Hi, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to work in progress with Smarties. It has been a very big couple of weeks for those of us who believe that all things around us in the world are influenced by politics, and thus the progress of politics is important to us. Newsflash true for
every single one of us. So I decided, after last week's announcement that Vice President Harris has picked Governor Tim Walls as her vice presidential pick in her presidential campaign, to call one of the smartest people that I know in the world of politics, none other than Simone Sanders Town's End. Simone's show The Weekend on MSNBC is one of the places I always turned to to get incredible
coverage on what's happening in the country. Simone rose to prominence and tent sixteen as the national press secretary for US Senator Bernie Sanders then presidential campaign. At just twenty five, she became the youngest presidential press secretary on record, and she was named to Rolling Stone magazine's list of sixteen young Americans shaping that year's election. At twenty nine, she published her book No You Shut Up, Speaking Truth to
Power and Reclaiming America. And then she served as a senior advisor for President Joe Biden's twenty twenty presidential campaign. She spent an incredible amount of time working as a senior member of the Biden Harris administration. She served as Deputy Assistant to the President, senior advisor in chief, spokesperson to Vice President Kamala Harris, and all around. Simone is an incredible communicator with a passion for problem solving and
social justice. She happens to be one of my favorite friends in Washington, d C. Who've been lucky enough to travel the country with doing everything from election organizing work to speaking at the Institute of Politics at Harvard. She's genuinely the most fun friend and the most inspiring political brain. And today she's here to answer all of our questions about this election. Nothing is off the table, and for
that I am so grateful. Also worth mentioning for those of you who might be in Brooklyn in September, MSNBC Live is hosting an event called Democracy twenty twenty four on September seventh at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Tickets are available now. I am really hoping I can attend. Do not miss it if you are in the area. Okay, let's get to asking all of the twenty twenty four election questions and then some inspiring ones too. To our sweet dear friend.
Sam up.
Well Simone, my favorite lady, thank you so much for joining me today, and honesty, thank you for taking the time in the middle of August from Martha's vineyard, because I know you'd rather be on the beach, but we have democracy to talk about. So bless you for giving me an hour of your time. And all the folks.
Oh, of course, it's the least I could do. It's always good to see.
You, Hi, honey. How is life? How's your man? How how are you? Before we get into like the state of the world, life is good.
My man is good. He was also on Martha's vineyard, but he has since gone back to work. It's good. Life is good. You know, this is just an extraordinary time.
Yeah, I mean, I was supposed to be in the We take a trip every year in the summer for.
Our anniversary, and we're supposed to be in the Bahamas this year.
Is one of our favorite places to go, and the day we were supposed to leave for the Bahamas, we decided to stay because that was the day when it became clear that all of this stuff was bubbling up, like you're not out on that said, he wasn't going to be in the race anymore. That Sunday we were supposed to be leaving like Monday night, Tuesday morning. No way, So we did not go. But it his Those are the kinds of things like this. Yeah, oh knew, Sophia.
I thought you was like a couple of months ago, a couple months ago, I did not car by.
The way, when we were all in DC together in April, and you know, we watched the President take the stage at the Correspondence Centner, it was, I mean, what a swirl of emotion. You know, we were talking about Evan and all of the other journalists wrongly imprisoned around the world. Britney Griner and her wife were there talking about you know what these prisoner swaps look like and advocating for
Evan's freedom. The President crushed, you know, all of his jokes like and I don't mean this as shade against Colin Jos. I think he's very funny and he did a great job. I thought the President was funnier, which you know says a lot and and yet by July
here we are. Can you can I just ask you like some non non political speak opinions, like real talk, because now there's people out here being like, well, he must have been well and this was a scheme, and you know, the word the internet has turned into a conspiracy theory cesspool. But like you, you have worked for so many incredible elected officials. You have worked in the Biden administration for a very long time. You know, closely
with the President, closely with Kamala Harris. You know the ins and outs of this group who is actually working on preserving our democracy in the face of fascism. How do you just human to human walk us through what what did the summer look like? Where does the shift come from? How does a president make a decision like that?
Can you?
Can you let the lay people in on the realities of it?
You know?
It was so I have I have seen the President a number of times over the last couple of months, and I literally saw him at the White House's June teen celebration and I was sitting we had a chance to speak with he and the VP and the second Gillumpman prior to and then I I was sitting right behind him.
We were all turning around.
JiTT and Chatten and so you know this, I really think this notion of the president being unwell is something that did start, as I like to say, in the bowels of the internet, but had made its way into mainstream conversation to the point where people who like the president, who are supportive of him, who are you know, Democrats their whole lives, will say, oh, but he must not
be well. I see the signs. Everybody want to be you know, a doctor off webmbu, you know, every every other day, depending on who.
You talk to. But I would just say, you know, Joe Biden is still.
The president, right and so he is the president until January twenty, twenty twenty five. And so I this notion that if he was on, if Joe Biden was unwell, knowing him the way that I know him, he would tell us. He would tell us, because health is not something to play with. But let me just that back up.
This notion that the president was maybe too old, if you will, to run for reelection is something that they're that voters, number of voters across the country thought it was something that there were folks who were elected officials.
In Washington, d C.
They this was something I would hear elected officials strategies say. And some people might say, Okay, well that's an ageous argument because you know, Donald Trump is not for three years younger than Joe Biden. Look at people like Nancy Pelosi and Jim Clyburn, and I'm thinking of Bevy Smith who always talks about it gets greater later. And you know Mika Brazinski has the forty the fifty over fifty list and.
Always talks about things, you know, your second wave of life.
And so I understand this notion that it is a It was an agist remark to make an agency to say that, like, oh he there should be he's too old to be to run for president again because.
He's doing the job right now and was doing it.
I would I would argue very very well, I mean, the people that just came home the hottest situation like that, but.
Yeah, it was real.
It was real, and people's perception is reality. And if people perceive, if their thoughts, that was their reality. And you just supposed those very real thoughts and feelings that folks had with the fact that they maybe didn't see the president enough in organic situations. I think that he is really great at a town hall or uh in people people scenarios and in these random off the record
stops that aren't previously announced. But he pops into a space in place and sits there and talks with people and answers their questions.
I don't think he's always as great on a prompter. Right.
There are some people that just say they they exude more good stuff when they.
Are organically in the mix and not on a teleprompter.
I think a lot of Americans were seeing Joe Biden through the filter of the teleprompter and looking and being and the duties of the president.
Can I also say something that I think which you know you you are a wildly professional administration person. Maybe you can't say this, but I'm gonna go ahead and offer my thoughts. The entire time I watched that debate, I was like, I wouldn't know how the fuck to respond to this.
Either.
This is nonsense. This man is nonsensical. He's not even saying things. First of all, he's not saying anything that's true, like Trump is just straight up up there lying. Nobody's fact checking the guy. Of course, the president is looking at him like, what the how do I even which insane thing you just said? Do I pick to respond to first?
But so Fia.
But the double standard is very real for these two men. And to your point, perception does shape reality. And while it is undeniable, this is not an opinion, this is not an emotion. This is on paper, fact, data, policy, historic investment. Joe Biden is the most effective president we have had in America for either party in over sixty years.
Thank God for the American Rescue Act, thank God for the Infrastructure Bill, which, by the way, all the GOP folks who voted against her are out bragging about the investments they got made.
Literally, we need to make sure we keep the energy credits because that's what's Republicans were like, Look, would they sent a letter to Mike Johnson and they want to keep the energy credits because that has spurred business development in their district.
Yeah, it's almost like the Democrats know what they're doing.
Your assessment of the debate is not wrong, Like, yes, Donald Trump was saying and saying like is that anybody would be like, well, what is going on?
But the problem is it's not just anybody.
Joe Biden as the president who planned and prepares for this, he knew his team wasn't.
The debate and the debate performance it was.
It was bad, Like there's the only way to say the performance was bad. But baked into that performance from other people, again, the perception that they had is that, oh, well, I thought he was too old in.
General, he seemed a little office mark.
Maybe he wasn't well he would maybe he didn't feel good that day, which he said he was. He had a cold, and so all of that that played into what people already thought, and they see the debate performance and like, oh, he's gone up for the job now, I.
Frankly do not believe.
And I might be in the in the in the small here, but it is not my belief that that debate performance should have led to where we are now. And I say that knowing and respecting and having deep love for Joe Biden and knowing you're respecting and having deep loved for Vice President Harrison.
I've had a range of emotions over when that.
Week that everything went down, because I have had the privilege of knowing and working for them both.
Yes, but the faux pas here and this is this that you gotta.
To handle your politics, and the people around the president did not handle.
His politics as well as they should have.
What I mean by that is there are members of Congress who called up the White House the day after the debate and they said, oh, it was bad, and we da da dah, I want to talk to the president blah blah blah, and they were rebuffed. They said, it's fine. The people at the White House said it was fine. The folks, some of the folks on the
campaign said don't worry about it. And those members of Congress specifically, they felt like that the campaign apparatus around the president, the people closest to him, and even the President himself, given what he said close debate. I mean he was at the waffle house looking great, by the way, Okay, yes, but saying, oh, it's hard to debate a liar, Yes, sir, it is. But let's say I didn't have a good knight and we didn't get to I didn't have a little more a.
Week later, yes, And I think by the time he arrived.
To that point, the cake was already baked on.
The people that wanted to orchestrate his demise.
Very well, said I like that phrase, I'm going to borrow that and credit you. The cake was already baked, yeah, regardless.
But it was a decision, yes it was. It was an untenable position.
I mean they made it unable, so it was like he could have though, decided to bike it. Heals in and say sure, I'm the president. Fourteen million people voted for me, and I'm staying in this race. But Joe Biden is a good man. Frankly, he's a better person than maybe.
All of us.
I agree and listen to have done again, no emotion here, just the data, to have done more for this country than any other president in sixty years, and to be handed for you know, I'll say, you can't sandwich. He did the right thing. He did a valiant thing, He did a kind thing. And look, I don't stand politicians, to be clear, I don't think they're my heroes. I admire public service. I admire it in the military, I
admire it in an elected office. I do not admire the folks out here lobbying on behalf of the gun lobby. But you know that's a whole separate piece of the pie. Like people who want to dedicate themselves to make this country better. I respect and admire, and that doesn't mean I agree with everything. There are policies of the president that I am not a fan of. There are a
lot more that I am a big fan of. And at the end of the day, I think, if I have learned anything from women who've been at this longer than me, and particularly some of the black women in my life who have been at this generationally like you, I have learned that my thirst for immediate action and evolution in our political sphere is at times childish. We are working for longevity, We are working for the preservation
of generations. I would like us to be at utopia now, but I know it's something we have to build, and I know you have to be patient and invest. You know, political action is not a sexy, one night stand. It is a lifelong, cultivated marriage. And so as I sit here and I think about how you continue to press a country toward progress, how you don't let folks get left behind or forgotten about anywhere in any class you know, in any protected group or group that is not protected enough,
I know that that requires dedication and selflessness. So I'm gonna go ahead and again say the thing that I can say as a civilian, which is I think the President was incredibly generous to look at the landscape of the country and regardless of how I feel or what I know about myself, it's not my time at this time. And the surge of joy that we have been able to watch with Vice President Harris stepping up and by the way, being able to teut her incredible legacy thus far.
For whatever reason, vice presidents never get any credit for anything that they're doing. But when you look at the list.
I mean, it's not the job if you are a vice president running around getting a bunch of credit.
I agree. But she has done some very substantive and historic work, from reproductive rights to working to stabilize Central America with with you know, US partnership, and you know, working on immigration despite the fact that the Republican's torpedo the bipartisan immigration bill because Trump said so, which is psychotic. But here we are, like, she has done incredible things, and now we've got Coach Wallace in the group, and it's like America Dad has come to hang out with
our favorite and I'm so happy. Tell us how you're feeling, tell us what the temperature is, so I am feeling I.
Am feeling like this energy is amazing. But to be very clear, we did not get to this moment.
If on Joe Biden's way out of the race, he doesn't say.
Oh, when I endorse my vice president, Yes, because there were a lot of people, a lot of people now who are like oh, on the on the Kamala Harris train, who were on the open convention train, and I'm.
Just I'm looking at these people like, oh, okay.
And because he endorsed his vice president the president, he when he originally told her to be his running mate, said, I would believe she is ready on day one, and if.
I am not able to be the president, I know she's able to do the job. He carried that through all.
When it mattered the most, he stood behind his vice president that frankly stood with him, and Joe Biden is in fact, because he did that, he was the bridge that he promised us he would be.
He was the bridge that he always said he wanted to be apened the door and the service.
And because Vice President Harris had been doing the work this entire time, you know, much has been made. People A lot of people had thoughts prior to you know, her locking up the nomination and whatnot, saying oh, I don't know if she's up for the challenge, she can do it. And those people, in my opinion, had not been paying attention to her for the last year and a half, two years three. I mean, I just don't
think they've been paying attention. I think they let her presidential campaign and how well it didn't do color what they believed like they had a prison a filter on and they could not see her for what they could not see her in her work for what it truly was, and that is in fact, transformational.
Serious.
She has been a true governing partner to the president, and she's happened that she enjoyed campaigning and people, and I think that's coming true on the campaign trail.
We'll be back in just a minute after a few words from our favorite sponsors. People who wanted to ignore her record have also ignored her record as a senator as you know, a district attorney. I'm just like, at the attorney general, I'm like, I'm so sorry, what what are you missing about? How progressive and fair and inclusive to everyone this woman has always been. You know, maybe I know more about her because I grew up in California.
But she is an incredible candidate, and beyond just ignoring her record, I also think a lot of people need to go back to social studies class because I'm like, do y'all not know how civic works. She is the literal vice president of the United States of America. She's not like a random person being installed.
As the nominee. Like she is the active vice president of the United States.
And people and the delegates within the Democratic Party, they voted for her, they won her.
I mean to be very clear. In the primary, when people voted for Joe Biden, they were voted for Carl Hairs. They vote for her exactly.
And then when Joe Biden bout out of the race and then endorsed his vice president, she just didn't say, Okay, it's me and it.
Is a coordination. She is.
She got on the phone and she went to work calling people for their endorsements. And the hours after the President made us all aware via social media that he.
Was no longer in this race, it's my understanding that she was.
On the phone calling up anybody, members of Congress, union folks, calling them up saying I want this one and two, I want your endorsement, and that is that. That's like campaign one on one, Honey. You get on that phone, you call the people, you have the conversations, and you ask for what you want. A closed mouth will not get fed and a closed mouth will.
Not get a vote. Okay. So I just think she had the right mindset.
Here exactly exactly, and so can you talk to us about how you view the campaign? And look, I want to be very sensitive. This is a historic moment. I again, I'm a Californian. I know her record. I will never forget what it felt like to watch the news and watch her at the time years ago say you will start performing marriages. I mean, she has stood up for equity and decency and everyone in our country for so long. So you know I've got those opinions. Also, it is
a historic, incredible moment. We have a black woman running for the president of the United States of America, and so.
It's like, what I don't want to do is make it about a man.
But this is also the week that she announced Tim Walls as her VP.
Pick.
I happen to love coach. I think he is a miraculous person because he manages being sort of like a quintessential older, sweet white guy dad football dude to also be a kind and cclude of man who has proven incredibly for his state that you can bring everybody along and nobody loses, not even guys like him who you know, want to say they're suddenly losing it in America, where women like you and I are no longer under threat
every day, just maybe still most of the time. Like I don't know, it's a weird argument, but like he kind of does away with a lot of the complaints that come out of these bot farms on the right. So I want to focus on her and I want to talk about him. How does it feel, you know, from inside the administration? What do you see since the announcement of him being the pick? Yeah, tell give me the inside baseball here a little bit.
I've talked to a number of current administration officials, you know, folks that still work for the president and vice president on the official side. And I talked to a bunch of the campaign folks, the senior campaign leadership, but also maybe what we would call rank and file campaign staff who just were watching a new just like the rest of us, Like oh, Joe Biden's out up. Kamla Harris is them, Oh we're doing this.
Yeah, people are excited. I think people are very excited.
I think folks are surprised by how much the momentum has continued to build and these I don't remember the last time it's been a while since a Democratic candidate for president has had a airport hangar rally that has been filled to the brim and spilling over.
So that is an exciting piece.
The senior leadership though, and I would also note the Vice President herself, I think that they are very clear eyed, clear eye that this is still going to be a fight, that there are people in this country that want what Donald Trump and Jade Vance are selling and the vision that they are offering, and that nothing is going to be handed to them.
They know that the race is going to be close.
And so I don't think that the Vice President herself is is high, if you.
Will, on the sugar high.
She's doing the work, she's doing the work, and I think she's clear and she's resolute.
That's just from knowing her. That's just the kind of that's just the kind of person she is.
When the states get high and when everybody is having fun and people are like, oh, this is our moment.
She's always like, okay, but focus because the reality is is that there are.
Was as we had this conversation, We'll just say less than ninety days until election day, but it's even sooner than that, Sophia, until people start voting in this country after convention, within the first week of September and key places across the country, folks are going to start going
to the battle box and cast their vote. Tim Wallas is an excellent to be very clear, any pick the Vice President would have made would have been an excellent pick because the candidates that the contenders that I'm aware that were in the in contention, all of them amazing representatives of the Democratic Party apparatus, amazing people that would have been great, great, great running mates and excellent vice presidents.
If Kadlah Harris is to be elected, Tim Walls, though the Vice President felt was right for her, and as a you select a running mate, it's the first major decision that a nominee makes. It's literally the first presidential level decision that they may because you are picking the person that, in the event you cannot do the job. To be very clear, that this is the person you want to have your job and someone that you want to work with and be your governing partner for the next.
Four, maybe even eight years.
So she obviously felt like she had that in Governor Wall, someone who is the current chair of the Democratic Governor's Association.
Like this man.
People talk about Governor Walls like he just fell out of a pricking apple tree and found his way up into to be the running made of potential next Vice President of United States for America. Like no, he too has done the work throughout his career, and I would know. He's a native Nebraska like myself. So the folk are taking credit for ten Walls.
But this is going to be a fight, Sophia, And if the news currently is any indication they're going to be attacked from the Trump and Band's campaign that the Harris Walls campaign are going to have to contend with.
We we have yet to see either of the major either of the candidates fraying either of the tickets, whether I'm talking about Donald Trump and Jade Vance or Vice President Harris and Governor Wallas fit for joint interviews together. Right, That's something that usually happens when Secretary Clinton chose Tim Kaine as her running mate in twenty sixteen, about forty
eight hours later they were doing a joint interview. When Vice president then candidate Biden chose then Senator Harris as his running mate in twenty twenty, about four years ago actually, frankly, oh wow, my goodness, about four years ago this week, crazy, Maybe about almost two weeks later, about twelve days later,
they set together for a joint interview. So it just depends this is unprecidented because, to be very clear, not only in two weeks time did Vice President Harris stand up a campaign apparatus and she's a running mate.
Like she's also teasing out what her policies are gonna be.
I would not suggest anybody sit down for in depth interview anywhere and you're not sure what your policies are, honey, because they're gonna have to answer those questions. But should they maybe are they gonna or are we gonna start saying them take more questions as they're out and about with the reporters that are traveling with them.
I think they should.
The kaple of Harris, I know that's what that's what she did when I worked for and what she's continued to do over the last couple of years, a couple of years as the vice president.
So that is where I see this race right now.
It is I don't think people, though, should should trample on the enthusiasm.
Have you heard people say, I'm like, oh, why are they so incided? Yeah?
But I don't care. I'm just so happy. It feels nice to feel happy about our future again. It feels nice that good people can go and do good things for other people. You know it Trump unleashed. Look, there's always been hey, but Trump unleashed like a hate machine on steroids. And it's so tiring. It is tiring to to have to fight tooth and nail to just remain at baseline and to begin I believe for so many people in this country to see that we could get
like up pass baseline into goodness. That there could be more infrastructure investment, there could be more job creation. You know, communities that have historically had you know, their working classes dying in coal mines or contracting cancer posts that lifetime of work could actually be the first communities to get green sector jobs where they work in safe environments and have healthcare, like you know, kids get to eat in school, even some of the attacks of the right on governor laws.
They're like, hey gave kids tampons, And I'm like, y'all, I'm a forty two year old woman and I was at the Modern Art Museum in Grand Rapids last week, got my period a day early and couldn't get a tampon, and was like, I'm a grown ass person who has to freak out about this. I don't know what I would do if I were twelve and I needed to go take a math test in the next, you know, next class, and this was happening to me.
Like I didn't know.
Maybe sure children didn't go hungry was a radical, you know position.
I didn't know that I didn't eat.
Folks have what they need.
For their health care situation, which, to be clear, like women get periods, girls get periods, like this is this is this is part of what happens students.
Men's stream and pads are.
You know, they're necessary, they're necessary products. I didn't know making sure that, you know, young girl girls who are at school can have access to those items and not have to you know, see if they've got a dollar or a dollar twenty five, or they have change in their pockets in order to get the what they need is a radical position, Like I just I didn't know the ensuring that people in a state capital somewhere are not overriding your doctor when your doctor tells you what
you need for your health care is a radical position, to be very clear, which is why I think is really important to fear that people are very specific, right.
And so when when.
The some of the attacks on Governor Walls are specifically about how he was as a governor, they say he was a very conservative member of cong He was a he was a moderate Democrat, right, and he got elected in a conservative district in two thousand and six and served in that district until he left her to run
for governor. And he during that time he had a high grating from the NRA right all of these things, and they say, well, that was Congressman Walls, but Governor Walls are somewhat different, and they think that the campaign is going to have to contend with this. They're gonna have to beat this back aggressively, in my opinion, because narrative is a very powerful thing, and because he is new on the national stage of so many people, they
cannot allow this narrative to take hold. So you gotta be specific, like, Okay, what things the governor walls do that you didn't agree with?
Feed over children? Yeah, let's just ask the questions here.
Yeah, let's ask the questions. And by the way, I loved that he took to the Internet to say, yeah, I'm I'm a hunter. I've grown up with guns. I used to at an A rating from the NRA, and then when I learned what they were spending money on ensuring that these mass shootings keep happening, I changed my opinion and now I'm proud to have an F rating. I was like, dude, you're great, You're just great. It's
it doesn't all have to be so hysterical. But I think part of the reason that it's hard is because, at least in my opinion, as you know, a political nerd for sure, but a civilian, we do deal with on the right a lot of projection, a lot of what folks on the right are guilty of, they're saying the Democrats are doing. And it's tricky when one group is like, well, no, we don't do that, and the other group is, you know, screaming hysterics all the time.
It doesn't really feel like a level playing field. It's like we show up, you know, to the argument like I always think of it like West Side story, Like you got one group showing up to the fight with like little switchblades. You've got the other group showing up with an uzi and you wonder why, Like everything feels crazy. We'll be back in just a minute. But here's a word from our sponsors.
I think people need to hear Donald top in his own words, unfiltered, because that is who he is and that is what voters are getting exactly.
And when he doesn't have the softball questions prepped from his friends at Fox News, and he has to actually, you know, speak his opinions or speak off the cuff. I mean the way his disdain for women and his racism pours out of his body. I'll come to the you know, Kamala Harris observations he made in a moment, but even the fact that he dared to say with a straight face, I've been the best president for black
people since Abraham Lincoln. Excuse me, sir, excuse me. First of all, no, you haven't the programs you've defunded, the people you've come for what you have promoted out in the world, like from policy to personal aspect, you are a nightmare. But the fact that you would say that is.
So shocking to me.
And it's also I mean not shocking.
I guess that's what's wild.
He shocks me, but it doesn't surprise me. Maybe that's the way to say.
Because he's a salesman and Donald Trump believe. Look, if you say anything enough times, people may start to believe it, right, Like it's this whole thing about like why it could be why do demo Why are Democrats regularly ranks lower on the economy? Literally, generic Democrats lawer on the economy than like a generic Republican because for years Republicans have just said they're great on the economy.
They just said they're good on it, even.
Though the data proves the opposite.
Honey, where are the policy to back it up?
So Donald Trump is trying to use that when it comes to He actually used that strategy on a number of different things. But like that's why he does things like that. And for so long people never fact checked him. They would just let him say the crazy thing.
And it's like, well, Donald Trump, yep, says again blah, blah black.
And now people are like wising up to it, and the media apparatus is like, Okay, we're not gonna We're not going to allow this to go and check. There's still some issues with the way in which Donald Trump gets away with things, but I think that he is being held accountable more now than ever before.
One of the good sides of this much connectivity is we just know so much more existing in the world because we see it. So when he says on the stage at the NABJ that, you know, he can't believe Kamala Harris is black, that she quote was always of Indian heritage, was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black. And then he goes on to say, you know, and she's she's turned black. Is she Indian
or black? And I was like, bro, First of all, it's insane to me that in the year twenty twenty four you don't understand that mixed race people exist. It's wild that you would say this when your running mate's wife is also and heritage, so his children are mixed, your your would be hopeful vice president's kids and Sir Kamala Harris went to historically black college. She's a member of the AKA, like.
Even if she didn't go to a HBCU, I know, not a member of a sorority, Like whether one is black or not has nothing to do with the school they went to. And then the sorority that they well what donald thought to tell anyone who they are, but.
Just wild to me observing it to go sir, You can't say like, oh, I met this person and didn't realize her family history. She's the Vice President of the United States of America, whose entire life is on the record. If you've ever watched a speech she's given, ever paid attention to groups she advocates for, or knew anything about her personal history. To be proud of where you come from, Like, my mom's family is Italian, my dad's from Canada.
Guess what.
I'm a dual se citizen in Canada and I try to go to Italy at least once a year to see my family. I love both places.
You don't owe anyone an explanation. I sure don't.
I sure don't.
You don't owe.
Anyone an explanation for that, and neither does the Vice president. But she shares her rich history being a daughter of immigrants, a daughter of Oakland, California, someone whom her mother, who she often talks about, her mother, shambla who she says, you know, her mother knew she was raising two young black girls, that that's how the world would see her children, and she made sure she instilled in us the richness
of our full heritage. So this idea, this is why I think Donald Trump is doing two things on that stage with that particular comment.
One he was speaking to.
Just frankly, the racist parts of our electorate, because they do exist, and the folks who and the racist parts of our electorate saying, you don't even know what she is?
What you sure you want her to be president? That's essentially what he was saying. But I also think he was speaking to this un your current.
That exists within communities of color that say, well, who is who is actually a person of color?
Who's actually black?
And I think that the second thing that he was doing is a lot more. It's it's sinister, It's something he himself didn't understand.
He probably saw it on the internet as somebody said it to him.
But either way, no one in this country owes anyone else an explanation about their their their identity, you know what I mean about who they are, like the beauty of That's what Governor Walls was saying.
You don't give what to say. Mind your own damn business. But like if Donald Trup wants.
To ask these kinds of questions, and if hee would like to ask the vice president like well is she actually black? I do not suggest these are questions one should ask, Okay, but if you, if you, if you decide you'd like to ask them, perhaps they shouldn't be asked on a debase stage while you're standing next to her.
And she said herself like, if you have you have.
So much to say, maybe you should say it's my face. But those are not things that he would do. But the fact that it made its way onto a stage where the cameras were on, in a room full of journalists, and now that veryist, the sinister comments have been repeated large and everyone has heard it.
It opens the door for folks in their own communities to repeat some of the same sinister language that Donald Trump is sent in.
And so this is why it's just like Donald Trump could be defeated at the ballot box. It's November, like Vice President Harris. She's running a good campaign. It's still you know, in less than ninety days.
She could win. And even if she wins, While.
Donald Trump may be defeated, Trumpism is not going away. And I think there is a larger conversation that is to be had about how trump Ism has so ingrained itself within the DNA of the current Republican Party apparatus.
That it's not going to be enough to just defeat him at the ballot box.
Because there are people who have been elected all over this country, some in Congress, some in state legislatures, some right, some in the Secretary of State's.
Office, some election officials, Oh yeah, election officials, and they believe with Donald cup believes that's what's so dangerous about this moment.
Yeah, it is scary. Well, it's very scary to have supposed American civil servants adhering to the language and goals of dictators and despots who we've judged around the world, and when they think the one in their own backyard could make them rich, they go the hell with democracy. You know that that is stressful for me as a passionate citizen also daughter of immigrants who you know, all my family is here because of this idea, of this American dream, and it's surreal to see how quickly people
are willing to sell it out. But it is why I feel hopeful, because what I appreciate is that the Vice President and Governor Walls are reminding us it's not hard to live next to people. It's not hard to be good to people. It's not hard to say, listen, you do this, I do that online, my business, you mind yours. Let's make sure everybody has rights. You know, I loved that that Governor Wall said rights are not
like a pie. There's enough for everybody to go around, Like you can have yours and they can have theirs, and them having theirs doesn't threaten yours. Like we can actually all just listen to each other. And it's nice to have folks presenting us with a vision of an America where we as a country get to solve problems together instead of fight each other to see who wins within our walls. That's just not useful.
Yeah, it's not sustainable either, Like, no, it's not what I mean.
You know, the President always talks about like America being an idea, and it is America is an idea it's an experiment, frankly, and it is an experiment that only it's it's like it's a system that only works if you're working, okay, and it is it is. I like what you said about how it's kind of like our democracy is like a long time. It's like a committed marriage situation. It is something every single day, and some days you'll get it right. There will be some days
there will be setbacks. But I just haven't traveled all over you know, we've traveled all over this our great country, but also the world.
And I still I still would rather.
There's no place in the in the world i'd rather be than be an American.
Like the privilege, just the privilege.
And when I went to the White House, one of the one of the things about working at the White House is when you travel abroad on behalf of the United States government. And I traveled with the Vice President when she went on all of her to call them oconaces. I don't know why they call them oconass but it's
an in a national trip. And when we would travel abroad, it's like they didn't care if the people abroad, it doesn't matter if it is a president that was a democratic president that was elected or Republican president that was elected.
We are Americans. You're representing a America and we that is how that you us.
The people abroad are not looking at us as Democrats or Republicans are independents.
They're looking at us as Americans.
And when you when you step off a plane in a foreign country as a representative of America, it is one of the highest privilege. It is quite possibly the highest privilege I feel like I have ever been afforded to represent America.
It's probably how it's how they are left in.
The Olympias build Yeah America right now, We're like, yeah, we're rooting for because because.
They are, they are representing all of us.
And that's that is why who is in the White House matters. Who the president is matter is honey, Because these guard grils that y'all think exist, let me tell you it is only as good as the people the president surround themselves with, and the Congress that is willing to do their job, and the Supreme Court that is that is that is that.
Is willing to stay in their.
Box held to ethical standards.
Come on now, and the Congress is has been unbilling to do their job.
The Republicans in Congress, and then the Supreme Court they have they it's like the ethical standards don't exist.
Well, they've all been bought and paid for.
I'm on now, they're not there.
And I just I don't know how better to tell people that so much of what happens in the White House and in the federal government is just a bunch of people sitting in that room saying what it is they'd like to do.
And those people are often the.
President, the president's chief of staff, maybe it's a vice president and their team and the.
Core team around them.
And if those people do not have the same reverence for the role and the job and don't feel the same way about stepping off the plane as Americans that I just described, well, then honey weed for a ride, right.
Well, And I think it's been very important for us to realize, to your point, how fragile the guardrails are. People assume they're made of steel, and they're kind of made of glass. We can't risk all of this repeat harm done. The idea is that we get better at achieving the ideals of the American experiment, and folks who are willing to sell off the American Experiment for parts I think shouldn't ever be back in the White House again.
I'm really curious only because I mean, my god, I love having like really timely, topical, deep conversations with you about this stuff. But I also want to, like, I just want to give you all your flowers for a moment. You are an incredible human. You are an incredible American.
You are an incredible friend. You have been someone that I enjoy learning from advocating alongside, who has been willing to sit you know, do the things in public and the big advocacy, but like we've also sat at like the IOP in a back classroom at Harvard talking to students, and like you've been an ear for me to vent about my life and ask questions like what do I do in this situation that's really hard for me right now?
And so I think people can forget when they look at someone like you who has done all the work that you've done, that you are so young, Like Simone, you were twenty five years old when you became the national Press secretary for Senator Sanders on his presidential campaign, Like how how did you.
Get that passion that ten years ago? Yet that hell Loo years next year.
Wow, this is what I'm saying. Like you were twenty five years old, you were a baby, So where did the passion come from? And then how did you handle the pressure at that age? Like, because I want to know how you got there and how you did it. And then looking back from here almost ten years later, what advice you might give young folks who want to follow in your footsteps.
Well, first, let me say you were very kind you all thought phobia. You do such a great job of just I think when I when I see you and a number of people like you, right, but I think of this Nina Smong quote. Nina Smith says, it is an artist's duty to reflect the times.
And there are so meaning and I mean.
You are you are an actor, you're a director, you're a philanthropist, but you're an artist. At the end of the day, you're an artist. And there are artists out there that do not feel.
It is their duty to reflect the times.
There are people that have opinions and thoughts, but they do not do anything with them. You know, they share them amongst their small groups, but they're not going out there trying to help people register the vote, trying to help, you know, sing where they can fix some of the things that are happening in the community, how they can stand up and just kind of do what they can in their own space and place. But you do do that, and I really think it's important that you. I really
really think it's important that you do that. There are lots of other people that do, Like I think of I'm.
Not even gonna lie. Have you heard this before? But one said no.
One said to me the other day they were like, you know what, Sophia Bush is like the white Kerry Washington. I said, when it comes to the politics. She's like yes, I said, you know what, yees. You know why they say.
That, because Carrie, she will show up.
For the voting street honey, see will do an activation, he will fly the main.
I love that woman. That's a big compliment for me.
Yes, And they were like, yeah, Okia puts just like the white Kerry Washington. And I was like, you know, next time I see Sofia, I will I will make sure I tell her that.
But that is I think that's so important. So you know, you gave me that flowers. But like I appreciate I do. I appreciate you because we need people like you. We need people to use.
Their platforms and use their time and their space in place to just talk about the issues because it makes it so much more accessible.
I would just quickly.
Say that how I got the how I got there the Bernie Sanders job, It really was nothing, but like I think, I mean, I worked hard, but I think it was just a lot of like prayer and just I'm a spiritual person, and I think I believe that it was that what is for you will not miss you. And I had gone on like twenty seven interviews before, like literally twenty seven interviews. I interviewed everywhere every Democratic entity in Washington, d C.
Every every Democratic committee, they all one place.
I went to like eight rounds of interviews only for them not to hire me but tell me that they loved they loved my spirit and then I addressed very well. So I get a call from like Bernie Sanders in campaign manager randomly on my cell phone. Somebody whom I had worked for previously, gave him my resume and he called and he asked me, did I want to, you know, come work for Bernie Sanders.
I'm like, who is this?
And I ended up going to meet with Jeff Weaver, and then maybe a couple weeks later, I meet with the communications director.
Then I don't hear anything. So now I've been on like, you know, twenty nine interviews.
No job.
I have a job now, but I don't want that job anymore. I had moved to DC to do politics, and I wasn't doing politics, so I wanted to do political work. And I get another.
Random call on my phone and it's someone from Bernie Sanders' office and they're asking me to meet with him. We end up going to meet that day and the Senator and I get into an argument when I get in there.
And you met Senator Standers, I love him. Bernie Sanders have to say the same thing in higher career.
That man is the epitome of like his authentic self because he hasn't believed what he's believed since longer.
Than I've been alive. Okay, Yeah, And so Bernie.
Sanders let me know that he thought I had a fundamental misunderstanding of his economic policy, and I was just like, well, sorry, I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what I'm saying. And so we we kind of went back and forth. I told a story or two, and by the end of the conversation we were on the same page, right, and he told me he liked me.
I was like, I like you.
And then he was like, oh, I think I want you to work here. I was like, I think I could work here. And then BERNIEY Sanders asking something nobody had ever asked you before. He said, well, do you have an idea what you want to do? And I knew exactly what I had wanted to do because I knew what I wanted my next role to be. I knew what I wanted my title to be. I knew the experience I wanted to be able to get, so
that is what I asked for. I told Bernie Sanders straight up, I want to be your national pre secretary. I want to be your on the record spokesperson. I want to have a hand of the messaging strategy, just like we discussed here. And I want to, you know, do cable television. And Bertie Scatters is just kind of like, have you ever done cable television before? And I was like, no, sir, but I do think I'd be very good at it, and he laughed. And then days later I get a call back on my phone again.
It's Jeff Weaver. He starts talking about the phone and the laptop, and I'm like, well, what's my job title, Jeff, and he says national Press secretary. Now, Sophia, I did not think there was gonna make me the national press secretary. Honey. I'm gonna ask what I want and then I'm gonna let you. If you want to hale me down, you can hale me down.
Yeah, But that is I think the best piece of advice that I could give, and I remember and I take that experience with me and everything that I have done since then. I think that we should be about the business of asking for what we want and what we know we have worked for, and then when we get it, we need to be able to execute. And how many times do we ask for the thing right up under the thing we want because we feel like somebody's not gonna give it to us.
All they could tell.
Me is no, right, I love it, aim high, expect a counteroffer, and some times you'll get asking.
Sometimes you'll get it. I'm I love it. I love it, and it's worked for me, and I just I am.
I'm very comfortable with who I am. I mean, I think I had to be comfortable. I didn't think I was getting that job. When Bernie Sanders and I started arguing, I was just like, but since I'm here, I'm gonna say my piece, because when am I gonna be sitting in the office of the United.
States Senator again?
And I've been in many more offices of the United States Senators. I just I think it's important that folks. I think young women, especially young people of color across the board, should know that their.
Authentic selves are are are just enough.
And I think that while there has been there has been a lot of progress across all these various industries.
I mean, we're talking about the fact that the Democrats.
Have just nominated a black woman, a woman of color, a woman of South Asian descent, as the nominator, the first of any major party.
This is the ground to Shirley chishol laid. Shirlie Chisen was the first woman to run for president on any major party ticket.
Nineteen seventy two.
In nineteen right, but Shirley chishom laid the groundwork for Geraldine Ferraro, which was forty years ago. She was the first woman to be on the major party ticket as the vice presidential running mate that laid the groundwork for Secretary Clinton in twenty sixteen to be the first woman of any any major party to be nominated as the nominee, Which brings us to this moment that we are currently
in with Vice presid Kamala Harrison. So much progress has been made, but there's still such a long way to go. And I just, you know, my authentic self is just enough. I can't so like, I don't put on anything else, and I go to work every day. I literally have the privilege of going to work just as simone because simone is just enough.
And now a word from our sponsors who make this show possible.
So what made you know?
Because you said you spoke what you wanted into existence with Senator Sanders, then you were in the Biden campaign. How did you know that it was time to leave for the cable TV part?
You know? I So I did the Biden campaign. I worked through the transition.
I served the president and Vice president in the administration, and it was just grueling. That was from the campaign to the administration. It was about three years because I'd do in the campaign in twenty nineteen and then twenty twenty and then twenty twenty one. So by the end of that year, almost the end of the year twenty twenty one, I just felt like that I was burnt out. I felt tired. I felt like I was coming home and I was just I was an unhappy person.
You know, I'm tired. You know when you getting tired of ghost. I was exhausted.
I was hopping on and I've been hopping on off planes for about three years, and I want to be able to go to brunch.
I was also about to get married, like I got engaged earlier that year, and my wedding was going to.
Be in twenty twenty two, and I just had to make a decision, like do I I enjoy and loved my job. I have a deep respect and love for the president and the Vice President, and it was tough for me. I didn't even want to tell the Vice president that I was leaving. You know what I did, I told the chief of staffs first that I had made.
The decision to go. My chief is after this time.
Her name was Tina, the Vice President's first chief of staff, and Tina was like, well, we all want you here, and I'm like, yes, I know, Tina, but I just like it's my time, and you know I'm tired.
I gave it. I told Tina all the things I'm telling you. You know, I'm getting married and I want to be able to enjoy and plan my wedding. And Tina's like, well, you must tell her, And I'm like, well, can't you tell her? And I didn't want to tell her because I.
Loved my job and I had deep respective love for the vice President, and she gave me an opportunity to know that no one else had afforded to me.
She never hesitated to make me her spokesperson. She called me and she told me, I would like you to be my senior advisor and my chief spokesperson.
She never she never questioned if I could do the job. She never suggested that I didn't have enough experience.
She never.
All she ever did was so confidence in me that I could do it, and then we would go and get it done. And I didn't. You know, when you decide you want to leave something that you've been in with people for.
A while, it's like you kind of feel like you're letting people down because it's like, oh, you think of all the things that you're responsible for and so I don't.
I don't.
I think in the moment, I didn't want to be the one to tell it to her first, because maybe maybe I didn't want anybody to say, hey, maybe maybe you should stay.
I don't want her to I don't want her to counter me. And what if I'm in a week moment and like she's I'm like, okay, final stay. So I asked Tina to tell her first. Tina Tina. Tina took her time telling her for the same reason I think I took her. I didn't want to tell her, And she finally told her the day she told her we were going to do.
I think we're going to do a campaign event in Virginia because it was an advance of the midterm elections. And we get out of the motorcade and we're walking down the hallway in like this school in Virginia where the rally is happening.
And as I'm walking, I'm trying to brief her about this stuff and she's like, I talked to Tina. She told me. I'm like, ma'am. She was like, you and I need to talk. I said, yes, ma'am. And the next day she asked me.
Coming to her office, and I send to our office for about forty five minutes. The vice because of the United States of America, does not have forty five minutes for her staff person be sitting on the couch talk about something that is not connected to work she does, but she took the time to sit there with me and the conversation that we had. She never once countered me and told me tried to talk me out of the decision I made. She wanted to understand why I was.
Leaving, which I told her what exactly what I told you here, and she gave me good advice. And then she asked me, I thought, I she well, I want just paraphraid. And note that she told me. She told me that whatever I do next, I should understand that I am in the driver's seat. She underscored that like the work we had done here was.
Was truly transform transformational, amazing work. The work here is not yet done. And but like she unders she she reinforced that she understood.
Where I was.
And then she just kind of talked to me about how the decisions that I'm making, how they affect my life. Like she talked to me about she she had known she had gotten to know my now husband very well. You know, she would give him herbs from her garden.
She got a garden in LA but also at the vice presidents at the Naple Observatory, she'd always you know, be bringing stuff, say in a little baggies that this is for it's for your husband, because ain't for me, because I'm not cooking Sophia and she she so she talked me about that and just and it was so interesting because when I originally met her, way back when I met her when uh he shortly after he and I started dating, and so she kind of been on
the journey with us the whole time, even before that, so I had all I would always kind of talk to her about the things.
You know, she's some days it's like a auntie.
But it was a great conversation, and she did pour into me there and then she was like, now we got to go to work, and I all, I remember every single thing that she said to me in that conversation.
So when I was having my meetings when I left the White House, I was very clear, just like I was when I was with Senator Sanders and all the other jobs I've had previously, what I wanted.
I wanted a show, and I wanted my own show on TV, and every single network had told me that is not what you really want. They all said the same They all had the same script, Oh you don't really want to do that. Oh I don't think that's what you want. Don't you want the flexibility? But I'm telling you what I want. I want a television show on TV. I want to do I want my own show on cable news. And it wasn't until I met with Rashida Joe's from MSBC and she asked.
Me, well, what kind of show would you like to have?
And that is where we got to to where we are now, where I'm one of the co hosts of the Weekend but one I've never I always think about.
Not allowing anyone to put me in a box that like where I become a characterture of myself. You know, I have a lot of personality.
You know, I don't necessarily talk how people are used to how other news anchors people are used to hearing. And that's this is how I was when I worked for you know, when I worked in the federal government, when I worked for the vice president of the president. But the vice president she always would say. I mean, she's like, you are funny, but you are also very serious and you are substantive. And if people are if someone is not getting both of those from you, they are.
Not getting you. And I think about that as I do this job. Now.
For sure, I love that and I think that's really important. That's something that my friendships with women like you have taught me is, you know, my intellect and my deep twenty years of showing up for policy work matters. And yeah, I'm also like a wildly unseerious person who you know, wants to run around to late night diners and go to dance parties. And there has to be space for
all of it. And I think particular cularly women who are intellectual or powerful or political get the funds discouraged.
Out of them.
And I'm I'm excited to be in an era where it feels like we can be more full.
Yes, whole people who does the kid who have thought thought I've given dynamic?
Yeah, well, when you think about this larger dynamic of your life, this thing that you know, spoke claimed owned, when you sit at the helm of your show, is it everything that you dreamed of?
Like?
Is the little kid Simone who pretended to host her own show Happy Do you love it?
Yeah?
Honestly, like people are, especially nowadays, their body's like, oh, well, well, do you miss the campaign trail?
Do you miss this?
And I'm as a campaign person, you definitely missed the campaign trail because I came up and doing campaigns like I'm a campaign baby for sure.
But I love what I'm doing now. And frankly, I know what.
The you know. I read. I read the trade newspapers and the trade. I know what people say about cable news, but the reality is sofia. When something happens in the world, people turn on their television. And when they turn on their TV, I mean when when the interrection happened. When when folks took up arms against the against the UN, against officers who were defending the United States capital, people who attempted to subvert the peaceful transition of power, People
turned on the TV to see what was happening. I mean, when Joe Biden said he wasn't right for president anymore, he dropped.
It on social media, so people said social media.
Then they turned on the TV, but they wanted some context put into what they were seeing.
And they wanted to know if it was true, because nowadays, sometimes yout on the Internet isn't true. So when all of these things are happening in the world, people still turn on the television, and when they do, they are expecting to find someone there who's going to tell them the truth, who's going to be actual and factual and substantive, who is just going to going to you know, give them the information and help give them a roadmap. And I great honor and a great privilege.
I feel so blessed to be able to, you know, do that with Michael Steele and Elysia Menindez on the weekends every Saturday and Sunday, and the opportunities that I have throughout the week. So this is if I am not you know, in the if I'm not in the fight at the at the White House or you know, out on the campaign trial, I think the next best place to be is on TV giving context to the moments that we are collectively experiencing as American people.
And you know that is my you know, radical revolutionary contribution to this moment. I love it.
And when I think about the stages and phases of life, you did that work so that you can have this kind of innate expertise in this phase I made.
What could I argue? Who could have orchestrated it better? Sophia's like I knew, I love it. You are.
You are a literal walking example of the power of manifestation and hard work. It's my favorite combo in a human As you sit here, you know, in this moment where it's all come true when you look out at the year ahead, and not just necessarily with the election, I guess I just mean more for you, like for Simon, what feels like you're working progress?
Now?
You know, I just.
Ooh, this is a deep question. What is my work in progress?
Now? Look, I just think that this there are well, the election is what is in front of us, as like the American people, right and the people that are keyed into the political every single day. There are many other things happening across our country and across the world that don't make it to the front pages of the newspapers or on the cable news every day.
And there are real.
Issues that people are dealing with across this country, whether it comes, whether they're dealing with them economically, whether we're talking about you know, the reproductive fight, whether they talk about criminal justice, I think about I recently saw the video of Sonia Massey.
I waited to watch it.
I read all the descriptions, but I was like, I need to watch the video, and like, these things are still happening. So I just would say that there are many things that need the layers peeled back, that need the context, that need to be spoken about. There are many conversations that need to be had that are separate from maybe I think everything, at the end of the day is political. Everything is not partisan, but everything is political.
You know, the ability Sonia, the difference between Sonia Massey being alive today and losing her life in her kitchen because a police officer shot.
Her in the head, that is in fact political.
Yes, is political to be able to go to the grocery store in your neighborhood to get vegetables.
And green lettuce.
It's political to be able to go to the doctor and get the health care that you need and the timely manner that is high quality when you need it. And so everything, in my opinion is political, everything though it is not partisan.
And so I think that many of the things that I just mentioned.
Simply they are political, and so they are connected to this current moment, but it is not they don't they this current moment, this election is not the only thing, and so I'm excited about the ability. Like what conversations we're having post November fifth, twenty twenty four, post January twenty twenty and twenty twenty five. I hope we're not
talking about another potential insurrection. I hope we are not having conversations about how elected officials across the country who have whether they've been elected to serve or volunteer, election officials, have developed a very sinister plot to subvert the will of the people that the person that they wanted is in fact not elected.
I hope that's not what we're talking about, but we are. I'll be ready to have the conversation.
Well, my hope is that fifty two years after Shirley Chisholm ran indeed in nineteen seventy two, that we get to see that dream manifested into existence, and that we, to your point, have a peaceful transition of power, and then we get to continue working toward progress for the American people and economy that works for everybody in a world where women like us get to actually, you know, maintain our sovereign rights. That would be lovely.
That would be lovely. I don't want the handmade sale, honey, y'all mean neither. I'm good.
I would love to just put a real stop, just break pedal on that. Please and thank you, and so may it be. You are a powerful manifestor. I feel like me getting to have this conversation with you put some things in motion in the universe. So thank you for coming today, thank you for taking the time. I absolutely adore you.
I adore you. Be well, okay, and I'll see fi okay, I'll.
Be watching you. Bye bo bye, honey.