Vice President Kamala Harris gave a one-on-one interview with political pundit Brian Tyler Cohen on Sunday, in which Harris addressed a range of concerns that are likely to be important to voters come November.
Emphasizing issues that Democrats hope to capitalize on, Harris stressed her party’s focus on the importance of protecting reproductive rights in what is shaping up as a critical election year on abortion, as she and President Joe Biden run for re-election against former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Trump, who has boasted repeatedly about overturning Roe v. Wade by nominating three conservative Supreme Court justices (Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch) while he was in the White House, has said he would leave abortion laws up to the individual states — though he is being pushed by influential conservative groups to use federal powers to criminalize abortion and even contraception.
.@VP: “If Donald Trump is president again and a national abortion ban hits his desk, odds on favorite he signs it. And for all our friends in CA and NY and all these other states that have protected this freedom, don’t get too comfortable. A nationwide ban on abortion is a… pic.twitter.com/hbgjlrazhO
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) June 9, 2024
Harris warned: “If Donald Trump is president again and a national abortion ban hits his desk, odds on favorite he signs it. And for all our friends in California and New York and all these other states that have protected this freedom, don’t get too comfortable. A nationwide ban on abortion is a nationwide ban on abortion.”
During the 16-minute interview (above), Harris also discussed Trump’s criminal conviction, Senate Republicans blocking a vote to guarantee access to contraception, and her reaction to Florida Congressman Byron Donalds‘s recent comments regarding the Jim Crow era, which Harris said were “inexcusable, at the highest level.” Note: Donalds is considered a top VP pick for Trump, which would make him Harris’s opponent in the upcoming Vice President debates.