Over the past month senator harris has cosponsored the justice in policing act, coauthored the bipartisan harris amendment, helped introduce a resolution decrying attacks on the Affordable Care act and helped introduce the whistleblower protection act [indiscernible] coronavirus pandemic. Harris is the former District Attorney of San Francisco, the former attorney general of california, made a run for the democratic president ial nomination and is now talked about as a possible president ial runningmate to joe biden. Right now harris is front and center in the senate, in the Senate Debate on Police Reform and she joins me now. Enator harris, welcome back. Senator harris thank you for being with you, jonathan. Happy birthday. Jonathan thank you. Before we get to Police Reform, we have to get to intelligence and the russia story obtained bounties on the lives of american soldiers. You are a member of the Senate Intelligence committee. You attended a Briefing Regarding the allegations that russia was involved in his. Given what you learned, is the intelligencein doubt . Senator harris is the intelligence in doubt . I would say that i, during the course of my threeplus years of being on the Senate Intelligence committee and, therefore, in regular receipt of classified information about the threats to our National Security and hot spots around the world that i have come to respect, highly respect the Intelligence Community for their professionalism, for the detail, and the precision with which they work and the enormity of their responsibility, which is to inform us as policymakers, to inform the executive branch in a way we can make smart decisions that are in the best interest of our nations ecurity. Jonathan ok, given what you learned, is it credible that President Trump did not know about this intelligence, about the russians paying taliban bounties on the heads of american soldiers . Senator harris i am not in a position to share with you classified information, but i will say this. It is wellknown and understood that part of the responsibility of the president of the United States is to concern himself or herself with the wellbeing of our Service Members who sacrificed and are willing to sacrifice their lives in honor and in protection of our country and our security. And it would be it would be wonderful to have a president who actually cares about those men and women and expresses some level of concern about their wellbeing. But we dont see that with donald trump in any meaningful way. He does it when he wants to have a military parade. But the reality is, ive been to afghanistan, ive been to these hot spots, and our folks need a president and a commander in chief who has their best interest as his or her first priority. We just frankly have not seen that from donald trump. Jonathan so given what you just said and given the briefings you just attended, but especially given what you just said about President Trump, do you think the president of the United States is a National Security hreat . Senator harris in many ways, i think that hes not he has not, throughout his tenure as president , prioritized what is in the best interest of our the health and wellbeing of the American People on the homeland or around the world. You just look at this most recent threat to the health and wellbeing of our country, which is the pandemic. And from the very beginning, donald trump referred to it as a hoax. He spent full time trying to minimize the seriousness of it. Hes attempted to muzzle Public Health experts and to deny the realities of the harm and also what we can do to mitigate the harms such as wearing a mask and basic things that are necessary to stem the tide of this virus until we get a vaccine. You can talk about it on the issue of the climate crisis. And the fact hes been basically a science denier. And you can look at the facts, again, our Intelligence Community has been very clear, unanimous in its finding of russias interference in the election of the president in 2016. Again he dismissed the seriousness or significance or veracity of that information. So we have many examples that tell us that donald trump is not well equipped, if at all equipped, to be the commander in chief. Jonathan why wont the president take action against russia . I mean, this latest story isnt the first time russia has done something that goes counter to either americas interests or the interests of the nato alliance. So why wont he hold them accountable for some of the egregious things that theyve done . Senator harris i cant speculate or get into the mind of donald trump. And i think, frankly, im too busy looking at what hes doing to worry about how hes thinking. The fact is when you look at his actions and his conduct, hes not taken seriously the fact that we have an adversary, a longstanding adversary, who has been responsible for threats to our democracy and donald trump refuses and clearly incapable of speaking out about the nature of that relationship and the response that our country should have when we are attacked in any form. Jonathan senator, are you surprised there has been relative silence from your republican colleagues about the president s conduct when it comes to National Security . Senator harris well, you know, jonathan, i was elected bittersweet on the same evening as donald trump was elected. So ive only known one senate and thats the senate when donald trump has been president. And it has been troubling. It has been a source of sadness and frustration to see my colleagues on the republican side not stand up in a way that i believe they would if perhaps donald trump werent president. I dont i dont understand ow at some point we each cant feel compelled to put country before party. So it is deeply troubling, and we need to have an understanding that especially on issues like National Security that it should be nonpartisan. When we are talking about issues like a Public Health pandemic and crisis where almost 130,000 lives have been lost in the last 100 days that we should all stand up and look at the need for our country to have leadership that sees the problems that we are facing and focus on solutions as opposed to the political priorities or hreats of a president. Jonathan senator, lets talk about an issue where it seemed like there was going to be bipartisan agreement and that as on Police Reform. Senator tim scott of South Carolina was leading the republican leading the republican effort on their justice act. But you, along with Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer and senator corey booker of new jersey, you signed a letter to the majority leader saying the justice act was, quote, is not salvageable. Why what was wrong with the legislation proposed by senator scott and why wasnt it possible for all of you to get in a room and negotiate a deal since there is public sentiment behind doing something to reform the police . Senator harris recall the chronology of this. Which is that senator booker and i proposed on the senate side, along with our colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus on the house side, and then it was joined by Senate Democrats and Senate Democrats in the democrats and republicans on the house side a bill. We came up with a bill called the justice in policing act, which would deal with a number of specific issues that relates to the need for accountability and consequence when Law Enforcement officers break the rules and break the law. Nine days later, nine days later, the republicans submit this bill that essentially dealt with nothing in any substantive way that we dealt with in our bill. In our bill, for example, we banned chokeholds and carotid holds. If that were in effect, george floyd would be alive today. Noknock warrants. If that were in effect, Breonna Taylor would be alive today. We require that there would be a National Standard for use of force. So when an officer uses excessive force, the question would not be, was that use of force reasonable . Because we know you can reason away anything. The question is, was that use f force necessary . We deal with a number of very specific issues. We say there should be pattern in practice investigation by the United States department of justice and they should be equipped with subpoena power so that when you have Law Enforcement agencies that dont want to cooperate they have the tool to do the investigation. The republican bill, by contrast, did not ban chokeholds and carotid holds and noknock warrants in drug cases, independent is not speaking to investigations, is not speaking to independent investigations and the need for those and instead talks about a bunch of studies and bringing people together to have conversation. Look, were going weve been having these conversations for decades now. This is a time to act and thats why people by the hundreds of thousands in our country have taken to the streets. People who seemingly have nothing in common who have been marching together knowing we cannot have a system of justice in america and we need to reform this system in tangible ways, not just giving it lip service, but actually putting some teeth into this. Jonathan well, senator, because policing isnt done at the federal level, its been done at the state and local level, youre more powerful as d. A. Of San Francisco or attorney general of california than you are now as the United States senator. If you were either of those positions right now in the middle of the black lives matter movement, whats the one thing you could do ubstantively to reform the police . Senator harris well, its a number of the things we talked about. Everything that i just mentioned to you is about creating National Standards. And it would definitely regulate federal law nforcement but it also creates a National Standard to support the local activists or the progressive prosecutors or Law Enforcement leaders who know thats where they need to get and they need some more reinforcement to actually get their policies to that standard. And so there is no question that the majority of criminal justice work is happening at the local level. Theres no question about that. But that doesnt absolve a need for National Standards to, again, create a standard by which everyone should be measured. Jonathan so senator, this situation that were in right now reminds me of gun control the gun control environment in the wake of newtown where it seemed like between public sentiment and action on capitol hill that it was going to be possible for something to be done and yet nothing was done. Im getting the feeling that might be the case here. Ne of the solutions could be and it might be the case to flip the senate, to have the democrats take control of the senate. And im asking this question because we have a question from pennsylvania, from kathryn, and she asks point blank, what are you doing to help flip the senate . Senator harris yeah. So kathryn, youre absolutely right. That should be one of our main areas of focus because right now we as democrats are not in the majority. And it is really basic about what happens around capitol hill in the senate. If youre in the majority, you get to write the rules. You get to decide what bills are going to come up for votes. You get to decide who will end up serving Lifetime Appointments on the federal courts, including the United StatesSupreme Court. Theres a tremendous amount of power in who has the majority in the senate. So you are right. We are now in the minority, which means that we dont have control over these things. And we need to flip the senate so we can get in the majority so we can have legislation on the floor for a vote that is about meaningful Police Reform, so that we can have legislation p for a vote that is about addressing the climate crisis, o we can have legislation that is on the floor for a vote around the passage of creating a pathway to citizenship for our immigrants. These are the things that we need to do. How do we do it . Well, one of the things that we need to do is we need to support the Senate Candidates who are going to turn red states blue. I have a list of who they are. I have been hosting a lot of the new candidates who are challenging incumbents as a way to introduce them because the challenge that the new candidates are having, theyre campaigning without planning for it in the midst of a pandemic so they cant travel. And so its important to seek them out. But lets recognize that we need to take back the white ouse and elect joe biden president and weve got to flip the senate because the combination of the two will allow us to really see progress in our country. Jonathan two quick questions. I know you have a hard out and have to go. What does it say that the Trump Administration is still trying to undo the Affordable Care act in the middle of a andemic . Senator harris just speaks to the heartlessness of the proposal and perspective. From day one, the Trump Administration has been trying to get rid of the Affordable Care act. In large part because they and i think donald trump wants to undo whatever success and accomplishment was achieved by president obama and Vice President biden. And so they have talked about repealing and replace. Theres been no plan whatsoever for replace. Its been all about trying to get rid of a Public Policy initiative that brought health care to over 20 Million People. And to your point, right now, donald trump has bill barr and the Supreme Court trying to get rid of the Affordable Care act. If they win, 23 Million People in our country will no longer have the health care that they need. And it will also, then, allow the bans on preexisting conditions that we had efore. So this is a serious issue in the midst of a pandemic that has killed now over 128,000 people in our country. And it speaks to the heartlessness, it speaks to the motivations that is about political gain as opposed to whats in the best interest of the health and wellbeing of the citizens of our country. Jonathan final question. Shyamala was 19 when she came to the United States from india to get a doctorate at erkeley. She became a Breast Cancer esearcher. She died of cancer in 2009, and she was your mother. You wrote in your book, the truths we hold, that you and your sister, maya, quote, rarely earned praise for behavior or achievements that were expected. O final question to you, senator. What would she say about all the talk that her daughter could be tapped to be joe bidens runningmate and possibly the next Vice President of the United States . Senator harris you know, my mother was always and i, therefore, i believe you have to focus on whats right in front of you instead of looking to the thing over there because the thing is right in front of you needs your attention. And right now my focus, therefore, is on what we need to do around addressing the impacts of the coronavirus, in terms of the Public Health impact, economic impact. My focus is passing the justice in policing act. These are the things front and center. These are the things causing people to stand in bread lines around our country, causing people to march in the streets. Thats what im focused on. Jonathan thats what youre ocused on. The question is, your mom was always very proud of you senator harris and my mother as very practical. Youve not met a more practical person in your life. She was a fighter and she was practical. And she would say, baby, just focus on whats right in front of you as the next thing, whatever thats meant to be, will come. [laughter] jonathan all right, senator Kamala Harris of california, thank you very much for coming back to the podcast and for being here. Senator harris thank you. I appreciate it. Good to see you, jonathan. Jonathan you too. Washington post live will be back next week with president and c. E. O. Barbara hunton and my colleague, robin, will interview the founder and creative director of brother baylese. Jonathan capehart of the washington post. Thank you for being here. Happy fourth. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] cspans washington journal every day. Were taking your calls live on the air, on the news of the day, and discussing policy issues that impact you. Coming up friday morning, moderator of the swing state voter project discusses his focus groups with recent campaign 2020 swing voters in key counties across the country. Then how the covid19 pandemic and racial discord could influence campaign 2020, with the ethics and Public Policy centers henry olson. And a political reporter previews President Trumps event friday at mount rush more. Rushmore. Watch cspans washington journal and be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, Text Messages and tweets. Book tv on cspan2. 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It seems rather comical because the reason that i chose to do