Tony West is an attorney, former government official, and the Senior Vice President and chief legal officer of Uber. Before Uber, he was Associate Attorney General of the United States under President Obama and general counsel of PepsiCo. He previously served as the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division, the largest litigating division in the Department of Justice...oh and he's also the VP's brother-in-law!
Podcasting on location at Onyx Art Gallery in Phoenix, Arizona. I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Civic Cipher, where our mission is to foster allyship empathy and understanding. I am your host, Rams's Jah and c Ward and I had the opportunity to sit down with the man known as Tony West, who is an attorney, former government official, and the senior Vice president and chief Legal Officer of UBER. Before Uber, he was Associate Attorney General of the United States under President Obama and General Council of PEPSI Code. He previously served as the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division, the largest litigating division in the Department of Justice, and perhaps notably nowadays, he is Kamala Harris's brother in law. You're going to love what he has to say about the forthcoming Harris administration. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode of Civic Cipher.
So here with my brother Tony West in Arizona as we try to get our collective to get out and be very very involved with this selection. Vote early, show about the ballot and take someone with you. We got to have a conversation last week with former Attorney General Eric Holder and we were talking about access to the ballot and the way that we've kind of seen a weaponization of trying to deter us from exercising in one of our most fundamental rights. Can you give us some insight into how you're seeing that play out and some things that we can do to protect ourselves in that space.
Well, it's good to be with you, Quentin. There's no question that we've seen over the course of the last few years, but particularly this year, concerted efforts to make it more difficult for folks to vote, to access the ballot box, and as you well know, the right to vote unlocks all others, and so if people can attack that right, then it becomes very difficult to defend and protect other rights.
You.
So what we've been trying to do is make sure that we're pushing back on those efforts and reminding people of the important right that they have to vote, and that includes educating people about where they can vote, how they can participate in early voting, how they can participate in mail in voting.
So one of the things that we've been talking about, particularly on the Black Information Network, we've been dealing with some pushback from younger voters more often than not in terms of supporting another Democratic administration when a lot of folks feel that they've been overlooked or they've succumbed to the messaging on the right. I'm sure you well know some of the talking points that come from this relatively small base voters, but important based voters, and it's important that they become educated speak to some of the issues that you've encountered. People that might be has a in terms of which way to cast their vote, or have decided to vote in a way that historically is inconsistent with what we would have imagined if they would vote.
Well, I really appreciate that question, you know. I think it starts with understanding that Vice President Harris is actually put forward a comprehensive opportunity economy agenda that is inclusive, that has space in place for everyone that looks to invest in expanding the middle class to make sure that people simply you know, aren't getting by, but that they're getting ahead. A plan that says, listen, we can grow our economy by making sure we're including everyone's talents in the mix. She's talked a lot about the importance of building intergenerational wealth about bringing down prices, every day prices by making sure we're focused on excessive price gouging. She's talked about the importance of affordable housing and the importance of expanding affordable housing because that still is one of the big problems that we face in this country, where you know, cost housing is way way too high. So she wants to work with industry to increase the supply three million new units in her first term. And she's talked really importantly about investing in and supporting small businesses because when you look at our economy, the job engine in our economy is not the big, big corporations, it's the small businesses. Small businesses are what create jobs for our economy. They also create wealth in our communities, and so she wants to make sure she is supporting the creation of small business with expanding the small business Creation tax credit for five thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars, because the average cost of starting a new small business in this country is forty thousand dollars. She wants to make sure that she's making it easier for entrepreneurs and founders to access capital. And one of the things she's particularly focused on are black small businesses because we have so many entrepreneurs in our community. So she's the only presidential candidate in my memory who's ever come out with a comprehensive opportunity agenda for black men speaking to the unique challenges that black men face. So, whether it's talking about more access to capital when it comes to starting a small business in the form of forgivable loans, or you're talking about a national health initiative that says we need to invest in more research on diseases like prostate cancer, like sickle cell, like diabetes, these are diseases that disproportionately affect our community, or whether you're talking about, hey, look, we need to make sure that we're investing in job training and apprentice programs in two year colleges because a four year college degree is great. We want to make sure we certainly encourage folks to do that, but it's not the only way people ought to be able to access economic security and a solid middle class opportunity. And so she's talked about all of these issues, but I'll tell you one of the things that is incredibly important is her position on capping the price of insulin at thirty five dollars a month for seniors. She wants to expand that to everybody. And the reason that's so significant is, again, you know, diabetes is something that disproportionately affects our communities. But she recognizes that the single biggest driver for indebtedness and bankruptcy for so many families is medical debt. And so she's talked about the importance of canceling medical debt. She's talked about the importance of making sure medical debt can't be held against you on your credit rating. So because you know that affects so many other things, and so she's she's got policy out there that's speaking directly to our community and things that we feel in our everyday lives.
So you touched on this a little bit. And before we let you go, I just want some final messaging with regards to either actual or imagined erosion amongst black male voters. If there was a message that you wanted to leave black men with in particular leading to this election and during this early voting cycle, what would that singular message be.
I think the singular message is that Vice President Kamala Harris sees black men in all of the complexity and beauty and challenge that exists in this country. She there's a reason why she is put together an opportunity agenda that is aimed specifically at the unique needs and challenges that black men face. You know, there's a reason why she believes that we can have an opportunity economy that includes black men in that vision. She knows that black men are a key, key part of America's story, and as importantly, she knows that black men are an essential part to our successful future as a country. And so she has an economic agenda, she has policy that speaks to that reality.
Another thing that's come up on both of our shows is with respect to black men and younger black people. Again, her history as a prosecutor, and there are some people in our community who are still waiting for the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. Some people are waiting for what they fill her unfulfilled promises. And you know, these are the sorts of people that we talk to all the time. We come from this group of people, speak to some of the concerns that this base may have about Kamala Harris's past and what a presidency under Kamala Harris might look like. For them.
I'm so glad you asked about that. And by the way, she was one of the most vocal supporters of the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, and she has championed those police reform issues her entire career. But let me let me back up and just give you a little bit of context on the family. Her mother, my mother in law. She was a civil rights activist in the nineteen sixties. Mother Harris, who I called her, you know, marched in civil rights marches in Berkeley, California, Andy in Oakland, California, which was a hotbed of activism during the civil rights movement. My wife, my Kamala's younger sister, Maya, my wife, became a civil rights advocate and a civil rights lawyer. And a lot of people will look at that and say, yeah, that makes sense. Civil rights mother, civil rights activist. As a daughter, Kamala became a prosecutor. And sometimes people are like, well, wait, how did that happen? And you have to understand that her becoming a prosecutor was very much fueled by her civil rights values. You see, what Kamala understood early on is that when young people come in contact with that criminal justice system. And she saw this a lot growing up in Oakland. When folks come into contact with that system and they're in court for the first time, the most consequential person in that room is not the judge, and it's not the criminal defense attorney. It's the prosecutor. Because the prosecutor decides how or whether that person will be charged with the crime, and that charging decision in and of itself can completely change someone's life. And so she wanted to make sure that someone with that much power had the perspective of having grown up in a community with lots of often young men, young black men, experiencing the criminal justice system in a very negative way, and so she wanted to make sure that perspective was at the table. And that's why, you know, as district attorney, you saw that play out in the way that she was district attorney. So, for instance, you know, we talk about re entry and diversion programs a lot now they're kind of commonplace. Well, the very first one was created by District Attorney Kamala Harrison San Francisco. The very first re entry and diversion program, she called it Back on Track, and what it was was, Hey, look, if you were arrested for a nonviolent crime, we were going to try to figure out a way to divertue from the criminal justice system entirely. But if you were incarcerated, we were going to make sure that you were getting educational resources, you were getting job training resources while you were incarcerated, and when you came out, because eighty five ninety percent of these folks will come out and be returning citizens to their community. There was job training, there was a job they're waiting for you, so that you could have something to come back to. And that was really important because in California and in San Francisco, the recidivism rate was over fifty percent, and when she put in place this program, that recidivism rate dropped to below ten because now people had not only a second chance, but they had something meaningful in their lives. That was because for her, and she has had a progressive policy agenda both as district attorney and as California Attorney General that she has practiced throughout her career. You know, a lot of people don't realize that California was the first state to come up with body camps. That's because of her support. You know, when it came to police reform. You know that those big issues were because she was a leading vocal voice on a limited qualified immun unity and making sure that we held police officers accountable for what they did in the way that they carried out their duties. And so in Kamala Harris, you have the original progressive prosecutor with a very progressive record.
A lot of us had a very prominent emotional response to the misinformation that was put out to her when she was running for president, and a lot of us have had to very loudly and very publicly apologize for not doing our research properly, not vetting the information that we got, and now, you know, trying our best to make sure that we educate people as a collective one what her real record was as a prosecutor.
So thank you for that, and I want to make sure that it stated that you know, we've sat on this show in the past that you know, in re examining this this second run for the president by Kamala Harris, initially, there was no way for her to change the systems that she may have taken issue with unless she infiltrated those systems in a manner of speaking, and created the change from the inside. And so this is something that until today we've only been able to speculate. And so you adding this to our narrative on this show, not only does it validate the episode where we did suggest that that was likely her agenda after dial Hugley came out and he had to make his statement, but also everything that we've done since then, because again, our show was born out of an activist element. A lot of our early listeners and strongest supporters are people who are cut from that cloth, and us having to digest a presidency where the critical examination of the way policing has done is in this country feels like it potentially could be performative until as I mentioned, we take a closer look, and so we appreciate you providing not only the clarity but the credibility to our theories that goes a long way on both of our shows, to be honest with you, So I want to say thank you for that as well.
Former Associate Attorney General and his new title Vice President, Harris's brother in law, our brother Tony West. Thank you for your time and thank you for making some time for us.
Thank you, Quinnon. But I've had that title for twenty six years, so I think I've had that title before I had most others.
So he's been working in this position for a long time. Truly an expert.
In his field.
Thank you very much, man, God bless you.