Harris on the democratic ticket. Then, Purdue University associate professor nadia brown joins us for more on the Vice President of canada and the role of black women in american politics. Washington journal is next. Host good morning. It is thursday, august 13. Joe biden and Kamala Harris made their debut as democratic running mates. With of the ticket now set, harris biggest moments in the spotlight are set to come next week at the Democratic Convention and debate with mike pence. We are asking you how much you Pay Attention to the bottom half of a party ticket. Do you think running mates matter . Phone lines for you to call in, republicans, democrats, independents. You can also send us a text. Do, please include your name and where you are from. Otherwise, catch up with us on social media, twitter and facebook. A very good thursday morning to you. You can go ahead and start calling in as we begin with this headline from yesterday from political. Mates dont usually matter, they write. The political story noting with his selection of a running mate on tuesday, biden now has a ticket and republicans have a of attack. Attack. A new line of clip] me,s i said when you called i am incredibly honored by this responsibility, and im ready to get to work. I am ready to get to work. After the most competitive primary in history, the country received a resounding message that joe was the person to lead us forward. Joe, i am so proud to stand with you. Mindful of all the heroic and ambitious women sacrifice,ho determination and resilience todaymy presence here even possible. This is a moment of real consequence for america. Everything we care about, our economy, our health, our children, the kind of country we live in, it is all on the line. Reeling from the worst Public Health crisis in a century. The president s mismanagement of the pandemic has plunged us into the worst economic crisis since the great depression. We are experiencing a moral reckoning with racism and systemic injustice that has brought a new coalition of conscience to the streets of our country demanding change. Host senator Kamala Harris in wilmington, delaware at that joint press conference with joe biden yesterday, some of her first public remarks. You can watch them in their entirety at cspan. Org. More from that politico story on the impact that Vice President have saying that Vice President so contenders dont usually have a rich history of altering the course of an election. Suddenly, it is not just biden and trump. The selection of Kamala Harris puts their campaign in the direction of the party and play. President trump yesterday from the white house was asked about Kamala Harris and joe biden and their joint press conference yesterday. Heres what he had to say. [video clip] he made a choice, he picked her. I watched her pull numbers go down to almost nothing poll numbers go down to almost nothing. She left angry and mad. There was nobody more insulting to biden then she was. She said horrible things about him, including accusations made where she i a woman guess believed the woman. And now, all of a sudden, she is running to be Vice President saying how wonderful he is. I thought it was a very unusual pick because she said such bad things. And you know better than anybody you all right it. You know better than anybody. She said horrible things about him. Him, openly mocked him. That is why i thought that was a very risky pick because i am sure that will be played back, not necessarily by me, but others. The other thing, if you look, she wants a 3 trillion tax hike, no fracking. How do you think no fracking in pennsylvania is going to play . That is a big fracking state. If you didnt have Energy Produced that way, you would have taxes that would triple and unemployment that you wouldnt believe. Pennsylvania last year, had the best year they have ever had. Texas, oklahoma, best year. Almost every state in our nation last year had the best year they have ever had, and they are going to have that again next year. You can see that. Fuels. Ts no fossil really . Tell that to texas. Host President Trump the white house yesterday. Back to wilmington, delaware. This is former Vice President joe biden on the attacks that have been leveled against Kamala Harris since his announcement of her as his Vice President ial contender on tuesday. [video clip] you all knew it was coming. You could have set your watch is to it. Donald trump has already started his attacks calling her nasty, whining about how she is mean to his appointees. It is no surprise because whining is what donald trump does best better than any president in American History. Is anyone surprised donald trump has a problem with a strong woman or strong women across the board . We know more is to come. Lets be clear. If you are a working person worried about whether or not you will have a job to go to, whether or not you will be able to pay your mortgage, pay your rent, worried about the poison in the air you breathe, the water you drink, worried about your civil rights, even your basic right to dignity, which is under attack with this administration, Kamala Harris has had your back. Now, we have to have her back. She is going to stand with me in this campaign, and all of us are going to stand up for her. Host joe biden yesterday in wilmington, delaware. We are asking you this morning, do running mates matter . Getting your thoughts. Party,split up by republicans, democrats, independents. This from the opinion pages of the wall street journal. With the two oldest candidates ever to seek the oval office, the Vice President ial picks matter more than usual, especially for joe biden. It is quite unlikely that if reelected, he will seek a second term. Have morerris will scrutiny than most. Most. Getting your thoughts, do running mates matter . Brian is up first out of the lone star state. Caller i think it is going to be hello . Host you still with us . I think we lost him. We go to brooksville, florida. I do think it matters she could turn his head so fast because i dont think biden knows what he is doing, but i love pence. I think it means a lot because i think he is working very well with President Trump. If anything happens to trump, i would love to have pence in. The only one i would have ever acked for a black woman to be president would be Condoleezza Rice. Oh my gosh. I wish she would have ran for president because she is a good woman. She just knows everything about our country. A country is not easy to run. Trump had the virus. People in the states killing our country. He had everything going. I think he is an excellent president and he is really trying because if we had another president , we would really be under right now more than we are now. I dont think we are under now. I think it is just those states that are making people ryan. Riot. Host you started off talking about Vice President mike pence. What do you think he brings to that relationship with President Trump . Caller he just works with him and he goes all around and he helps trump. I just think he is such a good person. He is just good. You dont hear anything bad about him. You dont hear him and trump wish when bush i got out or when obama, that Condoleezza Rice would have ran when they kept saying a woman, a woman, a black women. Host got your point. This is ken out of aurora, illinois. Do Vice President ial picks matter . Caller they do. Good morning to you, cspan. Good morning, america. How are you, to quote a Favorite Singer of mine. Tragedy can both fall natural and unnatural tragedies can befall chief executives. Fdr had complications from his polio disease. Regrettably, jfk was shot and killed. Ronald reagan was shot. Although we do our best with the secret service to keep them as safe as possible, unfortunate mishaps can happen. What i want to point out most is Henry Wallace, fdrs first Vice President was a stellar individual. Demoted fromwas the vice presidency, he still was a solid member of fdrs cabinet and went on to serve harry truman. America would have been much better off with Henry Wallace in than harryfdr passed truman because he was such a a man ofgressive and intellect and imagination. So to you, it is qualification to step into the job . A lot of factors go into that, a lot of people talk about, can they help carry a certain state . California, not a state in play this cycle, but that has been a consideration in the past. For you, it is the ability to step into the role as president . I i would say caller would say it is most prominent, but political calculations do come into play, as far as ms. Harris is. The daughter of immigrants, a person of color. That is going to be very supportive to democratic interests. There is nothing wrong with that. The democratic ticket is going to be far more representative of trumppence. Than incidentally, pence is a homophobe. Unless you have another question. This i did want to show gallup poll from a couple of years ago. It applies to Vice President over time. The question it asks every four perceptions ons the Vice President ial candidates ability to serve as president if it becomes necessary. The green number here on this chart, the percent who said the Vice President will candidate was qualified to step in and become president as necessary. Back in 2008, 50 7 of those polled said 57 of those said joe biden was qualified to serve. 52 said Joe Lieberman could step in and the 2000 race. Also in 2000, when i came to dick cheney, 57 saying he was qualified to step in. Was qualifiedgore to step in and serve as necessary. If you want to read more on their polling going back through all of the most recent cycles, gallup. Com is where you can go. Oklahoma. You are next. Caller i believe it doesnt say ismatter who they the best fit for Vice President or not, presidency or not presidency. Me, honestly, i believe if you stick somebody at Vice President who knows it necessarily like the president and they come from two separate worlds, it makes things more honest, i think. A little bitybody more true to each other. Host almost like a team of rivals . Caller yeah. I really think it would make things more honest because you have two people from two separate worlds. You have two different thought process. Pick of Kamala Harris has gotten a lot of attention especially because of the debate moment when she criticized joe biden pretty strongly about his past associations with segregationist in the senate. Do you think this was a good pick . Do you think joe biden was doing Something Like that in picking Kamala Harris . Know whatdont really his strategic reasons were for it. Somesure there is strategic underlining to it. I dont necessarily know what all she set about the man, but i know from the news and social media, it comes from both sides. Everybody is attacking each side, so it is a mix of everything. One of my main things that i want to get across here is our younger generations are not even taught that our system is not just a twoparty system. It was meant to be more than a twoparty system. Said she said crop over Vice President or president or whatever, none of that should matter. It is easier to control two children then it is to control three or four or five children. Going offerybody is the hinge over the pick or who is best or who is not best or who is qualified or who is more qualified. Get somebody who has actually worked their entire life for Vice President or presidency and stuff will change for the better in this country. Host that is tom in oklahoma. A few comments from viewers on social media and our Text Messaging Service. Dan says the pick of harris will galvanize just as many biden. T will be a wash michael says running mates matter a great deal as do president ial candidates. What matters most is the president ial culture that sweeps into washington when one party or the other takes power. Benjamin says they always matter. When your candidate is older and at increased risk of health adding bidenice, even more so starting older, the vp may have to take over at some point, so it needs to be a good one. Another, given bidens age and the work that must be done to get the country out of the ditch trump has us in, bidens choice was extremely important. You can keep weighing in, twitter, facebook, Text Messaging Service or call like curtis did out of maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. Show. You all for the i listen every morning. Host appreciate that. Caller honestly, the Vice President ial pick is by far extremely important because if anything, god forbid, happened to the president , the Vice President becomes the president. It has to be somebody who is strong. It has to be somebody i think biden picked her, one of the main reasons strategically, was that she is not a yes person. She is going to tell you exactly what she feels, how she feels and what she thinks is best for the country. He has to have that alters side because if you have a Vice President who is a yesman, and im not going to say who that is, what happens is there is no checks and balances at the human level for the president. If you look back in history and you look in the modern era, every presidency that we can honestly deem successful, if you look at the two, what you had was a Vice President who would check the president. That. You cant do you have got to go about it this way in order to get the things that we want to get. Doing during the reagan administration. A lot of people dont talk about whenever reagan was a about removing the pell grant. There was a bipartisan movement that said, you cant do that. Listen, you have got these people that vote. If you do that, you are going to lose those votes. I think the Vice President is extremely important. I think this guy that we got in office right now has been a National Disaster from the day he took office. People, but i my think she needs to do some research on mike pence because nobody talks about his policies that he set forth in indiana when he was the governor. Nobody ever talks about that. Eople need to really examine they say people really need to vet this guy because this guy would take over. I cant to see where the country would benefit from his presidency if something was to happen to trump. Host that is curtis in maryland. Speaking of mike pence, he was at a rally last week in clearwater, florida as part of the campaign tour. This is a bit of what he had to say. [video clip] it is great to see all of you, bind here for one reason. That is that florida and america need four more years of President Donald Trump in the white house. That really is amazing when you think of the last 3. 5 years. It has been 3. 5 of action, results, 3. 5 years of promises made and promises cap. Kept. [applause] day of thisst administration, President Trump has cap the promises he has made to the American People, to the people of florida, and especially the people of faith. We have stood for the sanctity of life without apology. [applause] we have stood for the religious liberty of every american of every faith. [applause] and beyond that, we made the Strongest Military in the history of the world, stronger still. We rebuilt our military. [applause] this president has appointed more conservatives to our court of appeals than any president in American History, and we revived the American Economy in three short years. [applause] Vice President mike pence last week in florida. Here is a column in todays usa today that takes a look at where mike pence and Kamala Harris may clash, especially ahead of that highprofile october debate that is set for the two of them. Among the issues they highlight, lgbtq issues, womens issues, the abortion issue. One they highlight is betsy devos. Floor harris first speech after joining the senate in 2017 was an explanation of her opposition to trump choice of betsy devos to run the education department. It was pentz who pushed ssorces devo nomination. It was the first time a Vice President how to provide the final nominee for final vote for a cabinet nominee. Devos had played a big role in developing the largest in the nation, indianas private school. Janice in indiana, republican. Go ahead. Commenti just want to on something that the previous stated since he is not from indiana and really doesnt know anything about Vice President mike pence. He was our governor for eight years. Years, im sorry. He is a good man. I dont know where they get all of this stuff in the media about his actions on lgbtq. Understand where all of that comes because he is on hon