Transcript of Black voters in Milwaukee talk to John King about community’s support for Harris

I'm speaking to men directly. Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president. And so now you're thinking about sitting out or even supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you? That's not acceptable.

That was former President Barack Obama speaking to supporters in Pittsburgh this week, he was addressing real concerns that support may be soft for Vice President Kamala Harris among Black men. In the latest installment of All Over the Map, CNN's John King heads back to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to check back in with Black voters and Canvassers about why Harris is struggling to connect with Black men.

Door to door, northside Milwaukee. If Kamala Harris is to win Wisconsin, the path starts right here.

How do you feel about Kamala Harris.

Oh, Kamala Harris. I think she's great.

She's great? How are you feeling about Trump?

Not so great.

A phone number to keep in touch.

I appreciate you, ma'am. Have a good day. A blessed day.

To make sure support translates into voting.

She was pretty excited about Kamala.

Devante Johnson now shares that excitement. When we met a year ago, he was undecided between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

At the time, I was iffy, feeling everybody else undecided and I'm not confused. I don't know for sure going to vote for him. But now that Kamala got the ball and she rolling with it, I feel like, oh, yeah.

Johnson and his colleagues walk these streets year round, building trust for right now. The leads are falling. Halloween is at hand. It's turnout time.

I just wanted to remind you that early voting starts on October 26th.

My wife and I, we're already absentee valid.

This look under the hood was positive.

I just want your opinion.

I'm trying to take us back to days that we don't want to be in.

But there are cracks in the Democratic Foundation.

I know I don't want him, but then I feel like I question her a little bit, too.

The Canvassers share notes every workday.

What are people saying?

No question, Harris is stronger in the Black neighborhoods now than Joe Biden was when we first visited a year ago. It's a sense of hope in the air. But there are warning signs.

It is people out here saying that they don't want to vote. They still saying that.

Often, the conversation at those doors turns to higher rents and food prices.

We got to pick and choose between what we can and what we can't buy. And ain't nobody talking about it, but you all just vote, vote, vote, get out and vote. When you all want us to vote.

Angela Lange is the boss here at Black Leaders Organizing for Communities. She knows the hard math of Hillary Clinton's narrow 2016 Wisconsin loss and what it took to deliver Joe Biden's narrow 2020 win. Cautiously optimistic now as she rallies her team and runs the 2024 canvassing numbers.

You can't win a statewide election here without going through the heart of Milwaukee and in some cases that runs through this office and the work that our team does. But also we're seeing folks in heavily red areas that are getting together with other women at coffee shops without their husbands knowing, for example, and starting to have those conversations. We got the most to lose right now.

Off the chart, support among women is critical for Harris. When these canvases encounter a Trump supporter, it is almost always a Black man.

One of the things that we've heard is people are like, Well, I think I had more money in my pocket when Trump was in office because of the stimulus checks during the pandemic.

It's hard to choose when that's all you got.

Brian McMurtry was a lifelong Democrat, but he voted for Trump in 2020. He's undecided, but leaning Trump this year.

The cost of living, gas, food prices, grant, it's hard. You try to keep up and try to stay away from the credit cards.

So what did you do today? Mcmurtry has two children, managers at McDonald's, disagrees with Trump on immigration and abortion, but likes his take on cryptocurrency and remembers being better off when Trump was President.

I would have to say that the biggest difference is I think having experience.

Plus, he says he worries Russia's Putin and China's Xi wouldn't see Harris as an equal.

They look at a man as being a leader. So that's somewhat of a troubling issue.

Do you have any problem with a woman President?

No, not at all. Like I say, it's about doing the right thing for the country.

How can you take bigotry over a a job.

Eric Jones hears it all when he stops for coffee at the barbershop and in his real estate business.

If I was a gambling man, I would probably put my money on on Harris. Things are getting better. The numbers are better. The energy is different.

But an earlier job sometimes hurts the vice president.

It is Black men. Law enforcement has not been kind to Black people historically. District attorneys have not been kind to Black people historically.

Plus, Jones says abortion and transgender rights sometimes come up in his barbershop debates.

The good old party feels that they have a monopoly over the Christian vote. The Democratic Party feels they have a monopoly over the Black folk. The problem is there are a lot of Blacks that are Christians, and the Black church is one of the strongest institutions in the community. You have this tug of war in a city that I'm pretty sure the Black folk will decide who wins that city, and more than likely, the presidency.

Yes, turnout time in a community that matters big time. John King, CNN, Milwaukee.

Thanks to John King for that report. Joining us now is Zolen Kano-Yung. He's a CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for the New York Times. Zolen, thanks so much for joining us today. There's a lot going on. A lot was made over those Obama comments after the rally in Pittsburgh. Some of the headlines that came out were using words like scolads and admonishes and shames. Do you think that those comments to that group of young, mostly black men came off as scolding to them and to some? Do you think that that effort by Obama could backfire?

Based off my reporting, there is a risk of that, yes. And some people did digest it that way. Some black leaders did process it that way. Look, for some, the former President was in many ways, as a former president, as also a trusted messenger in the black community, the ideal person to almost say the quiet part out loud. And by that, what I mean is the quiet part out loud being something that has been discussed in private conversations with black leaders and Democrats, and that's whether a small, I'm not talking about all black voters. It's not a monolith. We're not a monolith. But a small slice of the electorate would come to support a black woman in the way that black women have come to support black men in leadership positions for decades. And that's what the former President was getting at. But the risk here as well is that for other Democrats, President Obama's comments also risked scapegoating one of the more reliable supporters of the Democratic Party for decades going back. In total, black men have been, only second to black women, one of the more reliable bases for Democrats. And for some black leaders I talked to, they said it's a healthy conversation if Black men are trying to interrogate the party.

And for some, Black voters have spoken to. They feel as if their vote has at times been taken for granted as well. They have economic frustrations. They feel as if government has neglected them, and they want the administration to come out and earn their vote. So it definitely was a calculated risk, that speech just earlier this week.

Zolen, there's some interesting new numbers, probably worrying for the Harris campaign in your newspaper, The New York Times this morning. A Times, Siena College poll finding that Black voters who are younger than 30 split almost evenly over the party that keeps its promises. 43% sing Democrats versus 40% the Republicans. But older Black voters overwhelmingly choosing Democrats there. 82% of Democrats, 11% Republicans among Black voters aged 65 and older. So Zolan, with 24 days left, do you think that there's any progress that Harris can make? Can she make up that gap with those younger voters?

That's certainly what the campaign is focused on. Look, this has been a concern. The numbers that you just ran out, including that age disparity there, that has been a concern for this White House for the last couple of years, even before she was at the top of the ticket. I remember reporting that the vice president was having private meetings with Black leaders, Black businessmen, Black entrepreneurs as well to get at that age divide and those younger black voters and energize them as well. So it's been on their mind for a while. Look, she does have that interview next week with Charlemagne Tha God as well, so that you can tell that, and I believe that's in Detroit, you can tell that that's going to be focused as well on appealing to black voters, black men, specifically. They right now are trying to get that small but significant slice of the electorate that is considering staying home and trying to make the case that her administration can deliver for them. But again, for many voters, they have the same concerns that they had with the Biden administration now for Harris.

We only have a couple of moments left, but when you look at a black male voter, specifically, what appeal do you think Donald Trump has for them over Kamala Harris?

I think for black men, in many ways, it's just based off the reporting and the interviews that I'm doing, it's what many Americans have across the country, the economy, a sense that the cost of living was lower during the Trump years. And again, I talked about that quiet part out loud, the elephant in the room. Even before the former President, I reported on the call that 40,000 black men attended. It was organized by black leaders. And they were addressing that elephant in the room as well, trying to say, look, leadership does not need to be associated with masculinity. Actually, leadership can be standing behind a black woman. That's also a sensitive and very fraught topic that I know Democrats are worried is playing a factor here. And I guess just to close this, to go back to those numbers as well, as well in that new poll, I believe it showed that Harris right now has about 80 % of support of the black vote. I mean, that's still lower than the 90 % that President Biden commanded in 2020, right? So this is still a concern as we approach the final weeks.