Kamala Cackles Back at Trump

Failed candidate tries to mimic liberal angst in elephant-themed paid speech, declines to address McDonald’s controversy

Failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris gave another paid speech on Wednesday to a group of Democratic activists in San Francisco. In a rather unconvincing attempt to mimic liberal outrage while reciting bland talking points about the importance of “we the people,” Harris attacked Donald Trump for sowing “fear” and punishing “truth tellers.” The former VP’s tone throughout the 30-minute address, which featured an extended discussion of a viral video of elephants at the San Diego Zoo, lurched from cacophonous shouting to saccharine sing-song. She declined to address the (still unresolved) controversy surrounding her alleged work at McDonald’s, the popular fast food chain.

“I’ll leave it to others to give a full accounting of what has happened so far [under President Trump],” Harris bravely remarked at the 20th anniversary gala for Emerge America, a group that trains Democratic women to run for office. “But I will say this: Instead of an administration working to advance America’s highest ideals, we are witnessing the wholesale abandonment of those ideals.”

As telegraphed by aides who spoke anonymously to reporters ahead of the speech, Harris invoked what has been described as “her theme,” which relates to the contagiousness of courage. “We all know President Trump and his administration and their allies are counting on the notion that fear can be contagious,” Harris told attendees, who hissed and booed in disgust. “But what they’re overlooking, what they have overlooked, is that fear is not the only thing that is contagious. Courage is contagious.”

Harris praised the American institutions that have attempted to fight back against Trump, such as Ivy League universities and unelected federal judges. “The courage of all these Americans inspires me, and I have been inspired,” she gushed. “I am not here tonight to offer all the answers, but I am here to say this: You are not alone, and we are all in this together.” The failed candidate, who is widely expected to announce a run for governor of California later this year, described this moment in American politics, somewhat bizarrely, as a “high-velocity event where a vessel is being used for the swift implementation of an agenda that has been decades in the making.”

The former VP cackled violently as she requested permission to “digress for a moment,” and asked members of the audience if they had seen “that video from a couple weeks ago, the one of the elephants at the San Diego Zoo during the earthquake,” urging those who had not to “Google it.” That video, she explained, was what she had been thinking about since losing to Trump. Harris is also reportedly thinking about starting an “institute for policy and ideas,” according to the New York Times. This would come as a shock to many, given her remarkable inability to articulate coherent thoughts about policy or anything else.

It is presumed that Harris’s speaking fee for the Emerge America event was several times the U.S. median income of roughly $80,000. Tickets to the event itself ran as high as $50,000, while those watching via livestream had to fork over $25 for a “digital ticket.” The address was billed as Harris’s “most extensive” public remarks since the election. She has kept a low profile over the past few months as she plots her political comeback, which could include another presidential campaign if she decides to forgo the California governor’s race in 2026.

“There is a clamoring for her voice right now,” a former Harris adviser told NBC News before the speech. “No one can better prosecute the case while inspiring a call to action than the former vice president.” (Fact check: Not supported by the evidence.) For reasons that defy explanation, the former Harris aide requested (and was granted) anonymity to “speak candidly” in support of their old boss.

It’s not entirely clear why anyone would be “clamoring” to hear from Harris right now. Her reluctance to return to the spotlight is understandable in light of the recently published books about the 2024 election, which have revealed damning new details about the Democratic Party’s efforts to cover up Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. Those efforts to conceal Biden’s malfunctioning brain were motivated in no small part by the fears of party leaders who thought Harris lacked the competence and charisma to succeed on the national stage.

Barack Obama had “deep misgivings about Harris” and did not want her to replace Biden on the ticket, Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes write in Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House. The former president thought Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer would be better, and sought to arrange a “mini-primary” that would “kneecap Harris” because he was sure she would lose. Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House, was similarly unenthusiastic about Harris taking over for Biden. “Pelosi didn’t want Harris, didn’t think the vice president would prevail in a competition for the nomination, and didn’t think she would beat Trump,” a Pelosi ally told Allen and Parnes. “More than that … she doesn’t like Harris.”

This was also one of the main reasons Biden decided to endorse Harris almost immediately after dropping out. “[T]he most satisfying aspect of his decision to endorse had little to do with Harris,” Allen and Parnes write. “It was a fuck-you to Obama’s plan,” said one person close to both men. “At that moment, you have very few things you control, and that’s the one thing he had control over, and he chose to stick it to Obama.”

In addition to being a multimillionaire Netflix producer who plays golf with celebrities, Obama is also a credibly accused misogynist who once described Harris as the “best-looking attorney general in the country.”