Vice President Kamala Harris gave an interview today to three reporters at a gathering of the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, where she said she had called former President Donald Trump and “checked on him to see if he was ok” after the latest would-be assassination attempt against him. The White House called the conversation cordial and brief.
Harris also condemned the “hateful rhetoric” and baseless claims about Haitian migrants in Ohio, that Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, have been repeating. "I know that people are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio, and it’s got to stop,” she said, not mentioning Trump by name.
More work to do: Asked whether voters are better off now than they were four years ago, Harris responded by first reminding people about the challenging conditions the Biden-Harris administration inherited, much of which she attributed to former President Donald Trump. She listed off “the worst unemployment since the Great Depression”; “the worst public health epidemic in centuries”; and said they took office “after the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” (The labor market claim is exaggerated, since the unemployment rate had fallen to 6.4% by January 2021 after peaking at 14.8% in April 2020.)
“We had then a lot of work to do to clean up a mess,” Harris said.
The vice president then ran through a list of administration accomplishments. She touted the 16 million jobs added, a historic low in the Black unemployment rate, strong growth in small business formation, the new $35 cap on the monthly cost of insulin for seniors, a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket prescription costs and the first Medicare drug price negotiations.
“These are just some of the accomplishments,” she said. “Is the price of groceries still too high? Yes. Do we have more work to do? Yes.”
Harris then discussed her plans for an “opportunity economy,” including incentives to build new housing to address the national shortage. Asked about making childcare more affordable she said it is sad that people often have to decide between working and providing care because the existing options are so expensive.
“My plan is that no working family should pay more than 7% of their income on childcare, because I know that when we talk about the return on that investment, allowing people to work, allowing people to pursue their dreams in terms of how they want to work, where they want to work, benefits us all. It strengthens the entire economy.” Harris also promoted her plan to expand the Child Tax Credit to provide up to $6,000 for parents with newborns.
