The debate and discussing women in politics. This conversation was hosted by politico. Good wednesday afternoon. I am amanda palmer. Tonight, everyone is turning their attention to the one and only Vice President debate between Vice President mike pence and senator Kamala Harris of california. I am hosting a virtual roundtable to assess how this debate could play out differently in the matchup between President Trump and joe biden and how senator harris has prepared for tonight. [indiscernible] a series of virtual conversations intended to bring the women role community to the center as we continue to empower through the years had to change American Life and how women live, work, and lead from washington, d. C. To Corporate America and in their own communities and households. Joining me today for this roundtable is maya harris, Kamala Harriss sister i would ever closer divisors. A member of the Democratic National committee and an top advisor to Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign. Conversationw the using the hashtag room with us and we will also try to get a few audience questions before we enter this roundtable. Before we get started, we have a special video we are going to show with elizabeth bell, who writes the weekly women podcast as part of a series of artifacts and debating. We will watch it and come back on the other side of the break. [video clip] there can be so many unprecedented curveballs, but one thing remains confident. Pres. Trump people do not like her. Nobody likes her. I did not mention her name. Kamala harris is up against the lung going sexist scrutiny that women in politics face. How do the obstacles that women face as politicians translate to the debate stage. Kamala harris and mike pence are about to face each other in the first Vice President ial debate, and theyre different debating styles have political junkies buzzing. Women tend to be scrutinized at a higher level. They cannot be too feminine or they are risk not being taken serially seriously. If they are too conservative, there deemed unlikable. The contrast are in this snl skit. Please stop photo shopping my head on sexy bikini pictures. I stop saying i have cagles kankles. There is one of the oldest sexist robe about women in politics, they are too emotional. I do not ask for forgiveness anytime you get mad at me. I could be blood. I do not ask for forgiveness. I know that sometimes i get really worked up. And sometimes i get a little hot. I do not really mean to. You can see the full video, but lets get started with this conversation. Thank you so much for joining me, via. I want to start with you teeing off of that video, which shows or broadly the different way sexism has created policies for a long time to set the table for this conversation. What environment right now for a roman running, and in particular for senator harris and as joe bidens Vice President ial candidate . I think the environment is slightly better than it was in 2016. The way that i look at was Hillary Clinton was often you all catalogued some of the moments from 2008 and 2016. In that video, she was also detected to attack political attacks and coverage that was rooted in gender bias. Sometimes it is out and out think and misogyny, and i that the political ecosystem did not recognize it as such. We thought there was something wrong with her, and after she lost, which was from my perspective devastating but an eyeopening experience, we look at it differently now. Remember on the very first day Elizabeth Warren got into the 2019, there was a story that talked about how she likability and it was disappointing to see that story but there was pushback right away about saying we are not going to let this happen this time. We understand what likability means. It means we do not recognize a woman in this role. I feel that it is harder for women candidates, it still is. Why thehe reasons presidency is the exception here is because by the time they run at once they have gotten through a tough primary, the really good candidates are really good at harderomen still have a public is, but the more aware of gender coverage and recognizing bias, flexibility. That i choose to hold onto a little bit as improvement, and i harris as amala political generation behind Hillary Clinton she has her whole life has to be clear about who she is. A woman of color, a woman of mixed race. She has not defined herself and that is why i think its hard for people to throw her off her game in a way that other women candidates sometimes get pigeonholed. She has the benefit of operating in a system that is a little more aware. It is not as if she is not subjected to the same kind of biases. Some portions understand it now. Also i think, she is very skilled at defining herself and not letting herself get pigeonholed because she has had to do it her whole life. To your we have seen such a point, shift in terms of women embracing different aspects of themselves. Their femininity in a way that we could all put in a box that you are running because you wanted to wear the shoulder pads and the polls. From 2008, there has been a massive shift. You are one of the people who knows harris the best. This is probably her biggest moment so far besides her first speech when she accepted being joe bidens Vice President ial candidate. How is she preparing for this debate . You are muted. If you could unmute it, unfortunately. Im here. [laughter] take it back from the top. She is excited. She is actually excited about it. Shes ready to get up on stage. Her for all of us, campaigns , are about choices. This time, the differences could not be more stark. It is also for her, she sees this as an opportunity to share her and joes vision. Really to show what they are for. Not just what theyre not and who theyre running against. Want to for her, they be able to speak about what people are concerned about. Their health, preexisting conditions, getting back to work and school. What i can say as her sister, i can say this is personal for her. It isnt a big opportunity in terms of another big moment to be able to speak to the American People. It is personal for her. She talks a lot about the kind of suffering and grieving. What we are witnessing, the impact on real people in this moment. You have to remember she has spent her entire life in Public Service. Literally spent her entire life fighting for people, fighting for truth. Her focus has always been on bringing voice or fighting for people who are too often not seen and not heard. It is personal for her to be on the stage and to speak to the American People but also represent the issues they care about. The last thing i would say she , truly believes that joe is the right leader for this moment. So she is excited to get up there and speak to why she , believes he is the right person for this moment and is going to move us in the direction we need to go as a country. [indiscernible] im excited. Im ready. I have my shirt on. Are you there . I am in salt lake. I got here yesterday or the day before yesterday. I am on the ground. Up i thinko follow. Obviously the democrats had a lot of debate this cycle so this isnt the first time democrats havent seen her on the debate stage. But this is her first opponent. You are not just debating people in is she approaching this your own party. Is she approaching this differently given that she is up against the Vice President . You know i will not tell , her secrets, but i can tell you she is ready. I am going to be interested to what my good friend jen would say about that. I would love to hear what my good friends would say about that. Let me speak to something you touched on which is how this is different from the primaries and different from the debate we just saw last tuesday. Which is that, one, i expect its going to be a robust debate. Trump mikerom,. Pence is a good debater. We saw that in 2016. The difference between then and now is that back then, they were an experiment and now they have to defend their record. The other thing in terms of a difference is that mike pence is a different kind of debater than trump. So i dont expect that we will see tonight what we saw last tuesday. Mike pence will be more i think reasonable sounding. That is a different context or environment for having a debate. I also think it is important not to be confused that his delivery can be different but his substance is the same. We saw that at the Republican National convention. Its going to be important not only for Kamala Harris to share their vision but also for the mediator that he can say what he says with a confidence and a smile but it doesnt make it anymore true or good for the American People because his demeanor may be different. Christina, i want to bring you into the conversation. You have known Kamala Harris since she was a prosecutor in california. How do you think current legal background place into a dissipate style . Do you expect her to take advantage of that tonight . Absolutely it is great to be here with you powerful women. What a historic occasion. The first time a woman of color will be in a Vice President ial debate. Lets just take a moment and recognize we are going to be witnessing history. I think that is important, because it speaks to the different audiences within the one big metaaudience because it , is the first time we have seen someone who looks like her on this stage this large, a lot of people particularly women of color going to look into see themselves and that can be powerful. She will be speaking to them. Second of all you saw a gender , gap between the way the men and women saw the debate last week. Third, women look at kamala on a lot of men thought trump should have been tougher. Third, women look at Kamala Harris, i remember a trial that she had early on as a district attorney. She had recently come to the office with a big reputation. She was up against a guy who was such a famous defense attorney, they even had a movie made about him. Everybody packed the courtroom. Expecting she was going to lose and others were like know she was going to be great. Kamala harris put on a clinic. She won every single charge. She was really wellprepared. As my mom nancy pelosi says, proper preparation prevents poor performance. She will be prepared to be that different kind of leader that we havent seen before. Number two, that she will be as joe biden was last week speaking to us the American People and not trying to win every single point against mike pence so much as to prosecute his record as a whole. Number three, i think just as i saw her in the courtroom, shes going to go through the evidence methodically and carefully without passion or prejudice. That doesnt mean she wont have caring concern, it means shes trying to make an argument that any reasonable person would accept and see that it is unacceptable for this record to deserve a second term. Jennifer, i want to go to you next. The backdrop of all of this, we are in the middle of a pandemic. The president himself has covid19 and is going through that process. The Biden Campaign has pulled down negative ads. How do you advise for a person like Kamala Harris to approach this . You want to be sympathetic to what the country is going through. Hillary recommended you want recommended senator harris you want to be aggressive but , not too aggressive. Thats the kind of advice we would get all the time. When it came from Hillary Clinton to Kamala Harris kamala , harris knows what that means. Joe biden has set an example for how to deal with it. Show empathy. We all hope the president gets better. I havent heard a word about the first lady or hope hicks. I hope everyone is doing well, but hold them accountable for how they have mismanaged the pandemic. Do both of those things she can do both of those , things simultaneously. The pandemic its not as though trump had a heart attack or came down with pneumonia. He this is not an individual case. The pandemic affects every single american and it is so rooted in the president ial campaign. She has to make the argument that maybe they have been woefully lacking and how they in how they have handled it. My father is 89 years old. He is a former republican. He voted for hillary. He is a never trump republican. He said to me six month ago, i hope Kamala Harris is a running mate because i would love to see her go up against mike pence. It is so great. Is going to get his wish she. Is really effective at this. Raise expectations for her unduly. Mike pence is good. He can be very effective. I think she will manage this well and she will be able to deliver a message in a way that joe biden couldnt do because of he had a heckler at his side. The Hillary Clinton advice, dont get too angry. How concerned or prepared does the senator have to be to not have the trope of the angry black woman come out if she is aggressive toward the Vice President and wanting to respond directly to things she might think are false or claims that he has that she thinks are true . Jen, of course, agree with that having seen her for a dozen , years in different spaces at different times, i am confident that she can calibrate and walk the balance of what is needed for a moment like this. But i also want underscore and agree with jen the point being , that this is an important moment but it is defined by thence pences mismanagement of the pandemic. Thats really important to keep front and center. I think she will be able to walk the balance. Because it is genuine. She and joe are genuinely wish the best for the president and first lady and other people who have now found themselves infected with the virus. And, hope that it becomes a moment for everyone most especially his own supporters to be able to see how serious this is an how seriously people should be taking it. And to model that we should be Wearing Masks and social distancing. That they actually have a plan for through this moment. To the extent that she has genuine compassion and concern not only for the most recent round of people who have found themselves infected but acrosstheboard for more than 7 Million People who are infected. More than 200,000 people who have died and their families. I think that will come through genuinely because that is who she is. I think she will be pointed in being clear about the stakes and being clear about this defining moment in our country. In terms of not just the pandemic, but the leadership and the future of what we need going into the future. Can i add one thing. Sure. Kamala harris Kamala Harris has been the public eye for a long time. She has had to temper, to thread the needle for decades so she doesnt come across as the angry black woman. Pence willk she is, be effective at delivering a message. She is going to have to thread the needle that women often do but particularly because she is a woman of color, she has had experience doing that and shes going to make it look effortless. It is too bad she is quite she has to do that. She is quite capable of it. Im going to go to an audience question because we are quickly running out of time. If you want to jump in, feel free. What can we do if anything to expose or prevent sexism from harming senator harriss candidacy . Any thoughts on that . Sure, it doesnt matter what she says, she can stand there and say the rosary for an hour and they will still call her an angry black woman, because that is what we do. Lets understand three things. Says, shewhat she will be attacked for being very angry and the one in control is the one secretly in control of joe biden. What we can do is respond in real time by having her back and doing a factcheck. Number two, calling those out the minute we see them with the Rapid Response and saying thats not what happened. And, you would not say that about a man. If you wouldnt say it about a man, you shouldnt say it about a woman. The second thing is, mike pence has two audiences. He has the American People who he wants them to see him as the future president. But his real audience is the audience of donald trump and i think hes going to be under enormous pressure to personally attack Kamala Harris and thats where she knows that is coming. She will be very strong about it. And what we can do again is to have her back is to say he is saying that because trump him trump wants him to. He is saying that because trump is afraid of women, he is afraid of strong women, and he claims to love long order but not when its directed at him. Can i add one thing . I am here as her sister, not just someone who has been involved in politics. To inject some of the upside and the positive as a woman, this is. As a woman, this is really exciting to me. I think we know there are challenges. It up close and personal with hillary. It is exciting. For me personally, how many people get to work for the first woman to be a Major Party Nominee and to win the popular vote by millions of votes then be related to someone who has run for president the next year and is on the Vice President ial ticket . Its exciting. To the point about the people out there, as a sister, i am not just proud of her, but i have actually been moved by the support we have experienced in this. And the enthusiasm we have experienced and the people who have been coming out who were never really involved in the process. I think it was jen or christie who talked about people who see themselves in her. Is just think there there is a groundswell of people who are seeing this as an opportunity. As a time to move forward and seeing themselves in her. For her, for me at the end of , the day, it isnt so much that it is about her as it is about whats at stake and even for those people who are inspired, its a hope for an administration, a government that is going to see that they can see themselves in and we will see them and their hopes and dreams and fears. I know they will find that in Kamala Harris. I wanted to inject that because there is a lot of energy and enthusiasm and a lot of people wanting to be self reflective about how they are approaching this campaign and this candidacy ofticularly in light [indiscernible] in the cycle. I wanted to inject a little bit of that excitement because i feel that out there. We are seeing it out there i. Think that that is going to carry the day. I appreciate that very much. Jen, i am going to start with you. You have been in the advisor role a lot. You have had a bridge to the election. This is going to be a different debate the going to have. The going to have they are going to have plexiglass. How do you think the campaign can best use her to get the enthusiasm, the folks maia is talking about who see themselves in her who havent seen themselves and other candidates . First opportunity is tonight because it was hard on the democratic ticket to breakthrough with news because trump takes up so much oxygen. And this is the most important moment she has to be able to say this is what we would do in a bidenharris administration. By her own presence, to be a role model to show whats possible and celebrate that moment of history in america. I think as she and joe biden have done in recent days, to be on the road as much as you can and to have her be publicly seen as much as you can. As basically they will still not breakthrough as much as trump does. Im just across the street from the white house. He is in the white house monopolizing the coverage. , in this with people space it makes a really big difference. In a way that is exciting people and being on the ground in states even with a small number of people, you are going to see that. Thats going to be a great contrast with what they see on the trump side. Unfortunately, we are out of time. Thank you so much for joining us for our virtual Vice President ial roundtable. The first conversation in our women rule, powering ford series. We will be back on wednesday, 1 00 p. M. Eastern here on politico for a conversation. Certainly an interesting next couple of weeks and the outcome, we may or may not know it at that time. Either way we will have a conversation with how women did , in this election, where things stand going forward. If you dont already subscribe to our newsletter which publishes every friday please go , to politico. Com and sign up. Have a great wednesday. You were watching cspan, your unfiltered view of government created by americas elevation Cable Company as a Public Service and brought to you by your television provider. Campaign 2020 coverage continues with the Vice President ial debate. Cspan. Your unfiltered view of event. Only vicest and president ial debate is in salt lake city. Mike pence and Kamala Harris will spend 90 minute debating policy. Susan page of usa debate will moderate. The Vice President ial debate began in 1984. Good evening and thank you for thisng us for coverage of Vice President ial debate. Heres the schedule. 8 40