exclusion of anyone else. we've done a lot of work, but let's recognize the facts. >> reporter: i've been all across the country, talking with blackman about the issues that matter most to them and one thing emerged. that if either of these candidates want their votes they have to come, meet them where they are, be honest and recognize the truth that these black men and their families experience the economy different than their counterparts. >> our thanks to trymaine lee for that interview and the reporting and sometimes what is old is new again. if you're looking for more coverage as we start a big week, i am on the beat at 6:00 p.m. eastern. we have the first black woman to ever serve in the senate and former chief of staff ron klain. if you want to connect with me you can go to ari melber.com and put in your email to sign up for my newsletter. and keep it locked right here on msnbc. okay, here we go.

we are now 100 days out from the election and just about a week into a brand-new presidential race. kamala harris rides an incredible wave of momentum as donald trump reminds us once again what's at stake in november. pete buttigieg is often mentioned as a possible running mate for kamala harris. he is standing by in the studio and coming up first. plus, senator butler has known the vice president for decades, dating back to her days as san francisco d.a. senator butler will join us live in a few minutes. and later, j.d. vance's comments about childless cat ladies is just plain weird and somehow his attempt at a cleanup only made things weirder. well, it is officially 100 days until the election, so that means it is 100 days to make sure your polling place has not changed. 100 days to figure out if you

well vote by mail or vote in person and of course there is a lot that will happen between now and then, but we already know the stakes in this election and donald trump reminded us that in 100 days it is not a normal election. it is an election where we decide if we still want to hold elections again. >> and again, christians, get out and vote. just this time. you won't have to do it anymore, for more years you know what? it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful christians. i love you. in four years you won't have to vote again. we will have it fixed so good you won't have to vote. >> in four more years you won't have to vote again. those aren't my words, those are donald trump's words. those are the stakes. it is frightening. it should be. the good news, though, is a lot of good things happened this week for the democratic ticket. the harris campaign announced

since last sunday they raised $200 million, that is a lot of money, and recruited 170,000 new volunteers. after a week of endorsements from some of the biggest names in the party came an endorsement from arguably the biggest names in the party. >> i can't have this phone call without saying to my girl kamala, i am proud of you. this is going to be historic. >> we called to say michelle and i could not be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the oval office. >> video was striking for me to watch because 16 years ago, i can't believe it's been that long, i had a front-row seat on the obama campaign. 16 years ago the question of whether the country was ready was also raised. then as we all know barack obama wrote his own wave of optimism and momentum all the way into the white house. they are different candidates. i'm not trying to make a direct comparison and we are only one

week into this campaign, but my point is that what it reminded me of was once upon a time obama was the right candidate at the right moment and he was able to capture the imagination of the country in part because his campaign was focused on the future at a time when the country was desperate for change. back then it was hope and change and it was yes we can. this time, at another inflection point in history, a different moment, kamala harris is putting her own spin on that message in a way that is unique to this moment. she did it as the presumptive nominee. she told the country we are not going back. >> donald trump wants to take our country backward. he and his extreme project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle- class. like we know we've got to take this seriously. can you believe they put that thing in writing? america has tried these failed economic policies before, but

we are not going back. we are not going back. not going back. we are not. we are not going back. and i will tell you why we are not going back, because ours is a fight for the future. >> look, this campaign is going to be about a whole lot of things. yes this is about the woman who wants to protect abortion rights against the man who took those rights away. yes it is also about the prosecutor against the criminal, but maybe more than anything as a big umbrella it is about whether or not this country wants to go back. not just to the chaos of the trump years that we all remember so well and still talk about,

but even to darker times in american history. luckily as kamala harris pointed out, they put their plan in writing. it is posted online. i can't believe they did that either. here is a little taste of how far back that plan wants to take the country. project 2025 wants to use the comstock act to ban most abortions nationwide. that would take us back to 1873. project 2025 wants to eliminate birthright citizenship, a key part of the 14th amendment ratified in 1868 and project 2025 wants to fire tens of thousands of civil servants who are not loyal to trump and replace them with sycophants which would fly in the face of a law passed for good reason in 1883. kamala harris might be the right candidate at the right time. the right candidate for this century, by the way. she might be the right candidate to tell the country that actually we don't have to go back. that actually that wasn't so great for lots of americans and

we can go forward instead. i'm not going to tell you this will be easy. it is not. donald trump and his weirdo running mate and the republican apparatus will regroup. it will be gross, misogynistic, racist, sexist, all of the things. harris conceded she is the underdog and that is how everybody should treat it, but i have to say in the early days of this campaign donald trump is kind of flailing while vice president harris seems very eager to make her case. >> i'm ready to debate donald trump. i have agreed to the previously agreed upon september 10 debate. he agreed to that previously. now it appears he is backpedaling, but i am ready and i think the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage and so i am ready. let's go. >> there it is. she is ready. let's go. her words. or the question is, do we want to go back? this election is going to be about a lot of things.

none of them may be more important than that. joining me now is pete buttigieg, appearing in his personal capacity not his official role. i'm awkwardly not going to call you mister secretary or mayor. that is where we are. thank you for being here with me. i played that clip of donald trump saying in four years you won't have to vote again. he made similar statements before. governor chris sununu was on after you this morning. he said it is classic trumpism. i think it is important to call out. what did you think when you heard him say that? >> candidly i don't completely understand what he means. i don't want to have to worry about what he means. it is yet another reason why we have to make sure he does not get elected. i remember a few years ago there were some commentators who sounded clever by saying the problem with democrats as we were taking trump literally when we should have taken him seriously and the smart people were taking him seriously

instead of taking him literally. when he says something like that or something like wanting a political opponent like liz cheney, a congresswoman who criticized him, to be tried in a televised military tribunal, i don't know whether to take that literally or seriously. either way it is bad news. >> if he says i want to eliminate a system so nobody has to vote again, that is a huge problem and we should take that both of those ways. let me ask you and this is the awkward question you've been answering a million times. i'm not going to ask you to tell me the status of the vetting process or whether you will be the vice president. you know kamala harris. you know joe biden. what kind of qualities do you think would best compliment her? >> the bottom line is it is her call and she knows what she is doing. what is great about this moment is there is an extraordinary bench of leaders of the democratic party, all of whom are doing whatever we can to support the top of our ticket and kamala harris. who knows what the exact flying

formation will be like, but however that shapes out i think you will see a lot of people pulling in the same direction and a party that, let's face it, is not always known for being quick to get into alignment. for falling in line as they say. part of what has been remarkable, and i can't believe it has only been a week, is how weekly she coalesced our famously big tent party to come together and rally to the cause of making sure she is the next president. >> no question. i also think this process is joyful. it reminds people of how a lot of people get into politics for a good reason. regardless of what happens, i know a lot of democrats and people who watched you on fox news this morning would love to see you on the debate stage with j.d. vance. there is no question. he watched him and commented on him. what would you love to debate him about? what topics would you love to discuss with him? >> where do you start? i think they selected somebody

who really reminded so many americans of why they are off put by the turn that the republican party has taken in the last few years. it is not just that he said a lot of things that are weird or insulting, like the characterization of the democratic party as childless cat ladies. he seems to view everything in terms of the negative and what i mean by that is, for example, this thing about having children. i think a lot of us who have had kids will certainly say that that experience opens you to a new way of thinking about the world, but he does not talk about it in those terms. he talks about how anybody who does not have kids is less than. that their perspectives have less value, which is a really strange take. it is not just a weird style that he brings. it is that this leads to weird policies, like his proposal that the number of votes you get in an election would be different depending on how many kids you have.

i would say one person, one vote is a pretty basic, universally accepted principle in this country. there are so many strange policies he has. i guess what i would most want to see in that debate, whoever is at the table with him, is getting into that relationship between a strange worldview and a strange set of policies. let's also remember his relationship to project 2025. as you said it is kind of amazing to put all this out there. >> it is remarkable. >> this is the first time i can remember that a comprehensive policy framework has been so profoundly unpopular that the president, the candidate of that party, has to pretend he has nothing to do with it. let's face it, it is definitely the roadmap for a future trump administration. j.d. vance, having him on the ticket basically certifies that, because j.d. vance wrote the forward to the forthcoming book by the heritage foundation president. the heritage foundation is the

institutional home of project 2025, which means it is basically project 2025 the book. so it could not be more on the nose in terms of revealing where a trump presidency would take this country and as kamala harris says so effectively where it would take us is backwards. >> and the head of the heritage foundation had a smile on his face when j.d. vance was named. you are nerdy and the best way possible, guy, but also good at speaking in accessible language and you just mentioned strange, weird. we have seen tim walz. the vice president and others use weird. this has been an evolution a little bit in messaging, which i think is good and effective. why do you think speaking about trump and vance and the threat in that language works? >> i think it demonstrates that this is not a traditional democrats versus republicans debate or argument. we can go back and forth all day on a more progressive worldview versus a more conservative

worldview, but the stuff you are seeing out of trump and vance is not just conservative. sometimes it is as offensive to conservative ideas as it is to liberal ideas. talk about terminating the constitution. somebody who wants to be president of the united states rambling about electrocuting sharks and hannibal lecter and i think it reminds us of the choice we face not just in terms of policies. direction for the country, which is hugely important of course, but also a choice in terms of what it will feel like to live in this country. i don't want to worry about sharks that often or think about hannibal lecter too often or any of the dark and twisted things that were shoved in our face all the time during the trump presidency and ever since by the trump campaign. i think we have a chance to have a better, brighter future. look, don't get me wrong. we all know what we are up against and the gravity of what would happen to our democracy

and economy f there was a chance for trump to return to power, but this is not just about what we are trying to block. it is about what we are working to build and that energy has been so remarkable and central in recent days on the campaign trail. >> unquestionably, politics should be joyful. you have agreed to stick with me for a few more minutes. i hope that still works with your schedule. we will sneak in a quick break and be right back with pete buttigieg. buttigieg. chase. make more of what's yours. t-mobile "savings", take one. focus. here's the line... "at t-mobile, you get tons of benefits, and you can still save versus the other guys." ok. stop. i'll just do it. check out the t-mobile savings calculator to see how much you can save. (♪♪) (♪♪) bounce back fast from heartburn with tums gummy bites, and love food back. (♪♪)

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we are back with pete buttigieg. we were talking about messaging. there is almost too much to go after trump and vance on which is a high-class problem in some ways, but i think what is so interesting is this argument about freedom. harris made this campaign about freedom. beyonce told her she could use her song, freedom. that is a good get. i want to talk about how democrats could reclaim this freedom and liberty mandel from republicans. >> this is something i believed in for a long time, going back

to when i was running. i thought it was important to talk more in terms of freedom. yes it is important to make sure that people are free from overbearing government, which is the thing conservatives have traditionally talked about the most, but government is not the only thing that can make you one free and good government helps make sure you are free from other threats to your well- being. the affordable care act made people more free because you didn't have to be in fear of what happened if you had a medical event. it is important i think to keep people free from fear of gun violence, which is we are the one saying the most important thing to protect our kids isn't to ban a bunch of books, it is to make sure that assault weapons aren't finding their way into neighborhood or god forbid schools. and there is a real opportunity now to embrace that even further, because trump's republican party has walked away from freedom. again, if you are talking about military tribunals for political opponents, you have

no business talking about freedom. if you are into banning books you have no business letting a word like liberty escape your lips. i think it is a smart thing to do. i think philosophically it makes sense and it is who we are and who she is. but also it is smart because it can appeal to something that i think a lot of independence, what i like to call future former republicans, continue to care about and are increasingly concerned. exhibit a is a woman's freedom to choose and access to abortion care. a freedom that donald trump withdrew when he destroyed the right to choose in this country and i think it is important since every election is about the future, not just to remind everyone that that happened, but to talk about what happens next. when you have a trump-vance ticket and a republican party that does not support the freedom to grow your family through ivf. they do not support a lot of reproductive freedoms. access to contraception. they don't even support the freedom to marry, going by how

most republicans voted when that was on the floor. i think it is a powerful framework. yes it is smart for the campaign, but also it is fitting because that is very much what is at stake right now. >> no question about it. you don't have to leave the framing with the other side. you've talked about this a long time. you've been asked 1000 times about whether you will be the vice presidential running mate, all of these things. i know from working with politicians that you talk about those things with your family and you consider a lot of things. you have little kids. you are happily married. you are in michigan a lot of the time. you are young, you love policy. you love politics. how do you talk about that and what you want to do in the future? >> any decision about what to do next is a family decision. i got into politics as a young, single mayor. >> it is different now. >> it really is. i saw people say that on tv who

had families, but i did not really understand it. now i do. the contributions and sacrifices that my husband makes. that our children make. even though they are about to be three, they may not know it, but they are helping make it possible for me to serve and that is a really big deal and everything and not something to be done lightly. of course it works both ways. any time you consider a demanding job, certainly a demanding role in politics and public life, you think twice about it because you know there is a cost. on the other hand having kids, having a family has helped me better appreciate what's at stake in this election. i think about, again, the simple fact that our marriage and family is the most important thing in my life and it exists by a single vote on the supreme court. i also think about our kids. our kids i hope and expect will be around for the 22nd century. if i am trying to make sure that

we make good decisions and elect good leaders and reinforce what is best about this country going into the balance of the century so it goes well into the next, you know they are going to be holding us accountable for that. they are not quite 3. i am already at this stage of y? and i realized i have four or five before i am out of answers. the most basic questions and some of those evolve into deeper questions about what we, in positions of responsibility right now, have done to make sure they are safer from gun violence. to make sure they have grown an economy that is fair. to make sure they grow up into a climate that supports and sustains their well-being. to me now when we talk about climate choices it is not about saving some abstract thing called the planet. it is about them. it is about making sure they are personally and materially better off.

i think that opens up in a different way and propels me to do this. even though it has also reminded me just how much more there is to life. >> which is a healthy thing. an incredibly healthy thing and also part of their story is your journey fighting for all of these issues, too. important to remember. thank you so much. secretary, mayor, pete buttigieg in your personal capacity, i appreciate you being here. coming up, j.d. vance is vice presidential role has been a catastrophe. did you see what i did there? i love it. we will take a dive into his very bad week and we will be right back. right back. ♪liberty, liberty,♪ ♪liberty, liberty.♪

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so it has become abundantly clear that j.d. vance has a problem with women. when more women find out what he really thinks of them, my bet is they might have a problem with him, too. especially when they hear things he has said like this. >> we are effectively run in

this country via the democrats, via corporate oligarchs by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable about their own lives and the choices they have made so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. look at kamala harris, pete buttigieg, aoc, the entire future of the democrats is controlled by people without children and how does it make sense that we turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it? >> even tucker carlson looks confused. first of all, j.d. vance has no right to question why anyone as kids, no matter what the reason might be. it is none of his business. whether an adopted mother or a stepmother like kamala harris. his comments are insulting to the millions of women who have struggled with fertility issues, which earned him a rare rebuke from actress jennifer aniston. she wrote on instagram, i truly can't believe this is coming from a potential vice president of the united states. all i can say is i pray that

your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. now, jennifer aniston has 45 million followers on instagram. that is a lot. people seem to really like her out there by the way, just saying. on a weird level advances comment revealed his bizarre habit of accusing people he doesn't like of being cat ladies and his use of that term as a slur against women is now eliciting major backlash including fans of taylor swift who were quick to point out that the popstar is also, quote, a childless cat lady and has yet to endorse a candidate. of course as bad as all of that is, for vance politically and women in general, it gets even worse if you believe it. prior to his cat lady remarks vance said if you don't have kids your vote should not count as much at the ballot box. apparently he wants to deny it voting rights to childless women. >> when you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you

should have more power. you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic than people who don't have kids. let's face the consequences and the reality. if you don't have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you should not get the same voice. doesn't this mean that parents get a bigger say in how our democracy functions? yes. >> so not only should childless women be less entitled to an equal vote according to vance, he also wants to tax them at a higher rate than those who have kids. that was even too much for the editorial board of the wall street journal, which is quite conservative by the way. they slammed vance for wanting to use the tax code as a weapon against people who don't share his values. they point out the obvious that raising taxes on the childless is not a winning campaign slogan. all of this is consistent with vance's radical stance on abortion which is in keeping

with trump's view that women must be punished. he wants to force the victims of rape and incest to bear the children of their attackers. a circumstance that he dismissed as a mere inconvenience and said federal intervention might be necessary to prevent women for crossing state lines for reproductive care. basically to sum this up he wants all women to have children, even if they are raped and for those who don't have kids he thinks there vote should count less and he has a hatred for childless women who happen to have cats. the truth is, j.d. vance is passing a lot of judgment on millions of people in this country, but he also has been doing it for a long time. >> so i would say we should care about declining fertility, not just because it is bad for our economy, but because we think babies are good and we think babies are good because we are not sociopaths. >> of course babies are good. i love babies, but people can still like babies and not have

any of their own and you are certainly not a sociopath just because you don't have children. fortunately vance's weird views are not even winning within his own party. here is how one conservative pundits acknowledged his problem. >> if you're trying to win suburban women and you call suburban women childless cat ladies, you are not going to convince them to come to your side. i think it is funny as a republican, but i don't think a lot of suburban women on the fence will find it funny. >> it is not really funny. so, vance is clearly finding a way to make a lot of people mad, on both sides of the aisle. when given the opportunity to clean things up and maybe apologize for his offensive words, this is what he said. >> obviously it was a sarcastic comment. have nothing against cats. nothing against dogs. i have one dog at home and i love him. people are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what i actually

said and the substance of what i said, i'm sorry, it's true. >> notice, vance didn't say i'm sorry if anyone was hurt by my comments or all women should have a voting rights. he doubled down on his weird ideas. the only apology i heard was the cat and last i checked they are not voting in the upcoming election. our friends claire mccaskill and jen palmieri are standing by and join me next. for people who feel limited by the unpredictability of generalized myasthenia gravis and who are anti-achr antibody positive, season to season, ultomiris is continuous symptom control,

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just in the past few days democrats organically settled on a new attack line against donald trump and j.d. vance. basically these guys are just plain weird. >> you know there is something wrong with people when they talk about freedom, freedom to be in your bedroom. freedom to be in your exam room. that stuff is weird. they seem obsessed with this. >> we are using this fake living room to talk to you about

a super weird idea from j.d. vance. >> it is quite weird. >> what was weird was him joking about racism and talking about diet mountain dew. who drinks diet mountain dew? >> on the other side they are just weird. >> and his running mate, just plain weird. >> joining me now, to people you know well who are not at all weird. former missouri senator claire mccaskill and former white house communications director for president obama, jennifer palmieri. people i've talked to in green rooms and texted with about everything happening in the past week, i won't talk about that. i will start with this shift in messaging. i think it is really good, but i want to know what you think. jen palmieri, let me start with you. what do you make of this weird, strange language we are hearing

out there? >> i think we need to credit governor walz with it. he is a straightforward midwestern guy and it is working. not to get too wrapped around the axle about what you describe that actually happened, which is sort of odd. you talk about organic stuff and the other organic thing is we are not going to go back. that is the message that came from vice president harris, but the crowd picked up on it and you know that campaigns, winning campaigns are ones where things break organically. you have weird on the defensive side and on the offensive side you have her saying we are not going back and that catching on with the public, too. i think both are really powerful. >> i totally agree. claire, you have run and won some tough campaigns. you also interviewed governor

walz this week. what you make of what i think is a constructive and accessible shift in messaging over the past week or so? >> i think democrats always have a problem trying to get into the weed of why their policies are bad and why our policies are good. what i really like about the harris for president campaign is they are sticking with very relatable, very accessible and frankly very uplifting tones. not saying the other side is extreme. they are saying it is just weird and that is how people talk. i think people relate to that and they are also talking about freedom and the future. and by the way, we are proud of our laughter and joy. we are not talking about darkness and grievance. we are talking about light. we are talking about opportunity. i think all of these broad strokes that are simple and

straightforward will really serve the harris campaign well. i just pray we don't get into the weeds about, oh, we have to get into the policy differentials on environmental or offshore drilling. we've got to stay with these really uplifting, positive, and by the way, they are weird. >> no question about it. i love how you said it is how people talk. this is sort of the bar. if you have jobs like i've had, you are trying to talk how people talk to connect with people out there. you wrote an op-ed today that i loved that had a lot of good lines and language in it and it is so perfect for this moment. last week surprised me and i think a lot of people who have been doing this for a long time about how unifying, how energizing it really was. i love this. you say you can be both enthusiastic about the democrats new ticket and clear eyed about the challenges vice president harris and her running mate will face, which i

think is totally right. but what do you mean by that for people out there who are wringing their hands or who are like it is over and we won the race? >> three weeks ago we were all worried too much and now we are overconfident. all right, maybe we should stop worrying and get to work. what i actually think is happening with women who have been so dispirited a few weeks ago is that we feel like we have a chance now and we want to do everything we can to prevent a trump victory and we feel like we have a fighting shot and we are ready to go at it. i think you need to fully embrace that because we all know. i worked for hillary clinton. we know what is coming. by the way on the trump side they have started putting up a number of videos trying to attack the vice president and my recommendation is that they and we do not get too distracted by that. i think on the messaging side i

would pick up the fact that trump said a couple days ago that to christians, these are not your normal, these are not your grandmother's christians. these are people with a policy agenda. they said you don't have to vote in four years because i will get everything done for you. that has been the most extreme, extreme agenda you can imagine. do offense on that and then give your supporters, all of these people who are newly energized, make sure they have something to do. daughters and dad's for kamala harris to get young women to make sure their fathers will vote and and midwestern states are going to vote for the vp. i think there is something really at the core of the support for her which is important, which is people feeling like i have a chance to fight back. what can i do to help? and making and embracing that energy, because it is going to

take that kind of group effort to get this done. >> no question about it and, claire, i could talk to you guys for hours. we only have about one minute left, but one of the big moments coming up is the vp pick. you are welcome to tell us who you like and who sticks out to you, but you know vice president harris well. what are the factors that you think they are looking at, they should look at as they are determining this? it will not just be a running mate for three months, it will be her partner for years after that. >> well, everyone being that it is very qualified. i don't think she can go wrong. i think she will look for someone who number one she feels like she has a working relationship with who she can partner with that can pivot and punch. and she's right, they will really come after her and by the way the only thing so far they have tried to come after her on his her record.

supposedly she is not supportive of law enforcement. we now have j.d. vance his own words saying i hate the police and we have donald trump saying he's going to pardon people who assaulted police officers and are in prison right now. i think there is a lot of pivot and punch that can go on with a vice presidential candidate who can get out on the trail and i think all of the men she is considering would be terrific. i don't think she can go wrong. >> claire mccaskill and jennifer palmieri, thank you both so much. i appreciate your time. coming up, california senator laphonza butler knows kamala harris better than almost anyone in washington. she joins me next. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, ♪ ♪ liberty. ♪

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okay, i want to show you a picture. this is vice president kamala harris at the swearing-in ceremony for democratic senator laphonza butler last year. only three black women have served as senators throughout history and in this image there are two. for a reminder that every first that can be seconds and thirds and hopefully more than that. it is a reminder that progress is possible and those are good things to keep in mind as the presidential campaign unfolds. joining me now is senator laphonza butler of california. it is great to see you and i am thrilled to talk to you for so many reasons. you know the vice president. people are just getting to know her. this has been quite a week. we have been talking about it on the show and i want to start by asking, how has it been for you?

>> thank you so much for having me, first of all. it is always great to talk to you and look, this has been elation for me, for my family, my daughter is about to turn 10. she has known vice president harris her entire life and as i was talking with her last sunday about what was happening and president biden's incredible leadership in this moment, the first thing she said to me is can you ask if i can be her vice president? that is what we want. that is what we want for our children. we want a leader that our children can aspire to, who is honest and pursues justice and is open to everyone. it has been a moment of great pride for me. i am really ecstatic for my friend and i am happy for the country. we had an opportunity to do something great and it is right in front of us, but we have a lot of work to do.

>> you have been reminding people that it is great. so many people have been feeling that. also that this is not her first rodeo and she is not new. unfortunately the gross sexist and racist attacks launched against her and will continue to be launched. it feels to me sometimes like part of the goal of this is to make people feel like it is not possible, which is why i want to keep talking about this. what do you say to people saying that to you or do you hear saying that out there? >> look, it is not the vice president's first rodeo and the truth of the matter is it is not the first time she has been bullied. not the first time she has been called names. in every occasion that she had the lead on behalf of the american people or the people of california she has leaned into it. in her words to those who were name-calling already, who were making dismissive, sexist, racist statements, bring it on. the people of this country are

tired of mediocrity being there only option and we have in this moment the opportunity to do something great to show women and girls, young men the next level of excellence for this country. and what i say to them is bring it, because we are not new to this, we are true to this. >> not new to this, true to this. i want to ask because i can't get over his comments about women and there are so many that we talked about. about j.d. vance. i have a daughter that is younger than your daughter as you know. when you hear the way he talks about women and families, he clearly doesn't understand the diversity of families in this country and how it is a beautiful thing, but what is your reaction to all of that? >> look, i think j.d. vance has got to speak to his comments himself. i find his comments derogatory

and dismissive. i find his comments to be representative of the extreme right wing of his party. exclusionary and not finding another category of people who simply don't belong in the american electorate and the fabric of our country and if they are going to continue to tell groups that they don't belong, women who don't have children. lgbtq plus communities, that they don't belong, that electorate is going to be smaller and smaller and what we have got to be able to do is throw the doors of this democracy wide open and create a space for everyone and i believe that vice president harris embodies that kind of vision for the country. >> before you were a senator, you have done a lot of things in your career i think it is safe to say, but you also ran emily's list. in 2016 part of hillary clinton's loss was attributed to her lack of support among women, white women

specifically. we are seeing massive organizing calls out there. there is like white dudes for harris, literally that is the name of the one happening tomorrow, but what do you want to see to be encouraged that what happened in 2016 won't happen again? >> it is a great, great question. i had a circuitous career working for the men and women of labor, being supportive of the vice president. having the privilege of leading the oldest, most renowned organization for pro-choice women and politics at emily's list and what i look forward to is the telling of the story of california that truly does encompass the totality of america. in order to be a successful elected official and public servant in california you have got to be able to bring people together. it is a diverse state that is

not just los angeles and san francisco. it is 58 counties. it is beaches, it is mountains, it is urban, it is rural and everything in between. what kamala harris was taught by california is everyone has to have a seat at the table for it to be meaningful. for us to truly be part of this representative democracy and again, take the nation to its next level of excellence. so i am excited about the opportunity for the vice president to put those full skills on display. for women who are uniting and answering the call, uniting for the vice president. black women, latina women, api women. i was on the lgbtq plus community call. black men, white dudes. it is incredible the kind of coalition coming together to reject the vision of hate that is being put forth. to reject division and coming forward to bring a new story.

a true story to what this campaign is and what the future of our country can be. >> senator laphonza butler, thank you for joining us this afternoon. i have one more thing to tell you about. we are back after a quick break. hi. i use febreze fade defy plug. and i use this. febreze has a microchip to control scent release so it smells first-day fresh for 50 days. 50 days!? and its refill reminder light means i'll never miss a day of freshness. ♪

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one unlimited line and get one free for a year. get the fastest connection to paris with xfinity. - there's no book with all the answers when it comes to raising children, but any book can give them a head start. studies show that reading to your kids ten minutes a day can improve their memory and concentration. so pick a book--any book-- and read. two minnesota governor tim walz will join you tomorrow night at 8:00 in the printed for now, stay right where you are, because there is much more news coming up on msnbc. >> [ music ]