Vice President Kamala Harris was in Detroit on Tuesday to record an “audio town hall” with Charlamagne Tha God, where she told the radio host with confidence that she would beat former President Donald Trump at the ballot box next month.
“I’m going to win. I’m going to win,” she said. “But it’s tight. And what is at stake is truly profound and historic.”
The presidential nominee’s sit-down with Charlamagne, in which she took questions from local callers, is part of her campaign’s attempt to shore up support among Black men, a key voting bloc for the Democratic Party.
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During the town hall, Harris also defended her time as a district attorney and California attorney general, a huge point of contention for critics on both the left and right sides of the political spectrum.
“One of the biggest pieces of misinformation, one of the biggest allegations against you, is that you targeted and locked up thousands of Black men in San Francisco,” Charlamagne told her, pointing out that she had aggressively prosecuted weed-related crimes.
“It’s just simply not true,” Harris replied. “I was the most progressive prosecutor in California on marijuana cases and would not send people to jail for simple possession of weed.” Under the Biden administration, she added, she had been a “champion for bringing marijuana down on the schedule.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris participates in a town hall with radio host Charlamagne Tha God in Detroit, Michigan.
Kevin Lamarque/ReutersThe vice president’s stance on cannabis has evolved over the years, becoming more progressive as she ascended to federal office and national prominence. Since 2020, she has supported pardons for Americans convicted of federal marijuana possession and championed laws to reclassify the drug, according to USA Today. She added on Tuesday that, if elected, she intended to decriminalize recreational marijuana nationwide.
She was more reticent on other topics, however, and demurred when asked point blank by a listener about whether she supported reparations for Black people.
“I do have clear eyes about the disparities that exist and the context in which they exist,” Harris said. “On the point of reparations, it has to be studied. There’s no question. And I’ve been very clear about that position.”
The town call comes a day after the Harris campaign unveiled new proposals specifically targeting Black male voters, with her team saying in a release that her “Opportunity Agenda” aimed to provide Black men “with the tools to achieve financial freedom, lower costs to better provide for themselves and their families, and protect their rights.”
One of the proposals is a plan to provide as many as a million fully forgivable loans of up to $20,000 for Black entrepreneurs looking to start businesses. Another would lay the groundwork for further investment into training, mentorship, and apprenticeship programs designed to help Black men land jobs in high-demand industries.
The campaign has ramped up its messaging to Black men as polls have begun to reflect a growing disparity between their support for Harris versus her predecessor. A New York Times/Siena College survey published over the weekend showed that while 90 percent of Black men polled had voted for Biden in 2020, just 78 percent plan to vote for Harris now, with 15 percent expressing support for Trump.
Charlamagne, who draws an audience of 8 million monthly listeners, many of them young and Black, has expressed his support for Harris, saying in July that he would “absolutely” endorse her after declining earlier this year to endorse President Joe Biden.
But that hasn’t stopped him from challenging her and her campaign strategy in recent months. He has also been critical of Biden and the Democratic Party, saying earlier this year that they spend too much time tearing into Trump at the expense of efficacy.
On Thursday, both Harris and Charlamagne lit into the former president. When Harris began outlining the differences between her and her rival’s platforms at one point, Charlamagne added that Trump’s vision was “about fascism, why can’t we just say that?”
“Yes, we can say that,” Harris responded.
The Trump campaign was quick to hit back, posting a clip of the exchange on X and adding, “This is the type of disgusting rhetoric that led to two assassination attempts against” the former president.
