I'm Jonathan Kapart and this is Cape Up. As an activist and advocate in Los Angeles,

Karen Bass was pushing to reform the police, dealing with the crack epidemic, and contending with a

mysterious virus that was killing gay men. Today, as a member of Congress and

chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Bass successfully shepherded a police reform bill through the House.

She's bringing the knowledge gained from the AIDS and crack epidemics to help her constituents

during the coronavirus pandemic and Bass has caught the attention of

Joe Biden as she's reportedly on the shortlist to be his vice presidential running

mate. Ask her about that and about the inflection point we're in as a nation.

Here what she says right now.

Congresswoman Karen Bass, welcome back to the podcast.

Thank you. Good to be back as always.

So here's the strange thing.

I thought you, it was just like yesterday,

you had been on the podcast and I went back into my records

and saw that you were last on the podcast in February of 2019.

So, yeah, so many things have changed.

You had just become, yes, you had just become chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

You are now in your second year as chair, as you just said, said you know life has changed so much has changed

since the last time we spoke so let's ramp up and just hit the ground running

one of the big things you are credited with

is putting together the George Floyd Justice

in Policing Act and doing all of the from the news stories I

...