My Iowa interview with Kamala Harris during her 2019 presidential run gives me hope

She's badass cool and could eat Trump for lunch

REKHA BASU This first appeared in The Des Moines Register on July 4, 2019 after I interviewed the Iowa caucus candidate in a Valley Junction park. It’s even more relevant five years later.

Des Moines Register photo by Kelsey Kremer

If you've only seen Kamala Harris in televised town halls and debates, you may have sized her up as a whip smart go-getter with strong convictions who doesn't suffer fools lightly.

What that image may not convey are the multiple, sometimes contradictory forces that have shaped the California senator: Her outrage over the condescending looks her Indian mother used to get walking into an American department store, as if "she had no business being there." Her pride in her Indian grandfather, who fought for India's independence and often reminded her of the need to uphold democracy and abolish corruption. Her twin instincts as a prosecutor to protect potential victims and also, as a civil rights crusader who marched with her mother and Jamaican-born father, to dismantle unfairness against suspects.

Harris pledges to "prosecute the case" against President Donald Trump while tackling the issues she says wake people up at night – student loan debt, health care costs, an unfair criminal justice system. But ironically, her breakout moment in a debate that has vaulted her into second place in the polls was an emotional challenge not to Trump's policies but to former Vice President Joe Biden's. She called his praise for segregationist senators and his opposition to mandatory busing hurtful, because as a black school child in the '70s, she was bused to school. But in Iowa Wednesday, Harris wasn't pushing mandatory busing. When asked by a reporter, she called it a tool in the toolbox.

The paradoxes abound this election cycle. All of a sudden it was Donald Trump Jr. seemingly leaping to Biden's defense with a snitty tweet claiming Harris was not "an American black," because of her parents' international backgrounds. Asked about that Wednesday, Harris shrugged dismissively, "They're a family that pushes birtherism. It's completely unpredictable and in that way, very uninteresting."

The question of racial identification has hung over this race in multiple ways, mostly because it is the most diverse presidential field ever, creating an opening to question candidates' minority credentials. Many Democratic voters, including older white men, say it will take someone other than an older white man to deliver new, energized Democrats to the polls.

In an interview with Harris at West Des Moines' American Legion Park Wednesday, I asked about her racial and cultural identification. As a child of Indian-born parents of different religions and languages who met in New York, I grew up in a home where Indian culture and values were stressed, and attended an international school in preparation for what was to be our eventual return to India. So I mostly identified as "other."

But not Harris. Her mother may not have had "the talk" with her that black parents often must to fortify their kids for prejudice they're likely to face. But Kamala identified as a black American, albeit one who ate Indian-style okra fried with mustard seeds, and Creole-style okra with sausage and dried shrimp. There was prejudice. A neighbor kid wasn't allowed to play with her because of her race.

"My mother raised us as black girls," she said. Especially after her parents divorced when she was 7, "she wanted to make sure we knew our black culture."  Harris would go on to attend mostly black Howard University.

The former California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney said part of her interest in being a prosecutor came from a desire to reform the system from inside. She highlights her work to create a post-prison re-entry system offering help with jobs and counseling. As attorney general, she says she brought transparency to the criminal justice system by disclosing the racial breakdown of arrests, and mandated implicit bias training. She started a program that offered first-time nonviolent offenders a chance to have their charges dismissed in exchange for getting vocational training.

As president, she says she'd push for sentencing reform and legalization of marijuana, create incentives for local governments to create re-entry programs, investigate policing patterns and put more money into public education and community mental health. But Harris has been criticized for not having sufficiently embraced reforms as attorney general and district attorney. Questioned about that when announcing her presidential bid, she said some decisions in her office were made without consulting her, but she took responsibility.

Even when politicians are motivated by the right core values, politics are complicated, and times and public attitudes evolve. Harris rightly blames former President Barack Obama for his Secure Communities policy that directed local authorities to share booking information with federal authorities to identify immigrants who might be eligible for deportation. Harris said she directed California sheriffs not to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions.

Iowa City Press Citizen photo by Joseph Cress

Harris has a nurturing side that could easily be missed in the righteous indignation she displays. She loves to cook and feed people, she told me. On Father's Day,  she made her husband, Doug Emhoff, a steak and fries – "I hand-cut every single french fry" – and then fried them all, twice. Her two stepchildren, ages 20 and 22, call her "Mamala" and her husband's ex-wife is a friend who comes over for dinner.

And though she understands the "us-versus-them" mentality that Trump plays on by pitting black vs. white vs. Muslim vs. Mexican, she says the vast majority of Americans are good people who don't want to be divided. "People are awake and they're not going back."

Some Democrats say they're hungry for a real progressive in the White House. Harris positions herself this way: "There are people who are going to talk about drastic systems change, and certainly that is needed in some areas. But for me it's mostly about addressing those things that we can do...  something about" including equal pay, student loan debt and criminal justice reform." 

Other Democrats say they just want someone who can beat Trump.

A lot can happen between now and next February, but the more you see Harris in action, the more you can picture her with little effort taking Trump down on a debate stage.

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That last line is even truer and more critical today. Kudos to Joe Biden who, by choosing Harris in the first place, and now stepping out and throwing his support to her, has re-energized the nation.

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