During a Monday interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, CNN’s Laura Coates admitted to her that she is a big fan as she claimed to be “struck” that despite her “passion” Republicans claiming that a vote for President Joe Biden is a vote for Harris as if that would be a bad thing.
Coates concluded the interview by declaring:
I’m struck, just in your presence, the, I was watching you on stage, watching the reactions from the crowd, looking you in the eye with your passion that you were displaying in talking about so many issues and yet, you hear candidates suggesting that a vote for President Biden, because of his age, is somehow a vote for you and that is hurled as an insult. It's intended to demonstrate some negative viewpoint towards you. What is your reaction to this thought? That with your background, in particular, with your career, that there is some thought that you are incapable?
Presidential and vice presidential candidates get attacked all the time, but Harris naturally responded by crying sexism, “Well, I think that most women who have risen in their profession, who are leaders in their profession, have had similar experiences. I was the first woman to be elected district attorney. I was the first woman to be elected attorney general in the state of California, and I'm the first woman to be vice president. And I love my job.”
The rest of the interview wasn’t much better. Earlier on, Coates fawned over Harris’s abortion activism, “I know this is a very big and important issue right now and voters have been looking at it in previous elections as a time to turn out. It is something you are very passionate about in terms of freedom and choice… With respect to that issue in particular, what could not have been done in the first term that you require a second to accomplish?”
Harris predictably mourned the fall of Roe, “in the next 10 months, do everything we can to remind people that the Court, the Supreme Court, took a constitutional right from the people of America, from the women of America and the United States Congress has the power and ability to put that right back in place, to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade into law.”
Sticking with abortion, Coates tied the issue to violence against women:
When you were a prosecutor, this was an extraordinary focus…Crimes against women, violence against women and children. I know you have been very passionate about this for a long time… when you talk about the states in particular, you hold Trump responsible for the nomination of three Supreme Court justices who you believe intended, at all times, to overturn this important president, as you say, 51 years later, here we are with it now being in past tense. If it's a state-related issue, is the election, or the candidacy, the campaign of Trump, as important?
Harris replied that Donald Trump, and presumably all pro-lifers, get some morbid joy out of seeing women suffer, “he’s proud of what he did and let's be clear, so by inference, he is proud that women have been deprived of fundamental freedoms to make decisions about their own body. By inference, proud that doctors are being penalized and criminalized for providing healthcare. Proud that women are silently suffering because they don’t have access to the health care that they need.”
Coates didn’t have a problem with that, but she did seem have a problem with the ongoing border-Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan aid negotiations from the left, “And yet there’s progressives who are very angry about-- progressives about Dreamers, about a pathway to citizenship not being included in the latest negotiations on these issues. Why are they—”
Harris cut her off claiming she won’t speak to current negotiations before giving typical Democratic talking points, before claiming “they should be protected,” but apparently Harris also needs to be protected—from tough questions because anything closely resembling a tough question was from her left.
Here is a transcript for the January 22 show:
CNN Laura Coates Live
1/22/2024
11:03 PM ET
LAURA COATES: Excuse me, with respect to abortion, in particular, I know this is a very big and important issue right now and voters have been looking at it in previous elections as a time to turn out. It is something you are very passionate about in terms of freedom and choice.
KAMALA HARRIS: Okay, sure, no, yeah, sure, we can talk about choice, yeah, yeah.
COATES: With respect to that issue in particular, what could not have been done in the first term that you require a second to accomplish?
HARRIS: So, the first thing that has to happen on the issue of abortion and choice, and freedom for reproductive care, is that we need to, in the next 10 months, do everything we can to remind people that the Court, the Supreme Court, took a constitutional right from the people of America, from the women of America and the United States Congress has the power and ability to put that right back in place, to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade into law.
…
COATES: When you were a prosecutor, this was an extraordinary focus.
HARRIS: Yes and children.
COATES: Crimes against women, violence against women and children. I know you have been very passionate about this for a long time.
HARRIS: Yes.
COATES: In a variety of different fields—
HARRIS: Yes.
COATES: -- but I do wonder, when you talk about the states in particular, you hold Trump responsible for the nomination of three Supreme Court justices who you believe intended, at all times, to overturn this important president, as you say, 51 years later, here we are with it now being in past tense. If it's a state-related issue, is the election, or the candidacy, the campaign of Trump, as important?
HARRIS: Well, let's first be clear that the previous president expressed his intentions quite clearly. And fast-forward to just recently, says he’s proud of what he did and let's be clear, so by inference, he is proud that women have been deprived of fundamental freedoms to make decisions about their own body.
By inference, proud that doctors are being penalized and criminalized for providing healthcare. Proud that women are silently suffering because they don’t have access to the health care that they need. So, let's understand that the stakes are so very high and listen, Joe Biden, President Joe Biden has been very clear: when Congress puts the protections of Roe back into the law, he will sign it. Similarly, President Joe Biden has been very clear, if these extremists achieve their other goal, which is to have a national ban, which means state by state by state, Joe Biden will veto that. The stakes are high.
…
COATES: And yet there’s progressives who are very angry about-- progressives about Dreamers, about a pathway to citizenship not being included in the latest negotiations on these issues. Why are they--
HARRIS: I won’t speak to the current negotiations and the status of the current negotiations, but I will tell you that Dreamers under, sadly, some of the draconian approaches to them have been treated very badly and that we have to understand who our Dreamers are. First of all, in the height of the pandemic, it was so many Dreamers who were frontline workers—
COATES: It’s true.
HARRIS: -- working on saving lives. Dreamers, many of them, before they could walk or talk, were brought into the country and have lived very productive lives, serving in our military, serving in Fortune 500 companies, and they should be honored for the contribution they are making. And they should be protected.
…
COATES: Let me ask you one more question. I’m struck, just in your presence, the, I was watching you on stage, watching the reactions from the crowd, looking you in the eye with your passion that you were displaying in talking about so many issues and yet, you hear candidates suggesting that a vote for President Biden, because of his age, is somehow a vote for you and that is hurled as an insult. It's intended to demonstrate some negative viewpoint towards you. What is your reaction to this thought? That with your background, in particular, with your career, that there is some thought that you are incapable?
HARRIS: Well, I think that most women who have risen in their profession, who are leaders in their profession, have had similar experiences. I was the first woman to be elected district attorney. I was the first woman to be elected attorney general in the state of California, and I'm the first woman to be vice president. And I love my job.
