Sponsored

Kamala Won’t Say Who’s In Charge As Colbert Grills Her Over Dem Party

By No Comments
Kamala Harris
Photo Credit: "Kamala Harris" by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris spewed a word salad instead of naming any top figure currently leading the Democratic Party.

During a Thursday night appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, she side-stepped questions about who’s calling the shots ahead of 2028.

Harris’s return to the public spotlight followed her announcement earlier in the week of a new book, 107 Days, centered around her 2024 presidential defeat.

The former VP sat down with Colbert just weeks after CBS confirmed the longtime late-night show will be shuttered in the spring, a cancellation some believe was long overdue.

While several prominent Democrats including Governor Gavin Newsom, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, positioning themselves for potential 2028 bids, Harris stopped short of throwing her hat in the ring or backing any of her liberal counterparts.

Colbert tried and failed to pin her down on the state of the party’s leadership.

“Who’s leading the Democratic Party? I’m just curious,” Colbert asked.

“There are lots of leaders,” Harris replied after a pause. The host, clearly unconvinced, pressed further.

“There’s generally a leader of the Democratic Party,” Colbert shot back, prompting laughter from the studio. “Who comes to mind?”

Harris stuck to vague generalities, refusing to point to anyone specific.

“I think there are a lot of—I’m not going to go through names because I’m going to leave somebody out and then I’m going to hear about it,” Harris responded.

“But let me say this. I think it is a mistake for us who want to figure out how to get out and through this, and get out of it, to put it on the shoulders of any one person. It’s really on all of our shoulders. It really is.”

Notably absent from her list of “lots of leaders” were former President Joe Biden and Harris herself, both of whom would traditionally be considered the de facto heads of the Democratic Party following a presidential election cycle.

Earlier this week, Harris confirmed she would not be running for California governor in 2026, a move that poured fuel on speculation she may instead be eyeing a return to the presidential arena in 2028.

After relocating from Washington back to Los Angeles in January, rumors had circulated about her considering a statewide run.

Harris, who previously served as the state’s attorney general and a U.S. senator, left the door open in the eyes of many Democrats.

Colbert, seemingly fishing for an announcement, asked Harris whether her decision to avoid the governor’s race meant she was planning to pursue another national campaign.

“No, no, no,” she said. Harris described her decision as more “basic” than political calculation.

“I am a devout public servant. I have spent my entire career in service of the people and I thought a lot about running for governor. I love my state, I love California.” She continued, saying she wanted to be “very candid.”

“For now, I don’t want to go back in the system, I think it’s broken. I want to travel the country, I want to listen to people, I want to talk to people and I don’t want it to be transactional where I’m asking for their vote.”

Harris later clarified that her frustration with “the system” was not directed at public servants like firefighters, nurses, police officers, or teachers.

“I believe — and I always believed — that as fragile as our democracy is, our systems would be strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles. And I think right now that they’re not as strong as they need to be,” she added.

“And I just don’t want to — for now — I don’t want to go back in the system. I want to travel the country. I want to listen to people. I want to talk with people. And I don’t want it to be transactional, where I’m asking for their vote.”

Colbert, hearing Harris lament the state of the system after decades in public office, admitted her take sounded bleak.

The comedian said it felt like Harris was giving up, which spurred her to push back.

“I am absolutely going to be part of the fight,” she told him.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump was asked for his reaction to Harris’s choice to stay out of the California governor’s race.

“Well, she can’t speak,” Trump responded. “She can’t talk. She can’t do an interview.”

“I thought it was a very strange campaign that we had,” he added, referring to the 2024 race.

Trump also addressed speculation surrounding the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which many liberal commentators believed was tied to years of attacks on Trump from behind the CBS desk.

The network, however, made the announcement ahead of receiving a green light for a huge merger, fueling questions about corporate motivations.

In a social media statement earlier this week, Trump denied any involvement but made it clear he had little sympathy for Colbert.

“Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night. That is not true!” the president wrote.

“The reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT, and the fact that this deficiency was costing CBS $50 Million Dollars a year in losses — And it was only going to get WORSE!”

Though CBS has not confirmed the exact numbers, the financial losses cited by Trump have been referenced by media insiders as a contributing factor in the show’s demise.

“Next up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel, and then, a weak, and very insecure, Jimmy Fallon. The only real question is, who will go first?” Trump continued in the post.

“Show Biz and Television is a very simple business. If you get Ratings, you can say or do anything. If you don’t, you always become a victim.”

“Colbert became a victim to himself, the other two will follow,” Trump wrote.

Even Colbert’s liberal counterparts appeared to admit the financial realities couldn’t be ignored.

“It definitely was hemorrhaging money. These legacy shows are hemorrhaging money with no real end to that in sight — people are just not tuning in,” said fellow late-night host Samantha Bee.

“It is also true that when the president of the United States has to give his sign-off on a corporate merger, the thing you can’t do is make jokes about him,” she added.

Watch Harris’ full interview with Colbert here:

Leave A Reply