Wow. This thing is got to come down lower for me. How are all of you tonight . Happy new year . Thank you for being here. Im melissa muscatine. Im one of the coowners of politics and pros bookstore. Thank you and along with my coowner and husband brad graham whos someplace in the front here and our and our fabulous wonderful staff at pnp we welcome all of you two tonights event here in our Nations Capital and on the campus washington university. Um, i mentioned our location because well, think about it. We are at an Institution Name for our nations first president. And we are assembled only blocks from the Nerve Centers of American Government the white house and congress. So what better venue for a conversation with tonights guest speaker. Senator Kamala Harris currently spends her days on capitol hill and youre not alone if you think that in a couple of years, she just might be taking up residence at the other end of pennsylvania avenue. Since her election to the United States senate in 2016, senator harris has emerged as one of the most exciting and refreshing voices in the Democratic Party and a national politics. The california native who started her career. I know im from the bay area too. Its not awesome Kamala Harris, and i went to Elementary School not far from each other. She started her career as a prosecutor in the bay area she ran against and defeated a long time incumbent to become District Attorney for San Francisco. Then she won a hardfought race for attorney general of california and was reelected to a second term in 2014. Two years later. She was elected to the United States senate. To represent the biggest most raucous most diverse constituency in the country. Whether she brought to washington her legal prosecutorial and political chops, and lets just say that the Senate Judiciary committee on which she serves and the senate as a whole have never quite been the same. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. Now with the 2020 president ial Campaign Already gearing up senator harriss name appears on every list short and long of potential democratic candidates. And why is that . Why is that shes proven throughout her career to be a joyful warrior as she puts it willing to take on big corporations fight to perfect protect the Affordable Care act work to raise the minimum wage make education more accessible and reform the criminal justice system. And who stands more sharply in contrast to the presidency of Donald J Trump . Senator harris is a woman. A woman of color a daughter of immigrants a political leader who understands better than most how the dynamics of gender race class and ethnicity are playing out in our society in the 21st century. You might even say that senator harris is the face the best face of america in the 21st century. America an america that values inclusion tolerance decency human rights and respect for the rule of law. Someone uniquely situated to help solve the challenges and seize the opportunities of our diverse country and our diverse world today. Okay before i get too carried away, let me remind everyone here including myself that senator harris has not entered the president ial race. At least not yet and besides that the iowa caucus is a New Hampshire primary are still 13 months away. And in fact, she is here tonight wearing an altogether different hat than the one she wears in her day job. Shes here as an author and because shes an overachiever. She couldnt just publish one book this week. She published two one of them being a book for children called superheroes are everywhere, which if you havent gotten a copy we have them available and in a in a moment, shell tell you about the other book. She published this week, which is for adults and its called the truths. We hold hot off the presses also this week. Story of a life rooted in social activism Civic Engagement progressive Politics Public Service and multiculturalism and family rituals like sunday dinner. She still cooks every week making chile rellenos. Beef stew blackeyed peas swordfish with toasted cumin to name a few of her favorite dishes in case you ever want to go and crash her sunday dinners. I will say no more about her book knowing that you all have a copy of the truths we hold in your hands and you can start reading it the minute you get home tonight, which i hope you will do. Were also so delighted tonight that Jonathan Capehart pulitzer prizewinning opinion writer for the Washington Post and frequent Television Comedy commentator on politics and social issues will be in conversation with senator harris. Jonathan has generously and graciously moderated quite a few author discussions for politics and pros and there is literally no better interlocutor than he we are so lucky whenever he sets foot on stage to share his questions and insights and i hope you all please join me now in welcoming senator Kamala Harris and jonathan kpart to the stage. It how could i not how could i not only that it was a moment . Look at senator harris. Thank you very much for for being here for choosing washington to be the kickoff of your book tour. Thank you, or actually to be correct books tour. Yeah as we see the truths we hold in american journey, and then also superheroes are everywhere. Im gonna focus on the truths we hold okay, and im going to focus on something that happens even page one. And i want to clear it up. Okay for anyone who might have done this or still doing this despite hearing it said correctly. The first time pronounce your name kamala so just think of like the punctuation mark a comma and that at allah and there you go. And so so then what does kamala mean then so its a very traditional classic indian name and it it derives from sanskrit and its means the lotus flower. And so and its its very prevalent in a lot of asian cultures and the idea the symbolism. Is that the lotus flower sits on water. But it never really gets wet the water beads off of it. And so the idea being that one can be in the midst of chaos, or be in the midst of something happening and and be there and should be there and it doesnt necessarily need to penetrate you but one should be there and and equally important its roots are in the mud. Meaning it is grounded. And and one must always know where they come from. And and can still be this thing. So now i need you to pronounce another name for me for the life of me. I just i couldnt do it and that is the name of your mother shyamala. So the why is silent Shyamala Shyamala . Yeah. What was shyamala . Gopalan go go power. Tell us about your mom or as you call her. Mommy. Mommy, we always called her mommy. Im not embarrassed to say she is mommy and she is in many ways. The reason book. My sister maya is here. My mothers one of her best friends from colleges here lenore pomeran. So so i write about in the book. And my mother was a force of nature. Id real force of nature. She is someone who all five feet of her if you met her after you walked away. You would have thought she was seven feet tall. My mother was a truth teller she spoke the truth. She was probably the smartest toughest and most loving person. I have ever known. She raised her daughters with a belief that we could do and be anything. She taught us you know that. You know, dont let people tell you who you are. You tell them who you are. She was a scientist Breast Cancer researcher. She had two goals in her life to end Breast Cancer and raise her two daughters. And she would take us to the lab with her. Id go after school on the weekends. And you know being around scientists one of the things that i realized now early in my life i learned was that one should see what can be unburdened by what has been because that is what science is about its the pursuit of those things that will improve the condition of life that will solve problems that will make things better. And thats why im naturally attracted to also anything that is about innovation understanding that innovation. We do it not because were bored with things the way theyve been but because we should always be in pursuit of being more efficient more effective more relevant and and thats what she is and was your father donald yeah harris also an immigrant. Yeah born born in jamaica. Yeah. An economics professor at stanford, correct . And lets keep in mind she comes from some brainiac parents your mom got her phd the year you were born. Correct . Just put that out there. So now your dad comes to the United States from jamaica. Yeah. My father was equally brilliant. And is he was a National Scholar in jamaica . He earned his way and up and out and came to the United States and to berkeley to study economics. And my parents met when they were active in the Civil Rights Movement, and its an interesting story jonathan because as you note my mother graduated college when she was 19. And i mean, what did i tell you he did and so and so she you know, so she said to my grandfather who was one of the Freedom Fighters in india for indias independence, and my mother was the eldest of four children. She was the oldest and a girl obviously and she said to my grandparents she wanted to study science and she wanted to go to what was considered to be one of the best schools and that was uc berkeley. And my grandparents looked at her and said, okay. We will put you on a plane and you can go to a place youve never been at 19 years old. This was in i think 1959. So this young this girl this young woman. God on a plane encouraged by her parents to go and pursue her dream. Now the backstory is also that it was fully expected. She would get that degree and go back and have a good arranged marriage. But of course my mother having been raised and being who she was just naturally she when she got to berkeley was immediately attracted to the Civil Rights Movement. Why do you think and thats where she met my father . Okay. Why do you think that was . And but i want to say and she met my father and decided to have a love marriage and a marriage based on love which i believe is the ultimate act of optimism. Right. So the the question that i interrupted youre youre saving with why do you think she was so attracted to the Civil Rights Movement . She was raised and you know, we growing up would go back to india like every other year and and so i know the family from that that raised her because they helped raise us. And it was always about fighting for independence. It was about fighting for justice. It was about fighting to make sure that all people had a say in their future in their government and equal say and that was that was in her blood and of course, thats what the Civil Rights Movement was about and the free speech movement. And and there are some funny stories. I was just sharing with some of backstage, you know, so i i witnessed this as i write about in the book, you know from my strollers, i view and theres a funny family story about how some my mothers marching with the extended family. I talk about like aunt mary and uncle freddy in the book. And she would tell the story about how so theyre marching. And this is back when strollers didnt really have armrest and seat belts, so theyre marching away and you know shouting and and all of that and then i think it was my uncle looked down and looked in the stroller, which was empty. And said, wheres god and apparently left me like a black line. Id fallen out the storm. There you go. And then my mother would tell a funny story about how like one day she did and i was fussing and you know, its so im fussing and fussing sheet. Its much cuter when she would tell the story but shed say so then she would look down at me and calmly what do you want . What do you want and i look back up and i said feet up. Im so glad you got that story on your own because i was gonna ask you because i wanted to hear you say freedom. I wanted to talk about your your father economics professor stanford. They meet yeah at berkeley they have you and maya and you loved going to the park. Yeah, and your mom would correct me if im wrong. Would put limits on you in terms of how far you could go, whatever and your dad would say to you. Run, yeah run kamala run. Thats right. He would say do not be afraid. Let her go let her go let her run you run as fast as you can you run as far as you want and i believe that his whole purpose was to say do not be afraid and be fearless. And run and run and do not be afraid of falling. Do not let anybody stop you. Yeah. Theres a question here from from the audience that i want to get in since were talking about your parents and particularly your mother and since you didnt write your name down if you hear the question just go. Ah, but i do think that this is this is relevant. The person asks how has being half Indian American shaped identity and political views. Well, i was born who i am and i would say that the influence the indian influence on my life is is really a lot of it is based on what i what i described in terms of the experiences that i had in india and you know the family that that i come from was very active and i know that about you know, india is one of the oldest if not the oldest democracy in the world and so the idea of debating and discussing what it means to be a democracy. You know my grandfather i was the eldest grandchild. He convinced me. I was his favorite, but i now know he convinced each one of us that we were the favorite but being the eldest my grandfather went by the time i was in my like six seven eight old he had retired. And we would go visit with them and my grandfather had a routine every morning of taking a walk with his friends his buddies who are all also retired. All these old men who would take their walk in the morning and and discuss the glory days and then talk about politics. And it was a great honor and people in the family. Well talk about that that he would he wouldnt let anybody go on that walk with him, but he let me go on the walk with him. And id hold his hand as hed walk with his buddies talking about the need for an honest government. The need to wipe out corruption a Representative Government i and i realized later how much that really how much i absorbed it and it influenced me and so that was a lot of the the influence in addition to just it being a culture as i have experienced it. That is a very welcoming culture it is a culture that is without judgment and is is really i think it its about really understanding the things that one must aspire to be, you know, one of the highest callings that you can have is to be a studied and learned person. Money is not a value that one aspires to its about knowledge. And i think thats thats a very noble aspiration. So im going to fast forward here again since were in washington. Okay, home of your alma mater. Howard university your also aka. Yes, i am. My sw ord so why you are a west coast west coast girl bay area why howard. Well a lot of my family members went to howard. I actually talk about it in the superheroes are everywhere book, but thank you. And so i had family members that went to howard and told and they would you know growing up till wonderful stories. But also, you know, i grew up at a young age wanting to be a lawyer. And you know the heroes among the many of the Civil Rights Movement were the lawyers Thurgood MarshallCharles Hamilton houston Constance Baker motley and you know, they were the ones who took the passion from the streets and translated it into the courtrooms of our country. And did the noble work of reminding folks of the thing that we know they must constantly be reminded of which is that great point that we are all equal and should be treated that way and so i one of my heroes was Thurgood Marshall as another example of a great howard graduate and i was just in and so i was just yeah we could keep going and so for all of those reasons i want i dreamed of going to howard i wanted to go to howard and i did go to howard and so and i thankfully i did. You and and gw is also a great school. Well more to the point of howard because you do write with such reverence for for the university and you write at howard. You would come as you were and leave as the person you aspired to be. Thats right. There were no false choices. Werent just told we had the capacity to be great. We were challenged to live up to that potential. Thats right. Word. Its interesting jonathan. We would run into each other around 2008 during that election cycle. And i was an early supporter of president obama when he first ran and do you remember that conversation that would happen about is he black enough . Remember that . Mmhmm . And i was a surrogate and so i remember having a few doing a few interviews and i would talk in response to that question about Howard University and this is what i would say. One you when you ask that question when one asked that question are displaying your lack of exposure. To is a black person and what a black person can be in is and so i would explain. But i would expect i would explain. Stand on the yard at Howard University and i would say now that the yard is an area of that is covered in grass in the middle of campus. And its where we would go at least when i was there on friday afternoon. Everyone dressing their best. There was no such thing as dress down day. It was dressed up day and and we would all prominate and you know, and people would display their feathers and peacock, you k