Kamala Harris: The 2024 60 Minutes Interview

Kamala Harris has been a candidate for president for just two and a half months and the post-convention honeymoon is over. With the election just 29 days away, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz face unrelenting attacks from Donald Trump and the race remains extremely close. We met the 59-year-old vice president this past week on the campaign trail and later at the vice president’s residence in Washington D.C. We spoke about the economy and immigration, Ukraine and China, but we began with the escalating war in the Middle East one year after the Hamas terror attack on Israel.

The story will continue in a moment.

The events of the past few weeks have pushed us to the brink, if not into an all-out regional war in the Middle East. What can the US do at this point to stop this from spinning out of control?

Well, let’s start with October 7. 1,200 people were massacred. 250 hostages were taken, including Americans. Women were brutally raped and as I said then, I maintain Israel has a right to defend itself, we would and how it does so matters. Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. This war has to end.

We supply Israel with billions of dollars in military aid and yet Prime Minister Netanyahu seems to be charting his own course. The Biden-Harris administration has pressed him to agree to a ceasefire. He’s resisted. You urged him not to go into Lebanon. He went in anyway. Does the US have no sway over Prime Minister Netanyahu?

The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles.

But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.

We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.

Do we have a real close ally in Prime Minister Netanyahu?

I think with all due respect, the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is yes, and-

While the war in the Middle East has dominated recent headlines, it’s the economy that most concerns American voters this election year as always. There are lots of signs that the American economy is doing very well, better than most countries I think, but American people don’t seem to be feeling it. Groceries are 25% higher and people are blaming you and Joe Biden for that. Are they wrong?

We now have historic low unemployment in America among all groups of people. We now have an economy that is thriving by all macroeconomic measures and to your point, prices are still too high and I know that and we need to deal with it, which is why part of my plan, you mentioned groceries, part of my plan is what we must do to bring down the price of groceries.

Harris says she’ll press Congress to pass a federal ban on price gouging for food and groceries, but details are yet to be defined. You want to expand the child tax credit?

Yes, I do.

You want to give tax breaks to first-time homebuyers.

Yes.

And people starting small businesses.

Correct.

But it is estimated by the nonpartisan Committee for Responsible Federal Budget that your economic plan would add $3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade. How are you going to pay for that?

Okay, so the other economists that have reviewed my plan versus my opponent and determined that my economic plan would strengthen America’s economy, his would weaken it. My plan, Bill, if you don’t mind, my plan is about saying that when you invest in small businesses, you invest in the middle class and you strengthen America’s economy. Small businesses are part of the backbone of America’s economy.

But pardon me, madam vice president, the question was how are you going to pay for it?

One of the, I’m going to make sure that the richest among us who can afford it pay their fair share in taxes. It is not right that teachers and nurses and firefighters are paying a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations, and I plan on making that fair.

But we’re dealing with the real world here.

But the real world includes-

How are you going to get this through Congress?

When you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress, they know exactly what I’m talking about because their constituents know exactly what I’m talking about. Their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses. Their constituents are middle-class hard-working folks.

And Congress has shown no inclination to move in your direction.

I disagree with you. There are plenty of leaders in Congress who understand and know that the Trump tax cuts blew up our federal deficit. None of us, and certainly I cannot afford to be myopic in terms of how I think about strengthening America’s economy. Let me tell you something, I am a devout public servant, you know that. I’m also a capitalist and I know the limitations of government.

Kamala Harris has been in government for decades. She was first elected San Francisco district attorney in 2003, then California attorney general. She went on to the US Senate, and now vice president. A quarter of registered voters still say they don’t know you. They don’t know what makes you tick. And why do you think that is? What’s the disconnect?

It’s an election, Bill. And I take it seriously that I have to earn everyone’s vote. This is an election for President of the United States. No one should be able to take for granted that they can just declare themselves a candidate and automatically receive support. You have to earn it. And that’s what I intend to do.

Let me tell you what your critics and the columnists say.

Okay.

They say that the reason so many voters don’t know you is that you have changed your position on so many things. You were against fracking, now you’re for it. You supported looser immigration policies, now you’re tightening them up. You are for Medicare for All, now you’re not, so many that people don’t truly know what you believe or what you stand for. And I know you’ve heard that.

In the last four years, I have been vice president of United States and I have been traveling our country and I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground. I believe in building consensus. We are a diverse people geographically, regionally, in terms of where we are in our backgrounds and what the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus, where we can figure out compromise and understand it’s not a bad thing as long as you don’t compromise your values to find common sense solutions. And that has been my approach.

But one issue that has proven impervious to compromise is immigration. Over the past four years, the Biden-Harris approach has been inconsistent and Republicans are convinced immigration is the vice president’s Achilles heel. You recently visited the southern border and embraced President Biden’s recent crackdown on asylum seekers and that crackdown produced an almost immediate and dramatic decrease in the number of border crossings. If that’s the right answer now, why didn’t your administration take those steps in 2021?

The first bill we proposed to Congress was to fix our broken immigration system. Knowing that if you want to actually fix it, we need Congress to act. It was not taken up. Fast-forward to a moment when a bipartisan group of members of the United States Senate, including one of the most conservative members of the United States Senate got together, came up with a board of security bill. Well, guess what happened? Donald Trump got word that this bill was afoot and could be passed and he wants to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem so he told his buddies in Congress, “Kill the bill, don’t let it move forward.”

But I’ve been covering the border for years and so I know this is not a problem that started with your administration.

Correct, correct.

But there was an historic flood of undocumented immigrants coming across the border the first three years of your administration. As a matter of fact, arrivals quadrupled from the last year of President Trump. Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policies as much as you did?

It’s a long-standing problem and solutions are at hand, and from day one, literally we have been offering solutions.

What I was asking was was it a mistake to allow that flood to happen in the first place?

I think the policies that we have been proposing are about fixing a problem, not promoting a problem.

But the numbers did quadruple under your watch.

And the numbers today, because of what we have done, we have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half.

Should you have done that?

We have cut the flow of fentanyl by half.

Should you have done that-

But we need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem.

You have accused Donald Trump of using racist tropes when it comes to Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, when it comes to birtherism, when it comes to Charlottesville. In fact, you have called him a racist and divisive, yet Donald Trump has the support of millions and millions of Americans. How do you explain that?

I am glad you’re pointing these comments out that he has made, that have resulted in a response by most reasonable people to say it’s just wrong. It’s just wrong.

So many people supporting Donald Trump, man you’ve called a racist, how do you bridge that seemingly unbridgeable gap?

I believe that the people of America want a leader who’s not trying to divide us and demean. I believe that the American people recognize that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it’s based on who you lift up.

The Harris campaign has been hopscotching the country, and with less than a month to go, the pace is picking up. The vice president told us she has lost track of how many states she’s visited.

How are you doing?

I’m doing well.

You well?

We joined her on the trail late last week in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin in the town of Ripon, the birthplace in 1854 of the Republican Party. And at a rally plastered with country over party banners, Harris appeared with staunch conservative Liz Cheney. As vice chair of the House January 6 committee, Cheney became one of Donald Trump’s fiercest critics.

I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

That proclamation spurred a chant of approval from the crowd.

Thank you, Liz. Thank you, Liz. Thank you, Liz.

Four years ago, if someone had told you that you would be campaigning with Liz Cheney, what would you have said to them?

That’d be great.

That’s really diplomatic.

Would you ever have thought that you’d be campaigning with Kamala Harris?

I hope that if you had said to me four years ago, our Constitution is going to be under threat and it’s going to be crucial for the parties to come together and to support Vice President Harris because she’ll defend the rule of law, I know I would’ve said that’s exactly what I’ll do.

I thank you all.

Whoever wins the presidency will take on a host of daunting challenges, especially beyond our borders. Back in Washington, Vice President Harris told us she’s determined the US must win the economic competition with China for the 21st century. And as for the war between Russia and Ukraine, what does success look like in ending the war in Ukraine?

There will be no success in ending that war without Ukraine and the UN Charter participating in what that success looks like.

Would you meet with President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a solution to the war in Ukraine?

Not bilaterally without Ukraine, no. Ukraine must have a say in the future of Ukraine.

As president, would you support the effort to expand NATO to include Ukraine?

Those are all issues that we will deal with if and when it arrives at that point. Right now, we are supporting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked aggression. Donald Trump, if he were president, Putin would be sitting in Kiev right now. He talks about, “Oh, he can end it on day one.” You know what that is? It’s about surrender.

A hard left turn here, but you recently surprised people when you said that you are a gun owner and then if someone came into your house-

That was not the first time I’ve talked about it.

… they would get shot.

That’s not the first time I’ve talked about it.

So what kind of gun do you own and when and why did you get it?

I have a Glock and I’ve had it for quite some time and I mean, look, Bill, my background is in law enforcement, and so there you go.

Have you ever fired it?

Yes, of course, I have. At a shooting range, yes, of course I have.

When we come back, vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz gets the 60 minutes treatment and Kamala Harris talks about why Donald Trump decided not to. Democratic vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz, was little known outside Minnesota just two months ago. He didn’t exactly come from nowhere. He was a sixth term congressman and now is governor of Minnesota, where he has championed abortion rights, gun control, and other progressive ideas. But it was calling former President Trump and Senator JD Vance weird that may have landed him on the ticket.

The story will continue in a moment.

Two months ago, you and Kamala Harris barely knew each other. Now, you’re running together vying for the top offices in the land. It’s not possible that you agree on everything. What have been some disagreements you’ve had since you became a team?

Well, she probably disagreed with you said, “Tim, you need to be a little more careful on how you say things, whatever it might be.”

Whatever it might be, Walz has been criticized for embellishing or telling outright falsehoods about his military record and about his travels to Asia in the 1980s. In your debate with JD Vance, you said, “I’m a knucklehead at times.” And I think you were referring to the time that you said that you were in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square unrest when you were not. Is that kind of misrepresentation? Isn’t that more than just being a knucklehead?

I think folks know who I am and I think they know the difference between someone expressing emotion, telling a story, getting a date wrong rather than a pathological liar like Donald Trump.

But I think it comes down to the question of whether you can be trusted to tell the truth.

Yeah, well, I think I can. I will own up to being a knucklehead at times, but the folks closest to me know that I keep my word.

Walz proudly touts his record as governor of Minnesota, but it also has opened him up to criticism from his Republican opponents. Former President Trump says that you and your administration here in Minnesota has been dangerously liberal, radical left, he calls it. So what do you say to that criticism that rather than leading the way, you and Minnesota are actually out of step with the rest of the country.

President Trump may be referring to that our children get breakfast and lunch in school so that they can learn. He may be talking about we have a paid family medical leave policy that was promoted by the business community. Donald Trump spends his time tearing down states rather than lifting up the things we do, the best of it. Donald Trump’s critiques of that not only are they wrong, but I’m waiting for what is his solution. Here in Minnesota, we’re so optimistic, we walk on water half the year.

It was that kind of humor and candor that helped land Tim Walz the job as Kamala Harris’s running mate. Before you joined the ticket, you called Republicans weird and that’s sort of become a rallying cry for Democrats. Why do you think that label stuck?

I was really talking about the behaviors. Being obsessed with people’s personal lives in their bedrooms and their reproductive rights, making up stories about legal folks legally here eating cats and dogs, they’re dehumanizing. They go beyond weird because I said this, it becomes almost dangerous. Let’s debate policy in a real way and let’s try and find an objective truth again. God bless America.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are in a full sprint to November 5th, hoping their arguments will give them a chance to cross the line ahead of Donald Trump and JD Vance. You are sitting here with us. The Trump campaign canceled an interview that they had agreed to to participate in this broadcast. What do you make of that?

If he is not going to give your viewers the ability to have a meaningful, thoughtful conversation, question and answer with you, then watch his rallies. You’re going to hear conversations that are about himself and all of his personal grievances. And what you will not hear is anything about you, the listener. You will not hear about how he’s going to try to bring the country together, find common ground, and Bill, that is why I believe in my soul and heart, the American people are ready to turn the page. I think the stakes-

More from the Democratic ticket, plus one year covering rapidly escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Civilians caught in the middle as always are the ones suffering the most.

At 60minutesovertime.com.