Transcript of Fmr. Trump Official: Harris ignoring Trump’s attacks is “smart political instinct”

So it feels like Democrats are maybe backing off of the awokening vibes. Tell me I'm wrong.

I think you're wrong. Yeah. And here's why. I think the Trump is known. He's a known quantity.

But doesn't he want to be called racist, and then you get to tell your voters, Look, this is how they talk about you.

So that's exactly why she's not going to fall in that trap. And she's certainly not going to justify her identity to a Bridge and Tunnel guy from Queens from the 1980s who's like, Oh, I'm going to tell you what you are and what you're not. Just the whole paradigm. She's like, No, I'm good.

Thank you very much. I'm not going to hate on Bridge and Tunnel people. Just make sure we put that under her. That's how I grew up. Exactly.

I grew up Bridge and Tunnel. I know of what I speak.

Mike, let me see your eyebrows here. Come on.

Was that good? Was that on camera?

We don't need to get into his comment because I think at the time, He was talking to these reporters at the National Association of Black Journalists. He wades into this territory. But what is the point going forward? Is it to hope Democrats start talking about this stuff? I guarantee you some Democrats will.

I think this is really smart political instinct on the part of the vice President and moving off of having these-Meaning letting other people talk about it. Let other people talk about it.

I think you had the same thought. Yeah, definitely. Especially in the media. We can't resist.

Exactly. Yeah. I really think if she had said something- Hence the segment. Yeah.

But if she had said something- Welcome to the program. We're a part of it. It's not even Black History Month.

I'm here for it. Let me back my cup on something that's incredibly hard to do.

Sorry.

No, go ahead. I want to back up Mike on what he said about having discipline, having put people in this position, writing the speech for them and saying, Don't say this, is her saying that she's not going to wade into it. When my first instinct as a Mexican red deck would have been, I've been black my whole life and look back there because I got mad. She was very disciplined because if she would have done that as a consultant and a strategist, that's what we all would have talked about for two weeks is that and how she put them in their place and, Oh, she's bad. She got to be more presidential and be disciplined in the moment.

But we have seen a lot, even at the corporate level, a lot of corporations roll back DEI efforts. A lot of universities and institutions cancel out some of those roles. I think the vice president is perhaps aware of this cultural shift, Aldi, and She's a woman. She's black. That's obvious. I don't think it needs to be said.

When she first came out, I remember seeing a cascade of DEI higher talking about her. That was the thing Conservatives were saying online.

Now let them say that and let her present herself as the daughter of hardworking middle-class Americans. The ability to relate to people on the economy, on their lived experience. Yes, obviously, she has a diverse background and upbringing, but in connecting to Americans, which is typically what the right-wing complaint has been, is you're putting up a color barrier to get in the way of all of this. If that's the complaint, she's not falling into that. Where does that right-wing argument go?

I thought it was smart. I mean, there are some voters who probably don't necessarily want to constantly be reminded of that. I'm not saying that's a good thing, obviously. She knows who she is. She's spoken at Great Lentz about her background. We all know she's a black woman. You don't need to keep debating it. She's talking about why she's running. She's talking about her positions. I don't necessarily agree with them, but I think she is doing this the right way on this particular issue.

Without saying that, voter registration for black women and brown women is through the roof. There's one thing you can't lie about is voter rich, and we have the numbers. When the state's reports, if We look at Target Smart data, just put this out yesterday. The increase has been over 500% with black women and latina women of registered to vote.

I think it's like you said, it's baked in. People know that she's a black woman. They know that she's proud of her identity. She doesn't need to keep saying it. I think also, frankly, and what I was following online, people did start to buy into some of these arguments that Donald Trump had made about her racial identity. Every time it comes up, there are going to be people in the comment section who continue to spread disinformation and misinformation about race and her race in particular. I think we've all seen it. I think it's very smart not to give that any more oxygen because those people are never going to believe her when she says in an interview, I'm Black, I've always been Black. The people who want believe that misinformation. I think it's smart not to give it any more oxygen.

The other thing I'm curious about is for a time, I feel like we were all reporting about Trump curious Black and Brown men. Yes. This clearly has changed the dynamic, but I don't know how. What do you actually see?

As a non- College-educated Brown man, which won't shock none of you viewers after how I talk, this is a real thing that's happening out there because it's a relatability. Residential elections are different than Congressional races. Residential races are about people you trust or you like, or you feel like you have something in common with. They didn't feel like they had anything in common with Joe Biden. Some of them feel like they do or they don't with Donald Trump. This has changed fundamentally on the ground. It hasn't fixed all the problems. But you can see in poll measured against poll to where you see a relatability even with Latino and black men.

You even see some will say, Well, the Democratic Party has become too feminine. It's too much about women only. If you look at some qualitative reports on that.

We remember Jim Carville's Preachee females of the Democratic Party.

I know people didn't like it, but I think James Carville was right. I think some of these men, younger men of color, are looking for some type of restorative effort on the economic front. Women of color are superseding us academically. They're going to college at higher rates, graduated at higher rates. A lot of these younger men are saying, Well, what about us? And Trump appears to be providing some type of an answer to that.