Vice President Kamala Harris, kicking off a daylong blitz of news media interviews, assailed former President Donald J. Trump for what she called his “callousness” in responding to the deadly storms that have ravaged southeastern states, and said she was still hoping to work with Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida, as his state faces the latest monster hurricane.
During a wide-ranging interview on the ABC daytime talk show “The View,” Ms. Harris spoke at more length about the storm politicking that has begun to dominate the campaign. Mr. Trump has used the hurricane that hit the Carolinas and Georgia last week to blast the Biden administration’s leadership and make false claims that the government is misdirecting federal relief funds.
“It’s profound, and it is the height of irresponsibility and, frankly, callousness,” she said of Mr. Trump’s claims. “I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level, to care about the suffering of other people and then understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down — it’s to lift people up.”
Ms. Harris also addressed reports that Mr. DeSantis had declined to take her calls this week as another storm barrels toward his state. She said it was important that federal, state and local agencies work together on disasters, and called it a “shame” that it had not happened.
“When I’m president, I will continue to call him to see what he needs for help,” Ms. Harris said of Mr. DeSantis, who has attacked the vice president’s outreach as politically motivated and said, “She has no role in this.”
Ms. Harris offered a warning to Floridians in the path of the approaching Hurricane Milton to follow the guidance of authorities on the ground and leave their homes if advised.
“I urge every and anybody who is watching or has family members in that area, please, please, please take seriously your local officials’ admonitions to you,” she said. “If they’re telling you to evacuate, get your stuff and go.”
The sit-down on “The View” was one of a series of friendly interviews that Ms. Harris is scheduled to do on Tuesday. She is set to chat with the satellite radio host Howard Stern in the afternoon and will then record an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” which will air late in the evening.
Ms. Harris received a warm welcome from the hosts of “The View,” including a full-throated endorsement from Whoopi Goldberg. They asked her a broad variety of questions, including one about a specific way that her presidency would differ from President Biden’s.
She initially pointed to their differing life experiences and divergent policy focuses. But when pressed on whether there was anything she would do differently from her boss, she said, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”
Trump campaign officials immediately seized on the remark, clipping the exchange and promoting it on their social media platforms.
Later in the interview, after pointing to her endorsements from Republicans, she did cite one potential move that would distinguish her from Mr. Biden: her promise to appoint a Republican to her cabinet.
During the appearance — her first live television interview since Mr. Biden dropped out in July and she became the Democratic nominee — Ms. Harris unveiled a new plank of her economic plan, which would extend Medicare coverage for long-term, at-home care for seniors. The plan is designed to reach the so-called sandwich generation — an estimated 105 million people, including plenty of undecided voters, who are caring for their aging parents while raising their own families.
“There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle,” Ms. Harris said. “They’re taking care of their kids, and they’re taking care of their aging parents, and it’s just almost impossible to do it all.”
Ms. Harris, who has also proposed a child-care tax credit, has spoken about her own experience caring for her mother while she was dying of cancer.
Joy Behar, another longtime host of “The View,” asked Ms. Harris a question on the minds of many Democrats perplexed at the possibility that Mr. Trump could return to the White House: How is this race so close?
“I personally cannot understand why anyone would vote for him,” Ms. Behar said.
Ms. Harris did not try to explain Mr. Trump’s appeal. Instead, she spoke about Republicans, including former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who are supporting her as a means to block Mr. Trump.
“People are exhausted now, and they’re exhausted with the lies,” Ms. Harris said. “They’re exhausted with the selfishness. They’re exhausted with the attempt to divide us as Americans. And they’re ready to turn the page and chart a new way forward. And I feel very optimistic.”
Her appearance came as a New York Times/Siena College poll released on Tuesday showed her slightly ahead nationally, and gaining an edge on Mr. Trump as the candidate most voters see as representing change and caring about people like them.
She tried to hone that message during her interview after a question about immigration, when she pointed to Mr. Trump’s successful torpedoing of a bill that would have poured resources into border security.
“He spends full time engaged in grievance about what has happened to him,” Ms. Harris said.
“But what he does not talk about is you,” she said. “He does not talk about what you need. He does not talk about what your parents need, what your children need.”
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