Vice President Kamala Harris instructed Telemundo on Tuesday that she is a “pragmatic capitalist” who desires to assist Latino entrepreneurs, countering former President Donald Trump’s makes an attempt to painting her as a Marxist.

“I’m a capitalist. I’m a practical capitalist,” Harris stated within the interview on the vp’s official residence within the Naval Observatory in Washington. “I consider that we’d like a brand new technology of management in America that actively works with the personal sector to construct up the brand new industries of America, to construct up small-business homeowners, to permit us to extend house possession.”

Republicans have for years tried to persuade Hispanic voters, lots of whom fled repressive nations or are descended from individuals who did, that Democrats are secret socialists or communists. 

In his rally speeches and fundraising emails, Trump ceaselessly refers to Harris as “Comrade Kamala” and a “Marxist,” and he has shared a faux picture on social media of somebody resembling Harris talking at a communist occasion. 

Julio Vaqueiro, an anchor on the Spanish-language community Telemundo, which shares a dad or mum firm with NBC Information, requested how Harris outlined herself ideologically within the face of such assaults. 

Harris additionally made a direct enchantment to Latino males’s wallets.

“I’m very conscious how it might have an effect on Latino males,” she stated of her financial agenda. “I do know that Latino males typically have a harder time accessing the large loans from the large banks due to relationships, due to issues that aren’t essentially grounded of their {qualifications}. So I’m targeted on what we will do to convey extra capital to neighborhood banks that can perceive the neighborhood and having the ability to give these sorts of loans.”

Males, and particularly younger males of colour, have change into one of the vital hotly contested demographic teams this election, as Trump makes surprising inroads with the Democratic-leaning group. 

Harris additionally highlighted her plan to supply $25,000 of down-payment help for first-time homebuyers and stated that whereas it might profit all Individuals, “I’m additionally conscious of the precise affect on the Latino neighborhood.”

Simply two weeks earlier than the Nov. 5 election, polls present an exceedingly shut race, with Harris and Trump throughout the margin of error of one another in polls of battleground states and nationally. 

Alex Seitz-Wald

Alex Seitz-Wald is a senior political reporter for NBC Information.