MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Kamala Harris has gotten a huge boost from the funds that have poured in since President Biden withdrew from the presidential race and threw his support to her. But she is also looking at a huge boost of people power, especially from Black women. More than 40,000 people called into a Zoom meeting in support of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. Washington, D.C.'s mayor, Muriel Bowser, was on that call, and she's with us on the line this morning to tell us more about it, hopefully. Good morning, Mayor.
MURIEL BOWSER: Good morning, Michel. How are you?
MARTIN: I'm good. How did the call come about? Do you know?
BOWSER: Well, I think this - the meeting of women on Sunday evening has been happening for several years. And when President Biden endorsed Kamala Harris to be our - to go into our convention to win the nomination, it was obviously a time to talk about what that meant and how we could support her.
MARTIN: So the call was closed press, but listen, you can't have many secrets with thousands of people on a call, right? So...
BOWSER: That's right.
MARTIN: Right. So what was the vibe?
BOWSER: I think the vibe was - listen, this is an important time in our country. It's a consequential election. Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy, and he's a threat to us. He's a threat to women, and he's certainly a threat to Washington, D.C. I think the vibe was also certainly my - what I shared with women was how we have to protect her, defend her and support her candidacy.
MARTIN: Say more about that. We need to protect her from what?
BOWSER: I think that - listen, I do politics. A lot of women on the call are political veterans and involved in the process, and they know how women can be mercilessly attacked more frequently, more often and in more unfounded ways. And so we have to be able to step up and talk about the vice president's record, what she was able to do in California, how she's been a part of the consequential legislation and efforts of the Biden-Harris administration and why she's going to win. Listen, Kamala Harris is poised to be the first woman to be president of the United States.
MARTIN: So can I just ask you to talk a little bit more about that? Do you feel - obviously, anybody at the top of the ticket is going to be attacked on any number of ways - I mean, on her record, on her, you know, her politics, her ideology, etc. But do you think that there's an added dimension of this because she is a woman and a woman of color?
BOWSER: Oh, I think that - you're talking to somebody who's been in a lot of elections, Michel, and I do think women face a different road when they have to prove that they can be leaders, that they can be chief executives and that they can win. And I think what Kamala has demonstrated in her long history of winning elections is she's ready.
MARTIN: The campaign race, as we noted at the top, that - more than $80 million in the first 24 hours after Biden's announcement on Sunday. And I understand that on this call alone, that more than $1 million was pledged. It's my understanding from sources who were on that call.
BOWSER: No, I think it was more than pledged. I think it was given.
MARTIN: Given?
BOWSER: Yes. And I think that Kamala Harris probably has had the best 24 hours of any presidential candidate that certainly I've ever seen.
MARTIN: True. But how do you keep up the momentum?
BOWSER: Well, the momentum only grows as Kamala hits the road. We've seen already that she has made campaign stops that have been wildly lauded. She has a campaign team in place that she's inheriting from the president. I know she's only going to build on that. And the energy is just amazing, how she's been able to galvanize the support of Democrats from every corner of this country and from all across the spectrum.
MARTIN: That is the mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser. Madam Mayor, thank you so much for joining us.
BOWSER: Thank you. Bye-bye. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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