Would. The president continued to protect an image of strength and recovery from his covid19 infection. On wednesday come he claimed that experiment of drug he had been gi n was, quota cure for coronavirus and he felt, quote, perfect. We begin tonights discussion with a focus on califoenias junioror, Kamala Harris, who stepped onto the biggest debate stage of her life this week. Joining me now by skype from Mountain View is lon heat, a former aiser to the president ial campaigns of what mitt romney and marco rubio. Amy allison, the founder and t presid she, the people, an organization that advocates for women in politics thank you so much for joining lets thsta you, amy. You been a supporter of senator harris for many years. What was the significance of seeing her on stage . Senator harris brought it the stage. It was the first time that those of us women of color and those across the multiracial tu Democratic Base ly got to hear the issues, and she brought those issues of racial mentioned breonna taylice, she her job one was to make sure that the coalition that needs to come to the polls in 25days was amped up and to show her chops as a former prosecutor and member of that senate judy ck that she n hold the Trump Administration and pences specific role in the an miing of failures of the response to covid accountable. She did all those things. I think she was stellar. What were your thoughts on performance . T pences taabout Vice President did what he needed to do, which primarily was to create that policy contrdet with the harris ticket. We have not had an opportunity at least not in the previous debate the policy issues did not come up, but you did hear Vice President pence raising questions about how much people taxes would increase if they voted for joe biden. Sbrator harris past e of the Green New Deal and how out of step that is particularly in the industrial midwest i think Vice President pence did what he needed to do. He presentedthe contract and did it in a credible way. Amy, theres a lot of Energy Around ousting donald trump but less enthusiasm for joe biden as a candidate. To use s the indicatiat senator harris is able to bring in Younger Voters that shes been targeting . My work with she, thpeople is organizing the most critical voters of the Democratic Party clinician healed that is women of color. Look, im a black woman. Women, black women in states like georgia, texas, florida, and michigan, those i must win states. The top, and his incredible enthusiasm particularly with harris on the ticket, so i think that spans age and that spans race, so the short a is there is enthusiasm to stop s the madness thbeen happening in this country, stop the bleeding, stop someone who get back to a sense of y, and normalcy. Se were going to historic numbers of voters this next month. And the president is ng traiignificant in the National Polls by 10 points or more. Is also trailing in some battleground states. You ve been speaking withthe campaign. What are the plans to change this trend . I know hes planning on holding a rally on the white house lawn tomorrow. I think definitely, one of th the issues the campaign is dealing with is the fact the president has been off the campaign trail now r over a week because of his covid diagnosis, because of his time in the hospital. He has not been ableto beout there, and i think those events for the campaign are clearly catalyzing events but they are portunities for the campaign to drive narrative, for him to get earned Media Coverage in areas where the president needs to be successful, but i dont thinththeres any question the president at this point, given what the public polling is, both nationally and in battleground stes, needs some game changers. Its going to be very difficult for him to do that in the context of the caaign where he cannot be out there campaigning and where the overwhelming burden of the news cycle is focused on covid reand covionse. I think thats an issue on which the president and his team have been on the defensive. He said he will not participate in this virtuath debate, and es talk about pushing the debates back a little bit. Its hard for me to see the presid t as willing tostep away from such a large platform, from tens of millions of people watching to see what he has tosay. Where do you expect the debates are going to end up . He president needs these debates more than Vice President biden does. I think based on where the polling is, based on our now, it is to see how not t having debates would benefit the president. To my point earlier about a gan changer, debates provide that opportunity. They are one of the few events when you get to see the de candidates side by in an interactive format, and to not have that i think is a g challenge for the president. So it was a little puzzling he was not interested in doing a o debathis kind. Perhaps he believes the and present interaction works more to his favor. But nonetheless and a campaign, the campaign that is down ll genewill want more debates and more opportunities to engage. So amy, would it be beneficial todo joe biden to continueebating, or is it better for the debates to end at this point . Lets look at the elephant in the ro. It isnt just that they are on the ropes because of covid19. They were responsible for the botched respd se. They failed, ey failed s. Americamericans are dying. I had a good friend who lost her dad just two days ago, and i think its affecting a lot of people in a way t that is being acknowledged. I mean, look. The last event that trump held at the white house was a superspreader event. Ople and his close advisers any and staff, top military officials are all quarantining or have positi covid diagnoses , so the fact of the matter is that we cant go beyond that. I think ultimately, we sought trumps the behavior on the debate stage. Discussion about points of view or policy, and this is not a regular ection season, so cannot read it that way. Whether or not he agrees to have an online a debate, virtual debate where they could potentially cut his mic off and give joe biden an opportunity to actually speak, it is almost secondary. I think the point right now is, and for democrats, is turning theres enough voters in swing states, thats going to be the big focus for the democrats, whether or not theres debate. Lets talk about whats going to bring the voters out or have them filling other absentee ballots. Today, the president has reversed course and said he supports a 1. 8 trillion Coronavirus Relief package. What is with this backand rtforth, and how imt is this as an issue on the campaign trail . Foas what animates the backandforth, you know, i think part of it is that the president kind of goes back and forth in terms of trying to th figure out whethe is something he wants or doesnt want. At the end of the day, it is clear at the economy isstill in need of assistance, that obviousl some form of recovery legislation is going to be out there. The problem is were running ou time before the election. Youve got 20 days. Were going to Supreme Court hearings before the senate t ne week, the week after that is probably going to be taken with more Supreme Court. Its hard to imagine there is much time and space to get ck another recovery e done, but theres clearly a need for it. I think both republicans and the political dynamic. Washington though is so broken right now, that the president has said hesopen to it. He said he was not open to it. You have similar vacillation coming from nancy pelosi officel as today, nancy pelosi is out there talking about the 20 at the moment and disqualifying the president. Sh i think that s you where things are. I dont think this will get done before the election, and i certainly dont expect relief to be coming before the election. Will be certainly keeping eye the scotus hearings next week lets turned out to some of our state ballot measures. I want talk abouprop 16, which is to repeal affirmative action here in california. A recent poll on the public te policy instiin california indicates less than a third of likely voters support prop 16, and some in the Chinese Community said this proposition would increase his commission against them. Republicans are strongly against this proposition. Can you talk us through what some of their concerns are . Well, loen. Racial prefs have been illegal in california since 1996, since the passage of proposition 290 its okay been state law, not to racial preferences in effect, and during that period of time, we actually seen increases in the c percentage of students and hispanic students at the university of california. We seen increases in the percentage of asian students as well. And so, the question now on the ballot is reinstating or putting in place these racial preferences really when its unclear why it is that that is necessary, and rather than trying to create a situation at the university of california and many Public Institutions in california have had for many years, this idea of a holistic approach, try to look at a canadaheo figure out wh this candidate is qualified not just by basis of their racial background, but more broadly all of thissues thatthat candidate rings with the picked we want to go from that sort of a system where we look at people comprehensively to one premised fundamentally on race . I think thats probably why prop 16 is not more popular because people dont want to return to a time when we so strictly used race to vide us and look and see who would get into colleges or be hired. Amy, i know you are chomping at the bit to get in on this question. Im curious about why you think it has resonated with voters, despite the outpouring of support for Racial Justice that we sought the route this summer and into the fall on our streets, and people protested. Look. The majority of people in california are demanding Racial Justice. Theres a tremendous support leveling the Playing Field when it comes to race for admissions and for opportunities for ne businesses, small bues to contract with public entities, and i reject wholeheartedly that the idea that there is not a lot of support for prop 16. I think what the challenge has been is awareness. Mean, we have the state of california as well as nationally a focus on peoples health, focus on the fact that a third of californias cant pay rent. There is not a lot of relief coming from anywhere. I mean, those are all lot ofthe issues that make it difficult for ople to focus on what is happening statewide. But when we have found that when people understand that prop 16 undoes a great wrong, that, you tsknow, it california in with most of the states. Most states allow the consideration of race in the history of racism part of their assessment in that im joining groups like affirmative action, and aclu and Kamala Harris supports this. We are talking about some of that would bring back a level r of balance and ofasian americans, latinos, and black people opportunities that have not been available since those rules were changed more than a decade ago. Amy, lets turn to ter turnout. Are the democrats focusing more on turning out like democratic voters or on getting the independents to come over in and them . Oh this is not a persuasion game at all. We have the number of voters we needd record turnout, look. Work at facing both the pandemic where people have to have two vote safety. We agve national meg coming from the white house and other places that tries to minimize confidence in vote by and we haa situation where women of color, in particular who typically happen ignored by both parties, actually aof the margin victory in some of the key swing states, so its all about turnout for the next 25days. Where the republicans need to focus in terms of turnout . The president has fosed on turning out his base. Thats not going to be in a. The base of suppt for the present is strong, vocal, but the numbers are not sufficient to get him across the finish line in places like pennsylvania and michigan, wisconsin, florida, arizona, state hes going to need to win to win the presidency. Gu it is about ng out how to get swing voters, undecided voters to come with the president , notwithstanding some of the dialogue that we have heard from the president think its got a focus on what his next four years are going to look like and the policy vision versus the on peity because i think that is going to make it a little more challenging for him to get the support he needs. Well be watching. Thank you. Visit kqed. Org voterguidefor copperheads a look at the state and ballot measures including summaries and arguments foand against them. Some analysts hate suggeconomic slowdown related to the pandemic should be dubbed a she session rather than a recession due to the disproportionate impact on working women. The latest jobs continue to showcase the struggle. Be a proxim ly 1. 1 Million People over age workplace between august and september, approximately 855,000 were women, where 216,000 were men. According to Analysis National womens law center. The Economic Impact of the impact has been particularly acute for women of color. Ca according to thfornia budget and policy center, more than 20 of black and latinx women lost their jobs thissp ng compared to 10 of white women. Joining me now by sky from sacramento is kristin schumacher, a senior policyys anat the california budget apology center, joined by sky from fayetteville, arkansas a professor of economics at the university of arkansas. Ladies, thank you both so much for joininme. I preciate you are here doing this discussion despite the fact that you are also working mothers, like mealand you have young children. Let see how this virus has impacted your ility to work and impacted your time at home with the kids. Its been really hard. At unfortbecause i have a flexible job so we can work from home, so we are doing what we c take turns and be able to work well providing some support for schooling for the ds, but it has meant that we work all the time. There is no break. Kristin, do you have a similar experience . Absolutely. Our health ca provider close temporarily right when the pandemic hit, we lost care for our 4yearod we also have a 7yearold who instantly ststted engaging in ce learning, and so my husband and i were fortunate also to be able to work from home, buit met we did not have any, any outside caregiving help, and we had to balance work and caregiving and Distance Learning for our kids. Its incredibly challenging, and we ended up working in wee hours of the morning and late into the night just to try to get everything in. It was very difficult. It continues to be. Yet, you know, i think in many ways we consider ourselves lucky because we still have our jobs. There are many, ma thousands of women who do not, and i would like, kristin, for you to dive into that particular issue for us. And you talk about whic sectors of work are being most impacted by the virus, and the sectors and womens employment . Absolutely. Job losses in california have been concentrated in lopaying industries such as the hospitality and leisure industry. That includes jobs at restaurants, hotels, or at entertainment venues, ju an example. This means that these workers were probably already receiving low wages and low anpay, and makes them less likely to be able to afford an economic setback, like losing their jobs or s ving the hocut dramatically. And these job losses have hit women hard, particularly women of color here in california. And hamma, you mentioned another piece thats a big part of the problem. E. That is childc you have been studying this issue through some work you been doing at the university of southern california. Can you tell us how covid is impacting work. G mothers . Y so we have been studying that with School Closures and the increased need for childcare at home, what we is that women are doing much more of the work then men. With data back from ril, may, we see at one out of three working women declared to be the only person in the d househoviding childcare. Thats compared to 1 out of 10 men, and in recent data that we are just collecting some preliminary results, it shows the situation now has not improvedif anything, its even bit worse now. And hamma, what are your concerns about this, but women making this hard financial decision that they may not be able to work because they need to take home and take care of their kids and seniors in the family . My concern is that in our work, we see that these em childcare arrats have consequences for women in the labor force in terms rkof g hours. For instance, we see more women than men having to reduce their working hours, or they are leaving the labor force, like you say come altogeer to combine combat this increased childcare needs. Todoe able to it. Kristin, you been tracking womens wellbeing in california since 2016, and this week you just urput out updated womens wellbeing index. Can you give us a snapshot of how women e doing economically in the state of california, and perhaps some variance by region . Share, so california womens will bng and ducks ows women living in the san joaquin valley, northern sacramento valley, north coast, and parts of the inland empire are worse compared to women in other regions at the state. For example in many counties in the san joaquin valley, more than one in five women live in poverty. Just for a little bit of context study, women and poverty meana single mom with two kids is trying to make ends meet on less than 20,000 a year. I think many of us can agree that is unattainable, especially in a high costilla cali rnia. And hammve been talking about women as a broad group, but when you look at my cell numbers, you io dispropote impact on latinas. Can you tell us why this is and what those numbers look like . So latinas as well as for africanamerican women, they have been impacted the hardest in terms of employment loss merely cause they work re in the Service Sector that has been more affected by this pandemic, and also what we see in recent data is that interestingllatinas families and africanamericans are having their kids, they arep to have their kids in online schooling or hybrid, so they also have increased childcare needs, so i nd if this also makes it harder for them to recover because they have the kids at home. Kristin, are we seeing a similar trend in the state california in terms of how latinx and black women are facing more unemployment than whe women . Bsolutely. The california womens well being index shows prior to the pandemic, much larger share of black, latinx, native american women were more likely to be unemployed and to live in poverty, and this just sme many women, particcoarly women ofr were already struggling to make ends meet, and many likely as a result of this health and ecomic crisis are facing a financial cliff. Kristin, id like to turn how women compared to men economical in e ate. What do your numbers show you . So when were looking at women, just aggregated by race and hnicity, compared to white men here in california, the highest earning demographic group, we know latinx women earn only . 42 compared to white mens dollar, and that means because of that wage gap, they have fewer resources for their household to pay the t billpay for childcare, housing, and food for example. And we note that n a wo loses her job, she immediately becomes more economically unstable. She is not able to save as muchr requirement,family becomes poorer, and she becomes more dependent on her partner, so could you talk a cities long rm implications of wome losing their job to this pandemic, hamma . Yes. So women losing their jobs as weha as women reducing, ng to reduce their working hours will have important implications i think in the long term. We know that when women leave the labor force, its very hard for them to come back. Wo they reducing hours and it will have implications for future promotions , and this pr ents a big setback in terms of gender equality. These issues are not new, hamma. What do you see as the most important way meto support in the workplace . My focus in this issue is outside the workplace, that this is a crisis we are all living, and we need more support, so unfortunately not everybody hathe flexibility in their jobs to work from home, and i think, i hope that employers can be more understanding and orsuve, and they seem to account for the fact this is a section we are living. The issue of women dealing with childcare, dealing with senior care, and dealing with home care as well as their work in tworkplace. That struggle is not new, but the amount to which it has financially impacted women and taken away s some of the gaover recent years weve made in terms of equality in the workplace. That is certainly new and by exacerbatethe pandemic. So i would like to ask you as well. Systemically, what can change, what needs to changein order to promotewomen to a place of equality in the workplace iain califo so, we need two things here in the nation as a whole and specifically in california. We need to make sure families access to childcare. And fordable childcare so their kids have a healthy place to thrive and learn and grow while they are at work. This is critically important. We know childcaroviders have been hit hard by this pandemic, and many have closed their doors. And if families do not have a place for their children to learn and grow, its going to stymie oonomic recovery, were going to be unable to show real Economic Growth without adequate childcare infrastructure to support our economy. And the thing i would add is we need comprehensive paid family leave inthe United States. We are one of the few countries in the world that does not have a National Paid family leave ra pr and theres no reason in a rich country like the United States that workers should have to make a choice between paying their bills or caring for theimmfamily. Theres been back and forth in the white house this week whether or not new stimulus melks would re it looks like potentially they are back on. If theres a new stimulus that is passed, what is the most important thing you think women need in order to regain some of this economic strength that they had . Limitation for women right now is that schools lere not to fully reopen foreducation across the country, so i think what will happenis more support , for school to have the means to safely open for kids to attend ve days inperson. Kristin, anything you will be looking for in terms of a new potential economic stimulus package thuld give relief to women . Absolutely. You know, im thinking the most right now about women and workers who have lost their jobs and how theyre really o strugglingy the bills and put food on the table, and so im looking r federal policymakers to reinstate the 600 per week additional Unemployment Benefits that ended in july and in a high cost state like california, its critically important that unemployed workers do not lose their homes especially in the dst of a ndemic. I would also hope federal policymakers would boost food assistance. We know here in california, mo than one in households, black and latinx household with kids do not have an eighth food for their families, ana boost of food will help families feed their chandren d make it through this economic downturn. Kristin schumacher the california budget and policy the university arkansas, ith thank you for your time and insight. Thank you. You can visit cal budget b7 or to explore an teractive tool the revealed differences in womens economic wellbeing across the state. And you can find more of our coverage at inform. Inspe. Involve. . Before we go, we want tbring you a moment of something beautiful in our shared world. This week, our videographer jim took a drive tothe marina headlands and capture the sights and unds of the ast and pacific ocean. From all of us here at kqed newsroom, thanks for joining us. Good night. Diane von furstenberg. He never talked about the darkest. Narcissa rodriguez. And rupaul. My father veered ward the bright side of things. Three outcomes of style from ancestors who sacrificed. Thats abelievable. Survived. Its too much. Nding your roots. Fashion in the family tree, tuesday night at 8 00. Eling overwhelmed by elections . Kqed has you covered. Information of every erstand proposition and onlocal , the back story behind the propositions. Combined with our ongoing coverage of the issues, kqed gives you the tools you need to make an informed decision. For sudetails plus s on Election Night and beyond, go to kqed. Org elections. Herestonights lineup on kqed, made possible by your support. Imour nations gration laws must be enforced. Is one of the most contested ballot measin ly californias political history. Prop 187 would make illegal aliens ineligible for Public Social Services because it would require doctors, nurses, teachers to report to the irs if you suspect that that child or that Family Member unwere cumented. Suspected. 187, the rise of the latino vote. Tonight at 8 00. Kqed thanks our members ne and community pa for eir support. Support for kqed comes from es integrated resougroup, with showrooms in brisbane, dublin, and sacramento. Irg, surfaces, selection, service. Marble company. Com. The American People have failure of any president ialni adration in the history of i ask you, stoplaying politics with peoples lives. Robert showdown over the health of the nation. T presidump im not going to waste my time. We dont know what the president is going to do. Robert and it alarms democrats. This isnt about President Trump b we are reminded about the health of the urrent president. That is absurd, i think tho kinds of wild comments should be discounted. Robert next