In AP interview, Harris says Democrats 'are standing up for working people' in government shutdown

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — As Democrats dig in for a lengthening government shutdown, former Vice President Kamala Harris is cheering them on as she travels the country touting her presidential campaign memoir amid speculation about another White House run.

The Democratic 2024 nominee told The Associated Press in an interview Friday that she remains in contact with Democrats on Capitol Hill, encouraging them to maintain their demands that President Donald Trump and the Republican congressional majority address looming spikes in Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums.

“The Republicans control the House. They control the Senate. They control the White House. They are in charge, and they are responsible for the shutdown,” she said.

Democrats, she said, “are doing the right thing by standing up for working people and not allowing the Republicans to carry a tax cut for the wealthiest people in our country on the backs of working people in America.”

It was just one example of Harris using her book tour to urge Democrats to lead a consistent, aggressive resistance to Trump while at the same time recommitting to reaching working- and middle-class voters who supported the Republican or stayed home last November.

Over the course of the day, Harris sat down for an hourlong conversation with five Black college students, spoke to the AP and held two book discussions in Alabama's largest city. Paid ticketholders filled downtown Birmingham's Alabama Theatre, where Harris discussed her campaign, the Democratic Party and the course of the nation with radio host Charlamagne tha God.

Through it all, Harris projected the aura of party elder and future candidate. She expressed concern for the country’s direction and outright incredulity over many of Trump’s actions. When VIP ticketholders told her in a photo line how disappointed they had been by her loss, she played it forward.

“We’ve got work to do,” she said repeatedly. “Keep fighting.”

On stage and to the AP, she praised her party’s “deep and wide bench” and even called for lowering the nation's voting age to 16 to bring more young people into the political process.

Harris, 60, maintained she has made no decision about her own political future. But she made clear that running again in 2028 is still on the table and that she sees herself as a player in the party and a voice in the national discourse.

“I am a leader of the party,” she told the AP. “I take seriously that responsibility and duty that I feel” as the previous nominee. That “includes traveling the country talking and mostly listening with folks,” she said, and “getting folks ready to fight in the midterms” in 2026.

Harris aides confirmed she will help Democratic gubernatorial candidates Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia with virtual events, fundraising appeals and robocalls. She also recently headlined a fundraiser for North Carolina Senate candidate Roy Cooper, a former governor and Harris’ longtime friend.

Later this month, she plans to campaign for California’s “Yes on Prop 50,” the ballot measure that would allow a Democratic-led redraw of the state’s congressional districts to counter Republican gerrymandering in Texas and other Republican-controlled states.

Harris, who was unusually blunt in her book “107 Days” about her opinions on a range of political figures, was more circumspect Friday when asked to assess other leading Democrats.

“We have to get away from this idea of ‘Who is the one?’ There are many ways that I think will be effective when people are authentic unto themselves,” she said when asked about her fellow Californian, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and his recent social media mockery of Trump.

She named U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, and Brittany Petterson, D-Colo., but did not elaborate. "Every voice and every perspective” can resonate with certain voters, she said.

Harris rejected conventional political wisdom that she lost in part because of Republicans’ sustained attacks on cultural and social issues, especially transgender issues. She said economics, notably inflation, was the bigger factor.

“There are a fair number of people who voted for Donald Trump because they believed what he said, which is that he was going to bring down prices,” she told the AP. “Sadly, he lied to them.”

With prices still high and wealth gaps growing, Harris said, “We’ve got to do a better job of dealing with the immediate needs of the American people.”

She praised the Biden administration’s legislative accomplishments but said household-level policies such as child tax credits, family leave and first-time homebuyer credits should have come before a sweeping infrastructure program and the CHIPS semiconductor manufacturing law.

Even with a sharper economic message, Harris acknowledged structural challenges for Democrats: the proliferation of false information and what she described as conservatives’ assault on democracy.

She rejected the idea of “low-information voters,” saying the problem is actually an abundance of misinformation and disinformation that makes it harder to reach many voters. She said Democrats must penetrate those silos rather than presume anyone is a lost cause.

“They deserve to be heard,” she said.

Onstage, Harris described a “reversal” of the Civil Rights Movement. She lamented that the Supreme Court could eliminate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which protects political district boundaries drawn to ensure minority communities can elect candidates of their choice.

Without that law, nonwhite representation –- especially Black representation in the South –- could diminish considerably, from Congress to local school boards and municipal councils.

“How can we say at this moment in time that the Voting Rights Act and Section 2 has no purpose?” Harris said to the AP.

The issue carried special resonance given the venue. The Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 after Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights leaders marched from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. A later Supreme Court case out of Mobile led Congress to clarify its intent with Section 2 of the law. And it was a Shelby County, Alabama, case that the Supreme Court used in 2013 to gut the law’s requirement that the U.S. Justice Department approve election procedures in local jurisdictions with a demonstrated history of discrimination.

Besides the pending Supreme Court case, Harris said she has followed Trump’s rhetoric on immigrants, along with statements from top Trump adviser Stephen Miller and other Republicans suggesting the U.S. owes its identity to white European settlers.

“Just looking at it in terms of their words, they’re race baiting, they’re scapegoating,” she said. But she stopped short of saying the administration is being driven by a white nationalist ideology: “I can’t pretend to know what is in their head.”

Harris said Friday that she never doubted former President Joe Biden's ability to serve, even when he ended his reelection bid because of concerns about his age. That's different, she explained, than discussions about whether the 82-year-old could have served another term.

“He and I have been playing phone tag actually in the last couple of days,” Harris told the AP when asked whether she still talks to Biden, who is undergoing prostate cancer treatment. “I’d invite everyone to say a prayer if that’s what you do for his well-being and health right now.”

People wait in line to hear Former Vice President Kamala Harris speak about her new book, "107 Days," at an event Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about her new book, "107 Days," during an event on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Books written by former Vice President Kamala Harris are displayed, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Birminham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about her new book, "107 Days," during an event on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A woman listens to former Vice President Kamala Harris speak, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Former Vice President Kamala Harris waves to the crowd before speaking about her new book, "107 Days," during an event on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Former Vice President Kamala Harris greets people before she speaks, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong officials on Wednesday proposed expanding oversight of building maintenance projects and stronger fire safety steps after a blaze in November killed at least 161 people and displaced thousands.

The blaze that spread across seven towers in an apartment complex raised questions about corruption, negligence and government oversight in the city's building maintenance projects, piling pressure on Hong Kong leader John Lee’s administration and Beijing’s “patriots-only” governance system for the city.

In the newly elected legislature's first meeting, Lee said the fire exposed the need for reform and pledged that the investigation by law enforcement agencies and a judge-led independent committee would be thorough.

“We will fairly pursue accountability and take disciplinary action based on facts against anyone who should bear responsibility, regardless of whether they are from within or outside the government, or whether they are junior or senior staff,” Lee said.

To combat bid-rigging, Lee's administration proposed that the Urban Renewal Authority play a greater role in helping homeowners choose contractors for building maintenance projects.

Officials planned to set up a preselected list of consultants and contractors based on official background checks and past reviews from homeowners. The authority would facilitate homeowners in tendering and bid evaluation more.

The government also suggested requiring big renovation projects to hire a third-party professional to supervise the work, necessitating fire department's approval before shutting down major fire safety installations, and banning smoking on any construction site.

Proposals for law changes linked to the smoking ban were expected to be submitted for the legislature's review within the next few weeks, while officials were still discussing some of the other suggestions with the Urban Renewal Authority.

Authorities have pointed to substandard netting and foam boards installed during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex as factors that contributed to the fire in November. They also said some fire alarms did not work in tests.

Political analysts and observers worried the tragedy could be the “tip of an iceberg" in Hong Kong, a city whose skyline is built on high-rise buildings. Suspicions of bid-rigging and use of hazardous construction materials in renovation projects across other housing estates have left many fearing the disaster could be repeated.

A man walks past the burnt buildings after a deadly fire that started Wednesday at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Friday, Nov. 28 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

FILE - Smoke rises after a fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Nov. 26 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei, File)