Photo credit: ClubShayShay/YouTube
When Kamala Harris sat down with former NFL star Shannon Sharpe, she gave viewers more than just a reiteration of her agenda for Americans if elected president.
Unlike recent campaign rallies where the vice president largely focuses on campaign talking points, her interview on Sharpe’s popular podcast “Club Shay Shay” was more personable while still focusing on her policy proposals as she tries to convince voters to send her to the White House in the upcoming presidential election.
She opened up about her mother, who lost her battle with cancer. Shyamala Gopalan died of colon cancer in 2009 when Harris was running for attorney general of California, according to news reports.
“Grief is difficult,” Harris said. “The big part about grief, especially if you lose someone to a sickness, I think it’s really important that you try to remember them as they lived and not as they died.”
During the hour-long conversation, Harris touched on issues affecting Americans and criticized Donald Trump for trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Popularly known as Obamacare, the health care law aims to make health insurance more affordable and accessible, with many low-income families relying on it.
She also doubled down on claims that Trump would implement Project 2025, a conservative agenda that critics say would harm Black Americans, reproductive rights and more.
The vice president shared her morning routine with viewers and emphasized that fitness is a priority in her life.
Meanwhile, her video interview amassed nearly 1.5 million views. It continues her trend of appearing on podcasts, influencers’ platforms, and mainstream media outlets.
Here are five key takeaways from Harris’ conversation with Sharpe:
Since running for president, the vice president’s schedule has become jam-packed with campaign events. Speaking at three to four cities in a day is the norm, Harris said, adding that “I don’t really have any downtime.”
“I probably estimate 14-hour, 15-hour days. When I wake up no matter how little sleep I’ve had, I work out every morning,” Harris said. “Mind, body and spirit.”
Her breakfast is simple each morning. “It’s usually a spinach omelet. It’s not very exciting,” she laughed. She says she also likes chicken sausage and toast.
Sharpe pointed to polls, he said, that show voters trust Trump “more on the economy” and asked Harris about why she feels she’d be the better choice instead.
While Trump has touted the fact that he’d distributed stimulus checks when he was in office, Harris credited congressional Democrats for pushing through the financial assistance for Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Really Congress wrote those checks,” Harris said, adding that Trump and other Republicans were opposed to the measure at first.
“Let’s clear up certain myths: you know those checks that went out?” Harris said. “The reason those came about was because there was a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.”
When asked about what she would tell her younger self, Harris said, “If I could speak to my 18-year-old self, I’d probably tell her ‘continue to keep your friends.’”
Stacey Johnson-Batiste is Harris’ childhood friend, and they are seen in a video together where Harris is talking to Batiste’s grandchild. Her friend has been campaigning for Harris.
“You know my best friend from kindergarten is still one of my best friends,” Harris told Sharpe. “In fact, she’s been out knocking on doors in North Carolina.”
Harris said friends and family are “so important,” adding that she mentors a lot of young women and men.
Photo credit: ClubShayShay/YouTube
She talked about how she learned a lot from her mother, who created an environment surrounded by family and loved ones who contributed to her upbringing.
Coming from a single-parent household, her mother raised Harris and her sister, teaching them to be proud Black women, Harris recalled during the interview.
“I had all these aunties and uncles,” Harris said. “My uncle Sherman, who was one of the first Black men to graduate from Berkeley School of Law, who when we were young girls, sat us down and taught us how to play chess because Uncle Sherman said ‘you need to understand how the chess board works because that’s how the world works.’”
At one point, Sharpe highlighted that some Black Americans feel that Trump “is better for the Black community.” In response to doubts about her appeal to Black men, Harris unveiled an economic plan to help them and discussed her proposals on many Black media outlets.
“Madam VP whether we want to admit it or not, he’s revered by some Blacks,” Sharpe said.
Harris raised concerns about voters choosing to reelect Trump “when he says he wants to terminate the Constitution of the United States.”
Harris slammed Trump about his response to the COVID when he was president. Nearly 1.2 million people across the nation have died from the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“One in three Black Americans knew someone who died from COVID. You remember those days? And people couldn’t get their hands on a COVID test,” Harris said. “He has not earned the right to be president of the United States.”
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