Vice Presidential Pool Reports of October 18, 2022

VP Travel Pool #16: wheels up at LAX
[APP Note: This is likely Report #17 as the previous day included Report #16.]

Good morning!

It's another sunny day in Los Angeles.

Vice President Harris' motorcade rolled into LAX at 8:10 a.m. PT. Harris, wearing a brown jacket, walked directly onto Air Force 2.

AF2 was wheels up at 8:24 a.m. PT, en route to SFO.

Harris is scheduled for an event in San Francisco to discuss climate action with the hosts of podcast A Matter of Degrees, Dr. Leah Stokes and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson.

VP Travel Pool #18: motorcade arrives at RON

Motorcade arrived at RON at 9:52 a.m. PT. Pool did not see Harris exit motorcade.

Pool will hold for about three hours before taking off to the climate action discussion event.

VP Travel #19: motorcade rolls out

Motorcade rolled out of RON at 1:46 p.m. PT, en route to Cowell Theatre. Pool did not see Harris enter the motorcade.

Harris is scheduled for a moderated discussion on climate action with the hosts of podcast A Matter of Degrees, Dr. Leah Stokes and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson. The event will be live streamed: https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/

VP Travel Pool #20: motorcade arrives at climate event

The motorcade arrived at Cowell Theater at 1:54 p.m. PT.

Pool did not see Harris exit motorcade; pool went directly into event. Event is anticipated to begin in about an hour.

On Background from a White House Official

Today at 3:15PM PT, Vice President Harris will join the hosts of climate podcast A Matter of Degrees, Dr. Leah Stokes and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, for a moderated discussion on climate action. The Vice President will demonstrate the Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to keeping climate a top priority, as the most climate-focused Administration in history. The discussion will be live-streamed on www.whitehouse.gov/live.

Key actions the Administration has taken to combat the climate crisis:

• Inflation Reduction Act's (IRA) over $370B in climate investments
• Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) advancing climate resilience and environmental justice
• CHIPS and Science Act boosting clean energy innovation
• Executive Order on "Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis"
• Establishing the Coal & Power Plant Communities Interagency Working Group
• Advancing environmental justice
  • Establishing the Justice40 initiative
  • Establishing the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council

The Vice President's Past Work on Climate Action

• As San Francisco District Attorney, the Vice President established one of the first environmental justice units in the country.
• As California's Attorney General, the Vice President took action to hold polluters accountable and protect communities and the environment, including after the 2015 Santa Barbara oil spill.
• As a U.S. Senator from California, the Vice President led comprehensive legislation centered on climate and environmental justice, including the Climate Equity Act, the Water Justice Act, and the Environmental Justice for All Act. The Vice President also authored multiple bills that informed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including the Clean School Bus Act, the Wildfire Defense Act, and the Water for Tomorrow Act.

VP Travel Pool #21: climate discussion

Harris, wearing a black pantsuit, walked on stage at 3:14 p.m. PT, joining Dr. Leah Stokes and Dr. Katherine Wilkinson, hosts of climate podcast A Matter of Degrees, for a live recording of the podcast.

The room was packed with about 400 people. Prior to Harris' entrance, environmentalist Leah Thomas opened the event at 2:52 p.m. PT, followed by brief remarks from San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Rep. Jared Huffman and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis spoke.

Harris began with reflections on her Bay Area upbringing and how it impacted her understanding of the climate crisis.

"The Bay Area really is the home" of the climate movement, Harris said. "I remember being very young during one of the most significant droughts" in the 1970s. The climate crisis "was just very much a part of everything I knew."

Harris said one of pieces of the Inflation Reduction Act she's most excited about is "what we have been doing in terms of electric vehicles. I have a particular fondness for electric school buses."

The climate crisis "rises to being a national security issue if we don't see where this is headed," Harris said.

Harris also touched on reproductive rights and how the issue intersects with the climate crisis.
Find full remarks here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vFaS9Ir69vM&feature=youtu.be

Pool did not see the conclusion of the event or see Harris walk off stage; pool exited early to get into press van.

The motorcade rolled out at 4 p.m. PT, en route to a DNC fundraiser in San Francisco.

VP Travel Pool #22: dnc fundraiser

Motorcade rolled up to the DNC fundraiser at 4:15 p.m. PT, hosted at Gretchen Sisson and Andrew McCollum's residence in Twin Peaks. McCollum is a cofounder of Facebook.

Pool did not see Harris exit motorcade. Sisson began opening remarks and Harris walked into the event at 5:06 p.m. PT.

There were about 100 attendees at the fundraiser, gathered on the residence's lawn under a white canopy and seated on white folding chairs. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis was present.

Harris began speaking at 5:08 p.m.

She overviewed the Biden-Harris administration's wins, such as the $35 cap on insulin, the nomination of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the climate crisis investments in the Inflation Reduction Act.

She then moved to describing "what's at stake now."

"The highest court in our land …just took a constitutional right, that had been recognized, from the people of America, from the women of America," Harris said. "Now we need Congress to act. Because the Court took that right away but Congress can turn that right into law."

President Biden will not allow the filibuster to "get in the way" of signing the Women's Health Protection Act into law. "We need two more Senate seats, and President Biden can sign that bill into law," adding that Biden also seeks to sign the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

"Momentum is on our side and the stakes are high," she said. "People around the world are watching."

Pool did not hear Harris conclude; pool shuffled into press van before Harris' exit.

Motorcade rolled out of the event at 5:53 p.m., en route to SFO. Harris is scheduled to head back to DC.

VP Travel Pool #24: wheels up at sfo

AF2 was wheels up at 6:36 p.m. PT, heading out of SFO, en route to JBA.

VP Travel Pool #25: wheels down JBA

AF2 was wheels down at JBA on Wednesday at 2:17 a.m. ET.

Harris exited AF2 at 2:30 a.m. ET, waved to press and boarded Marine 2 at 2:31 a.m. ET. M2 took off at about 2:35 a.m. ET.

And that's a wrap on this trip! It’s been a pleasure being your pooler.

Have a great week,