PHILADELPHIA — Vice President Kamala Harris offered a resounding non-answer when asked about her support for slavery reparations Tuesday in a high-profile, softball interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.
NABJ moderator and Politico writer Eugene Daniels noted the Democratic presidential nominee has supported Democratic calls “on President Biden to create” a “commission” to weigh in on a reparations “initiative.”
“Would you as president take different actions to create this commission, or do you believe it should happen in Congress?” Daniels asked the vice president — who responded with a signature word salad.
“We need to speak truth about the generational impact of our history, in terms of the generational impact of slavery, the generational impact of redlining, of Jim Crow laws.” Harris said.
“I could go on and on and on,” she added. “These are facts that have impact, and we need to speak truth about it. And we need to speak truth about it in a way that’s about deriving solutions.”
Harris as senator co-sponsored a bill to authorize the creation of a federal committee to “study the history of U.S. slavery” and examine possible reparations payments to black Americans, as Daniels put it.
“I think Congress ultimately will have the ability to do this work,” Harris told Daniels. “I’m not discounting the importance of any executive action, but ultimately Congress because if you’re going to talk about it in any substantial way, there will be hearings, there will be a level of public education and dialogue.”
“And I think that is part of the spirit behind the congressional action thus far,” she added.
Without naming names, Harris also mentioned the need to “speak truth” about “so-called leaders” who say “enslaved people benefited from slavery.”
That’s likely a reference to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom Harris attacked publicly for approving new guidelines on the teaching of slavery in public schools last year.