President ial candidates. And tal kopan has covered Kamala Harris as a correspondent for the San Francisco chronicle. How much do you think senator harris is going to be introducing herself still to voters when she steps on the debate stage tonight . Guest certainly a large part. Obviously there are viewers who , tune into cspan, we feel like we know her. There is still probably a Large Population out there that may not. There are still folks who do not tune into the president ial election until after labor day. I went back in preparing for this appearance and looked at the piece i wrote for her first debate in the President Shall primary. That was exactly what her campaign was telling me at the time, that was her opportunity to introduce herself to america. The more people get to know her, the more people like her. I completely imagine that is going to be part of the game plan tonight as well. Of course, adding into that is drawing a contrast with the Trump Administration for those who do know her. Host sanfranciscochronicle. Com where viewers can go to look up those stories and to follow her to talkopan, her twitter handle. When she does introduce herself what part of her biography that , does she like to highlight . Guest for those of us who have been tuning in, we have probably heard the story of how she was carted around in a stroller in civil rights rallies. That one might pop up again. Those of us who are on the campaign trail with her, there are a lot of stories about her mom, a lot of quotes about her mom. Her mother is is an important figure in her life. Her mother was of course an immigrant from india, became a renowned scientist. Passedtely past [indiscernible] she actively raised Kamala Harris and her sister mostly on her own. Their parents divorced young and she only saw her dad weekends and summers. I think we will hear a lot of 50 y quotes from she her mother. Was attorney general. She was a progressive what she was, a progressive prosecutor as she calls her time, trying to reform the system from within. To give justice to families and to make sure that justice is applied evenly. That will probably be the general frame we hear from her which talks about her trajectory to this point. Host what part of her biography do her political opponents try to highlight. Whether it was when she was on the debate stage or since she was picked to be joe bidens Vice President ial running mate . Guest the reason i went to that prosecutor record is because that is where her opponents go. It is an interesting tension within her campaign, within her life story. She is very proud of that record. She really she wrote a whole book framing her memoir around the mantle of being a progressive prosecutor. She sort of bristles when anyone calls it into question. Her opponents really take objection to that record. There are some on the Progressive Left who say she can never be qualified to represent them in National Politics because she was a member of law enforcement. That in and of itself for them is just unacceptable. There are those who also her record can be a mix back bag depending on what you look at. Tulsi gabbard who did not have an incredible campaign, was never in the top tier, she really landed blows on Kamala Harris in that debate by going after that record, mentioning how in an interview Kamala Harris laughed about marijuana use and mentioned the jamaican side of her family and her late husband a proponent of legalization and criminal justice reform. But as a prosecutor, it is not like she never prosecuted any marijuana related offenses. If you get into the grant details she will say that she , focused on more highlevel cases, but that is the type of thing you see when her record comes up. It is a bit of a mixed bag. She obviously focuses on the things she did as a reformer, but her opponents always tend to focus on the things they say were not reformed enough. Host we are focusing on Kamala Harris ahead of tonights debate in Salt Lake City taking place at the university of utah. Hall, there is on your screen, that is what the debate stage looks like. There will be plexiglas screens up in front of the Vice President and senator Kamala Harris there this evening. We want to get your questions, your comments this morning with tal kopan. Phone lines split up as usual. If you support the trumppence ticket, it is 2027488001. If you support the biden harris ticket, 2027488000. If you are undecided this late in the election 2027488002 is , the number. Florida up first out of on that undecided line. Good morning. Caller i would like to ask your guest, if you look at Kamala Harriss record, it was exposed by Tulsi Gabbard and her run for president blew up. She didnt even make iowa. She finished last, she had to get out. You know if you look at her as a , progressive or Something Like that, it is kind of comical. She kept people in jail so she could use their prison labor to fight fires. She kept people she is a top cop. What understand how joe biden is going to gain from having Kamala Harris. Guest you mentioned a specific incident for folks at home may home who may not be familiar, when she was attorney general of california. There was Court Litigation over a california practice of using inmates in the presence system as firefighters. They are still dealing with the fire season in california that is horrific and they are used as firefighters and underpaid. There was litigation. Kamala harriss filed a brief in support i am sorry against , Early Release because of the necessity of using that labor to fight fires. She says in defense of that incident, she says she is not was not aware her office filed that and when she found out, she pulled back. That is how she would respond. You mentioned the Tulsi Gabbard seemed t absolutely it absolutely seemed like a turning point in her campaign. She withdrew from the race in september of last year. By the time voters in iowa were voting, she was off the ballot entirely. Her name might have appeared but she was no longer running. That moment, while not everything gabbard said was entirely correct, was difficult to come back from. Host bill is next, amarillo texas amarillo, texas on the , line supporting President Trump go ahead. About i was thinking this election when Ronald Reagan was running, he carried all of the states except his opponents and that was minnesota. He almost carried minnesota. 49 states he carried, but the district of columbia was voting against him six to one. That is how out of step the Nations Capital is or was. I presume it is the same or maybe worse. Of course the democrats want to make that a state. I can understand why, they would have an extra two senatorial votes all the time. Clear on into the end of time. Another issue of course is talking about his getting special treatment, that the president is getting special treatment with this coronavirus problem. Now, lets say if eisenhower got wounded back in world war ii, we would expect him to get special attention, wouldnt we . We are in the middle of a war and we need our generals. If we lose our top general, we have lost the war. Host the issue of the president s health and how you expect senator Kamala Harris will approach that tonight . Know, one guest you of the interesting things about this we really got to see kamala we really got to see Kamala Harris as a candidate in her own , right. But she is presenting joe biden at the end of the day. She recognizes that. Even though she had positions counter to joe biden in the primary. Since joining the ticket she has , adopted joe bidens positions and that is the job of the running mate. As a preamble, joe biden has been clear with his team he does not want to go on attack against the president while he is sick. He wants to show some empathy in that regard. I imagine Kamala Harris will take her cues from that position. At the same time, Vice President chairingharing the Coronavirus Task force and we expect her to go after the administrations handling of the pandemic at this point. Well over 200,000 americans have debt, millions have been infected with the disease. There could be lifelong consequences of what they have endured. We expect to hear a considerable amount of that from senator harris and going after pence and trump in their handling of that situation. We may not necessarily hear references to the president s health other than wishing him well. We will hear about the president and the Vice President record in terms of handling the virus that has impacted him as well. Host corning, new york this is , linda on the line for those supporting the bidenharris ticket. Caller as far as i am concerned trump has said that he was a , wartime leader and has left the battlefield before the war is over. Pence was a leader of the task force until trump could handle it and had to have all the attention. I welcome biden and harris and i think Kamala Harris is refreshing. Shes an energetic, she is very smart. I think they will do fine. Host tal kopan, your thoughts on that . Guest when joe biden [indiscernible] in a morea lot of private circles about who he should pick. One of the strong sentiments was that he would pick a woman, a woman of color and he needed someone younger than him which was one of the reasons i heard folks say Elizabeth Warren wasnt a great idea. Energetic and vigorous she was as a campaigner she is closer to joe bidens , age. When you mention harriss energy, i think that is what the Biden Campaign once you to see, and her as the next generation of Democratic Politics coming up with joe biden as he they hope, he ascends to the presidency. Host harris was for medicare for all before she was against it. How does she reconcile these opposing positions . Guest as much as we mentioned the Tulsi Gabbard moment, you ofld argue that that sort flipflopping or continuous clarification on medicare for all was the hardest moment for her in the president ial campaign. She fully embraced it and then put out her own plan that she said was still medicare for all. And then on one hand, bernie sanders, the author of medicaid medicare for all was saying she wasnt fully embracing it. On the other hand, her opponents to the right of her on health care, including joe biden, said she was fully embracing it. She never quite found her footing and ability to explain exactly where her Health Care Plan landed. It came across to other people some people as putting her finger into the wind a little too much. That said, ultimately at the end of the day, now shes going to say she represents joe bidens position. As much as she Still Believes in the objective of health care for all, she will say so does joe biden and here is his plan to get there. She will defend that plan. She has been really disciplined on the campaign trail. As someone who covered her for a long time on her own policies, it is somewhat surprising to hear how effectively she is adopting the Biden Campaign plans and mantras. She has embraced the role of running mate which is a supporting the person at the top of the ticket. Host this debate tonight is in Salt Lake City, utah. The next president ial debate is in miami, florida. That is where mike is on the undecided line. Mike, good morning. Caller [indiscernible] host mike, are you with us . I think we lost mike. Rolando is next out of texas, on the line for those who support the bidenharris ticket. Caller i am a strong supporter of the bidenharris ticket. Kamala harris is ready to be a competent voice for the American People along with biden. Pence has been just a henchman for trump. Pence cant even give us a truth about President Trumps status nor can he give us any type of information on the virus. He is hiding it. He was the task force main leader but he is mia. I think tonight Kamala Harris is going to prosecute trump and the Pence Administration guilty as charged, guilty of manslaughter of the American People. And so much more. This is why President Trump was impeached. Had the republicans removed him when he needed to be removed, perhaps we wouldnt have this occurring. All i can say is texas is now butall i can say is texas is now probably a swing state. The registration of texans has been astronomical. We havent seen this in ages. All we have to say is trump maga. Host using the term that she is going to prosecute the Trump Administration, that term prosecutor. That term used in this headline today previewed in the debate. Tal kopan on the term prosecutor. Like het sounds mightve heard her claims for President Trump. Campaignhphrase, her when she was hoping the American People would vote for her because of how much they wanted to see her on the stage with trump. This is not going to be that debate that perhaps many of her supporters had hoped for, but this will be her opportunity to go toe to toe with mike pence and by proxy go after trump. Keep in mind that pence is a different debater, a different speaker. Her campaign has been preparing the press to be impressed with mike pence, that he is difficult to pull down, his unstoppable, unstoppable, he is very smooth. She has her work cut out for her to try to do as she does in the senate in hearings and questions trumps nominees. This is not going to be that format. Shes going to have to work that much harder if she is hoping to score moments against the smooth eeledven killed even k mike pence. Host you talked about her press team setting the bar, what do we know about how she has personally prepared for the debate . Guest throughout her career i have been told by members of the staff who have known her for a long time that she prepares. She reads tons of material in advance, a throwback to when she was an attorney. You dont go into court, cross examination, without research. You know where you want to go on. Top of that, preparing for Senate Hearings like the Supreme Court nomination. You have binders and binders of material. At the end of the day, you have a few minutes to decide what you want to drill down on. She already has a framework for preparation for moments like this. We have to assume shes going in almost over prepared. She wants to go in feeling like she has done that work. Other than that she is using a lot of the same team that , prepared tim kaine for his debate against pence in the 2016 election cycle. Her team has a few holdovers from her campaign but also has members of the biden team that were handed to her when she was chosen as the nominee. She has been in Salt Lake City hunker down and preparing for this. The typical debate prep would apply here including standins and mock debates. Linesly preparing a few she will try to deliver as if she did not prepare we will see in advance. How well that goes. Host marietta, georgia on the line for those who support the trumppence ticket. Go ahead. Morning. Ood i am a black american, im a black nationalist, i am a female. I am college educated. And i live in the suburbs. I will still be voting for trump. Regarding Kamala Harris to me, she is a chameleon. She stresses her Indian Heritage when she in that surrounding. Is she stresses her black heritage when she is in that surrounding. And her stance is how she used those prisoners to fight fires, unconscionable. That it reminds me of the convict policing program. Also her stance as far as criminalizing parents of truant children. That goes beyond that is too much. That affects mostly poor people, not wealthy people. I dont trust her. She is a chameleon. Host tal kopan. Guest you mentioned the firefighters earlier, she had a program. The way she tells the story is that she realized the number one convectors of outcomes for young members of society is how much they were in school. So to try to get them to be in school more often, she established a program of truancy where there were consequent is for parents. On the one hand, there were consequences for parents. More kids were in school but there is that criticism now you just mentioned. It put potential criminal or Civil Penalties on parents. That is an example of what i am say itthat some might looks revolutionary to think about fighting crimes by going to the dropout rate and the truancy rate. Then you have this other question of were you over criminalizing Something Else in the process . It is absolutely one of those moments in her record that is there to look at. You mentioned her multiethnic background. I was writing a story on her a view months ago at the height of the Police Reform discussion and talking to a woman in oakland was also multiracial who grew up in the bay area where Kamala Harris was born and spent a lot of her formative years. One of the things that woman, her name is amy allison. She runs an organization to promote women of color and politics. She said something about oakland for her is it is a place where you can be all of what you are. Certainly in america, that is not really something everywhere in society that is welcome it is. It is hard enough to be one race in this country come in to be many races at once and try to embrace all sides of you Kamala Harris as much as she talks about how her mother raised her knowing that society would see them as black women even though they were half indian, she also spent considerable amounts of time in india with her extended family, with her grandfather who is a highranking diplomatic official and had friends that worked in the diplomatic community. They would have discussions about politics in india. It is true that the different parts of her background get highlighted at different times, but some of that might be on us, the press, that we pick and choose what we want to focus on. I think it is fair to say she is all of those things all the time, we just dont always see it all the time. A live look at the venue between Vice President mike pence and Kamala Harris is being held. The two are being seated 12 feet apart due to the pandemic. Ande is a plexiglas barrier everyone in the audience will be required to wear a mask. Our live coverage of the debate begins at 8 00 eastern with our preview program. The debate starts live at 9 00 p. M. Eastern followed by your reaction with your calls, comments, and tweets. Watch live coverage right here on cspan. [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] of the competition is on. Be part of the studentcam competition. Middleton High School Students start a National Conversation by making a 56 minute documentary exploring the issues you want president and congress to address in 2021. Be bold with your documentary. Show supporting and opposing points of view and include cspan video. Be a winner, one 100,000 in total cash prizes, including the grand prize of 5,000. The deadline to submit videos is january 2021. Find competition rules and more information on how to get started at our website, studen tcam. Org. Cspans washington journal, every day. Your reaction to the debate between Vice President mike pence and senator kamala. Join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook messages, text messages, and tweets. Live washington journal at 7 00 eastern. Senator Kamala Harriss sister it should have the senator is preparing for tonights president ial debate