Hey, it's Empir's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Like we talk about all the time on

this show, a politician writing a memoir is usually a hint at larger ambitions. And that was true in

2019, when then California Senator Kamala Harris wrote her book, The Truths We Hold.

NPR's Rachel Martin spoke with her back then, and it's a really interesting interview

because it catches her at a time when the country was a little different.

It was pre-COVID, pre-January 6th, pre-the George Floyd protests, and yet in a lot of

ways the country was the same, such that her insights as to who former

President Donald Trump is and what she thinks makes her an apt leader are still worth hearing,

especially now that those larger ambitions I mentioned have manifested.

She is now, of course, the presumptive lead of the Democratic presidential ticket.

Her interview just after the break.

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Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Before we get to the interview, I just want to remind you that this interview took place in 2019,

and we left in a couple of questions that were about that current moment, including what

Kamala Harris thought about Joe Biden running for president and the talks of impeaching then

President Trump, because we think her answers from then speak a lot to how she's thinking about

today. Anyway, here's Rachel's interview. Her book reads part policy prescription, part

memoir, and early in our conversation. I asked her why she decided to become a prosecutor.

My family and extended family thought at best it was a curious decision. And with some of them,

...