 2024 11:30pm-12:01am BST

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do we believe in the promise of america? crowd: yeah! christians have to stand up and stop her from radicalising america. born in california, she's risen fast. we did it, joe! a mother from south asia, she has a father from jamaica, she's married to a jew — doesn't get a whole lot more diverse than that. she is progressive, but she'sl progressive and she is tough. when we fight, we win! she has completely reinvigorated this whole election. she's under attack from donald trump. kamala is worse than joe, is worse. she's a radical left lunatic. someone who suggests we should terminate the constitution should never again stand behind the seal of president of the united states!
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this will be the meanest, nastiest campaign in modern history. the impact on our democracy will be meaningful, measurable, and horrific. if she wins, what would she do? getting back our reproductive rights as women. _ we need that back. we're not going back. she's pragmatic. she's someone who wants results. she's not an ideologue. this is kamala harris's story — where she's from, what she believes in, who she is. we choose freedom. # freedom, freedom, i can't move... kamala harris, us democratic party star. # i'ma keep running. # cos a winner don't i quit on themselves #. the summer of 2024 saw her campaign for the white house get under way. the goal — to make her the first
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woman and the first woman of colour to become president of the united states. it's high time we had a female head of state here in the usa. her republican opponent, donald trump, on the offensive. ultraliberal kamala harris will deliver crime, chaos, mayhem and death to our country. i don't like her. she's a california liberal. everybody's so excited i about being here today. i mean, she's definitely— reinvigorated the democratic party. she is the perfect candidate to run against trump. kamala harris was born in oakland, california, which is right across the bay from san francisco. her mother was an immigrant from india, and herfather was an immigrant from jamaica. they met at the university of california at berkeley, and this was in the very early 1960s. herfather, donald harris, he was an economist. her mother became a cancer researcher. she represents both the indian community as well as -
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the african american community. she's someone who speaks to that very often. - she was able to maintain a lot| of the customs and the culture of her indian heritage, - but also lean in on her black heritage at the same time. it was still a conservative time in america. berkeley still had segregated schools. white kids went to nicer schools. the kids of colour went to schools in the flats, where she lived. so in first grade, five or six years old, she was bussed as part of an integration plan to a school in the hills that had been primarily white. so she was among the first kids in berkeley who were bussed to desegregate schools. her parents were obviously very liberal people, and they went to protests. the late 19605 and early �*70s was a time of great political ferment. the united states was at war in vietnam, there were civil
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rights issues, there were a lot of protests. it was a big thing. they were part of it. they weren't leaders in it, but they were certainly, um, participants. kamala harris represents the diversity, the melange, the melting pot, if you will, that the united states is becoming. it's really exciting and encouraging to see a woman and potentially- have the first african—american woman be in her position. - well, she's indian, jamaican, and so they're trying to package her as an african—american, but she doesn't have that heritage of folks who were brought here by slavery. she has a mother from south asia, she has a father from jamaica, she's married to a jew — doesn't get a whole lot more diverse than that. her parents divorced when she was quite young, and they shared custody. and i've seen what records
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there are of the harris divorce. her parents had very little. they split a couple hundred dollars in bank accounts. they split books and they split record albums. they certainly didn't have money. she's a child of divorce, as most american children at this point are or will be at some point. at the age of 12, kamala harris moved to montreal in canada with her mother and sister. she went to high school there. she's doing what a high school kid does. she's having a good time. you can see yearbook photos of her and she's always, you know, big smile. she's having a good time. she studied at howard university, a historically black university in washington, dc. in choosing to go to a historically black college and university, an hbcu, being someone who also chose to join the sorority alpha kappa alpha — the akas, a black female sorority — that matters.
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so i think that for kamala harris, it also speaks to some significant choices that she made early on, not only to shape her path moving forward, but also because she is very prideful of her heritage. that heritage now questioned by donald trump and his supporters. she was always of indian heritage and she was only promoting indian heritage. i didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black. so i don't know, is she indian or is she black? she has always - identified as a black... i respect either one. i respect either one, but she obviously doesn't. the first thing that i thought of when i saw trump try to categorise harris and criticise how she communicates her ethnicity was, "ew." this is...this is uncool. this is not becoming of a 2024 presidential campaign. we have enough divisions in this country by partisanship, by age, by ethnicity.
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she clearly is not a black woman. seems like we're pulling apart as a country. and to insert race in the way that trump did wasjust icky to me. she is black when it's convenient for her, and i think that's what his message was, is that she uses it when it's convenient. when you don't have anything to really attack somebody on, especially if that candidate - is a woman, you go towards sexism, you go towards racism. it makes me somewhat fearful. we already are horrifically polarised. this just makes things even worse. as the campaign continued, attention focused on the so—called rust belt, the swing states in the midwest that are america's former industrial heartland and key to winning the election. some observers were predicting that tv debates and rallies would generate even more campaign venom.
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kamala knewjoe couldn't do thejob, so she did it. look what she got done. a border invasion, runaway inflation, the american dream. ..dead. this will be the meanest, nastiest campaign in modern history. they have no respect for each other. they will treat each other horrifically, and the impact on our democracy will be meaningful, measurable, and horrific. i think this race has the potential to be one of the nastiest- and ugliest we have seen in american history. - fight! and we have got to fight now more than everfor our nation. ithink trump... worse than weird — he's dangerous. he's a criminal. the last three and a half years have been a nightmare, - and everybody knows that. kamala harris has been a big part of it. - vance complements trump, who's an even bigger idiot. i think kamala harris's campaign is more... it's all over the place. she's a chameleon. whatever anybody wants her to be, that's what she is. _ he abuses women. he's horrible.
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i think he's a complete narcissist. it's notjust because she's| a woman, but it's because she's a black woman. it's because of the process - by which she got the nomination. i think you can tell from some - of the trump—vance rhetoric that's already out there on childless cat ladies running the world, - um, and it's tough. we're effectively run in this country via the democrats, be it via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable... ijust find that comment completely unacceptable. i don't recall ever before, certainly at the national level, where we've had these kind of demeaning, disparaging, bullying kinds of comments. i mean, it'sjust outrageous. the biggest weakness that . vice president kamala harris will have in this race - is that she is a black woman. in america, we have a racism problem. . we have a sexism problem. we have a problem with seeing women at the thrones of power. _
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that is not something that is new to us, but unfortunately, _ it's something that many people across this country _ have not gotten over. it is a myth to say that african—americans don't want law enforcement. we do. we want our grandmothers to be able to walk to church and be safe. we want our babies... in her 20s, kamala harris became a lawyer. she rose quickly — prosecutor, district attorney, california attorney general. she was a prosecutor, so she put people in prison. i was in need of somebody to head up our family- and children's services division, and so i approached kamala - as to whether or not. she might be available. i found kamala very easy to work with. i you had violent cases _ where a prosecutor had to be tough, and she could do that, and she did do that. l i have... i will never make an excuse for saying this and...or apology for saying this.
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one human being kills another human being? a woman is raped? a child is molested? there needs to be serious consequence and accountability. applause. and i'm going to always say that. but by the same token, the thing that i liked i about kamala was that — and still do — is that she| was a very kind person. she is progressive, but she's progressive and she is tough. and i think that that's something that you don't often hear together. the thing about this that is really interesting to me is that, for republicans, it takes away their tough—on—crime mantra. that is what they've run on. she was an actual prosecutor, someone who prosecuted crimes. and that experience became a key part of kamala harris's presidential pitch, reminding voters about the criminals she had helped send to jail. predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.
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so hear me when i say i know donald trump's type. kamala harris married doug emhoff in 2014. he's a lawyer and a campaigner against anti—semitism. in the 1990s, she dated willie brown, the speaker of the california assembly. willie brown is a very influential person in california history. he is mentor to numerous politicians, and certainly he helped kamala harris in her 2003 san francisco district attorney election. so i should say that it's been used multiple times against her in campaigns, and voters have taken it into consideration and elected her. oh, i, you know, i've read articles that said that - kamala owes her career to mayor willie brown —i who, incidentally, is a good
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friend of mine, as well — i and i think that's laughable. obviously only she would be able to accomplish, you know, - being district attorney, _ state attorney general, us senator. i mean, she is the one thati accomplished those things. i'll repeat the question. can you think of any laws that gives the government the power to make decisions about the male body? i'm not a... i'm not...thinking of any right now, senator. i think kamala harris- was a very tough senator. i think her questioning - of supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh when he was...before i he was sworn in, was one of the bestl things i've ever seen. it's something that i think will go| down as one of the greatest lines of questioning of a supreme court nominee in us history, _ because he couldn't think of one. well, arthel, former vice presidentjoe biden, well, he now has enough delegates to secure the democratic nomination.
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kamala harris was one of those joe biden had beaten to become the democratic party nominee for the white house in 2020. her campaign fizzled quickly at the time. when she took onjoe biden in the presidential debate in 2019, i thought, "this is the end of him and the beginning of her," and, boy, was i wrong. it just came apart. the lack of seriousness, the lack of...consistency, the lack of...of focus that you expect in a presidential candidate was not part of her campaign. it ain't easy, right, to go - from being a district attorney, quickly, to senator. she didn't have much time to learn the ropes of national politics. - uh, it happens to many. many people enter the race. many people don't last very long. everybody and their mama,
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for lack of a better term, was running for president. i think that in a very crowded race, it's...it's tough. but you have to ask yourself, did she really fail? _ now, when she entered the race, she was...she entered to win. she wasn't running for second place, but she ended up getting second place. she ended up becoming president biden's vice president. we did it, joe. you're going to be the next president of the united states. ..harris, do solemnly swear... i, kamala devi harris, do solemnly swear... ..that i will support and defend the constitution... now, vice president harris was given responsibility for tackling illegal migration across america's border with mexico. but the number of migrants entering the us unlawfully rose. and the vice president's opponents pointed to what they saw as her weak response to questions about her approach. we've been to the border. you haven't been to the border. and i haven't been to europe. and, i mean, i don't...| don't...
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i think that the republicans - will make the border and immigration a top priority for them and point to vice president harris's - involvement as the immigration tsar, as they call her. _ three years, she was the border tsar. she let it be known, "i am the border tsar." then she never went to the border. these are... she's terrible. she's worse... she's worse than he is. i'll tell you right now. she was not a successful vice president. we asked people repeatedly, "name me a harris accomplishment as vice president," and more than half the country cannot. i mean, she hasn't done anything in four years. l like, everything she was appointed to, she hasn't done anything. - like i said, everything he says he's going to do, he does it. _ she's vice president for three and a half years, and they still can't point to anything that she actually did. it wasn'tjust her track record that came under scrutiny. there was criticism, too, of the style of some of her media appearances. their word for me is momala.
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and so they call me momala. we need you to be momala of the country. cheering and applause. i eat no for breakfast. yes! she was attacked over her mannerisms, including the way she laughed. excuse my language. they're trying to make her into a, let's say, margaret thatcher. i don't think so. it's not going to happen. margaret thatcher didn't laugh like that, did she? did she laugh? it's interesting to me that- the republicans criticise a laugh. it's something that i really find | endearing about kamala harris. it's how i know that she enjoys what she does. i joe biden was being heavily criticised for a series of stumbles and gaffes. and now i want to hand it over to the president of ukraine. ladies and gentlemen, president putin. president putin? he's going to beat president putin. president zelensky.
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then injune came this. the...the...the total initiative relative to what we can do with more border patrol and more asylum officers. president trump? i really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. - i don't think he knows what he said either. l a presidential debate disaster. less than a month later, the biden campaign was over. republicans knew that the likelihood of biden making it through the election campaign was very low. but in the end, they weren't prepared for it. the republicans may have been unprepared, but inside the white house, kamala harris was not. i think someone who is as politically skilled as kamala harris would have a campaign waiting in the wings, no matter what. i think this campaign plan could have been put in place in 2028, or it could have been put in place in july of 2024. and i think it's smart that she had as many phone numbers ready to go as she did, to call on other united states
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senators and other elected leaders across the country, to get them to endorse her within the first 24 to 48 hours. within a few days, endorsements came from the highest levels of the democratic party. barack obama: we called to say, michelle and i couldn't be prouderl to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this - election and into the oval office. oh, my goodness. michelle, barack, this means so much to me. other, less predictable endorsements came, as well. they included this one from the british pop star charli xcx. the harris campaign leaned in. it created a header image for the new kamala hq x account, in the style of charli xcx's brat album cover. i am somewhat stunned by the speed with which the democratic party came together behind her. uh, it was a matter of a day, a day and a half. and i think it speaks to the degree to which democrats were very nervous
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aboutjoe biden's candidacy and the degree to which there was a consensus that the last thing that the party needs now is a food fight. it would have been better- for her to have won the nomination rather than to have been anointed. and if we had democracy, there would have been a primary, and kamala would not be just picked out of nowhere. to have to prove yourself, that kind of battle sets you up for the war, i which you know you're going to have from donald trump. _ in politics, trial by fire makes a stronger candidate, - a better candidate. stronger and better or not, what are the issues that a harris administration would need to address? getting back our reproductive rights as women. we need that back. yeah. we're not going back. yes. in 2022, there were widespread protests against a decision by the us supreme court to overturn the landmark roe v wade
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legal ruling on abortion. roe v wade had guaranteed women the right to an abortion up to about 24 weeks. kamala supports women and our right to choose for our bodies, and that matters more than anyone could ever imagine. people all have their rights to their own decisions, their bodies, their choices. women's rights. definitely crucial. definitely something that i look for, as a woman, as a woman who has a daughter. she's been the most vocal proponent of women's reproductive rights - and women's access to not only abortion care, but also things . like in vitro fertilisation - for women who are working to become moms. she's incredibly focused on issues that are impacting certainly black women, but women generally in the united states. donald trump said he wants to punish women. booing. and as a result of his actions, today in america, one out of three women live in a state with a trump abortion ban.
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one out of three. she's a radical. she's an absolute radical on abortion. we need teachers to get paid what they deserve. | we need nurses in every school. education. education is very important and just caring about the people. she will have a focus on education that helps minority students, helps women achieve that equity that they...that they don't have at this point in time. voting rights and voting rights access. because one of the fears in any american election at this point is whether or not black voters will have access to the ballot. there are questions, too, about the war in ukraine. would a president harris keep funding the country's fight against russia? and what about israel and gaza? would kamala harris continue to back israel? i think for the most part, you'll see more continuity than change in a harris foreign policy. uh... as far as we know, there really
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haven't been any fundamental differences of...of opinion when it comes to the big issues of the day. ukraine, dealing with china, the conflict in gaza. kamala harris, as vice president, has already met with over 150 world leaders. and so, thinking through the relationships she's already built, i think that we would be very well positioned to maintain america's place in the world, should she become president. this man is helping kamala harris carry her agenda forward. her running mate — minnesota governor tim walz. she was likely hoping his reputation as an affable family man would be a big asset. hey, minnesota. governor walz here out here at the state fair with my daughter... hope. every year, we as a family do something old and something new. i get to pick something — a classic — the old mill ride, we do that, and then hope gets to pick something new. i think we're going to go do the slingshot.
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screaming. oh, my... i think it's good to have, like, a moderate, more moderatel candidate to be by her side. the economic policies that the harris walz campaign is pushing for is really what this country needs. but do enough voters agree? and will they put kamala harris in the white house as president? election victory for her would cap a spectacular rise. for many americans, it would mean much more. i think it's very significant for america to elect an african—american woman to the white house for the first time. kamala harris has been the first of many things — first woman attorney general in california, first female vice president. i think that her being the first assures that she will not be the last female president, and i think that's something that a lot of younger women can look to and aspire to. i'm not worried that someone won't accept the results of this election — i'm actually petrified.
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because i believe that our democracy in america is at a breaking point, and i'm afraid that one more election like 2020 will actually cause it to break. i have always said that i always hoped in my lifetime to see a woman president. i hope i finally see that now. hello there. it looks like it's going to get warmer next week, particularly for southeastern parts of the uk. quite cool though for these areas in particular on saturday, where we had the cloud and rain. a weather front has taken the wet weather away, but there's more weather systems
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to come in from the atlantic to bring some rain in from the west, together with some stronger winds on sunday. it's quite cool air still, so temperatures are going to be on the low side to start with. some early sunshine in the east, it does cloud over though from the west, with some rain coming in mainly for the northern half of the uk. briefly some rain in wales and the southwest before it cheers up in the afternoon. not much rain heading into the midlands, it should stay dry towards the southeast. the winds will pick up a bit. not as strong as they were a few days ago, but gusts of 40mph — wales, the midlands and northern england. and whilst it's going to be a bit warmer than it was on saturday in the southeast with some sunshine, further north, those temperatures really will struggle under the rain — quite a poor day here. late in the day that rain will start to ease off a bit, and then we look out into the atlantic, more weather systems to arrive much later on monday. so, on the whole, monday looks a better day. we want to see early showers in the southeast and still some cloud left for northern england, northern ireland and scotland with one or two spots of rain. but many places will be dry, there'll be some spells of sunshine,
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probably not quite as windy, i think, on monday either. and so it's going to feel a bit warmer. temperatures will be a bit higher. nothing startling, but still could make the low 20s across eastern parts of england. and then these weather systems will bring some rain into the northwest overnight. we'll keep some wet weather going into tuesday, but the rain isn't going to move very far. it's getting blocked by that large area of high pressure, and that will allow the temperatures to rise ahead of the weather front, which is bringing the rain. there will be some rain, though, on tuesday for scotland, and northern ireland — could be a bit heavy over the hills as well. slowly, that rain will push its way over the irish sea into northern and western parts of england and wales. but ahead of that, the midlands towards the southeast, dry, some sunshine. here, it's starting to warm up with temperatures back into the mid 20s, but where we've got cloud and rain further north and west, temperatures will be pegged at 18—20 degrees. and those numbers won't change here on wednesday. we've still got the rain around, it's not moving very far,
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but it allows the heat to build across the midlands and some eastern parts of england.
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live from washington, this is bbc news. police in germany have arrested a man suspected of killing three people in a knife attack in the city of solingen. the islamic state group has claimed responsibility. nasa says two astronauts stranded on the international space station will not return to earth until february — eight months later
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than initially planned. a greek—owned oil tanker is on fire and adrift in the red sea as houthis in yemen release a video claiming to show their forces attacking the vessel. hello, i'm carl nasman. we start in germany, where authorities say they've arrested a man suspected of carrying out a mass stabbing in the city of solingen on friday evening, which left three people dead and eight injured. german media reports say the suspect handed himself in to a police patrol. this brings the total number of people arrested in connection with the attack to three, including a 15—year—old on suspicion of having been in contact with the perpetrator before the attack. the islamic state group have claimed responsibility for the attack, but have provided no evidence — and earlier on saturday, police were seen raiding a property, usually a home for refugees, in the city of solingen.
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the premier of the german state of north rhine—westphalia

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