The US is 'absolutely' ready for a female president, Harris says in NBC interview [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Tue 22 Oct 2024 20.27 EDT
Last modified on Tue 22 Oct 2024 21.21 EDT


Kamala Harris said that she has no doubt that the US was ready for a female president, insisting that Americans care more about what candidates can do to help them, rather than presidential contenders’ gender. The vice-president’s statement came during an interview with NBC News’s Hallie Jackson, who asked whether she thought the country was ready for a woman, and a woman of color, to be in the Oval Office. “Absolutely,” Harris said. “Absolutely.”

“In terms of every walk of life of our country,” Harris said, “part of what is important in this election is really, not really turning the page – closing a chapter, on an era that suggests that Americans are divided. “The vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us and what the American people want in their president is a president for all Americans,” she said.

Harris was asked why she hasn’t leaned into the historic nature of her candidacy – that she is a woman of color running for the presidency. “I’m clearly a woman. I don’t need to point that out to anyone,” Harris said with a laugh. “The point that most people really care about is: can you do the job and, do you have a plan to actually focus on them?”

“That is why I spend the majority of my time listening and then addressing the concerns, the challenges, the dreams, the ambitions and the aspirations of the American people,” Harris continued, saying that Americans deserve a president focused on them, “as opposed to a Donald Trump, who is constantly focused on himself”. Harris also said she was aware that Trump might potentially try thwarting the presidential election results, noting that her team “will deal with election night and the days after as they come”.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/22/kamala-harris-nbc-interview-female-president