In her first news interview since leaving office, former Vice President Kamala Harris addressed President Donald Trump’s second term. Speaking with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow about her new book, “107 Days,” Harris criticized business leaders who she says have failed to stand up to Trump.
“I always believed that if push came to shove, those titans of industry would be guardrails for our democracy, for the importance of sustaining democratic institutions. And one by one by one, they have been silent. They have been, you know, yes, I use the word ‘feckless…’ Democracy sustains capitalism. Capitalism thrives in a democracy. And right now we are dealing with, as I called him at my speech on the ellipse, a tyrant. We sued to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators — that’s what we’re dealing with right now in Donald Trump. And these titans of industry are not speaking up.”
— Former Vice President Kamala Harris
Harris said she understands why some business leaders are bending to Trump but insisted they have to “stand up” for the people who depend on them.
Power of resistance
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She also pointed to the return of Jimmy Kimmel’s show as proof of what she called “the power of organized resistance.”
“We saw the power of the people over the last few days, and it spoke volumes, and it moved a decision in the right direction,” Harris said.
However, Harris also noted that to build a proper resistance to the administration, people should “understand that this is bigger than Donald Trump.”
“So when we talk about where the fight must go,” she continued, “there is the aspect of it that is about the immediate moment, such as the weight of the federal government being used to silence critics, citizens, and it must be about understanding that this did not just happen overnight, and we have to pay attention to an agenda that is not going to necessarily go away when this guy is finally turned out of office.”
Harris comments on Biden
The former vice president’s interview follows the release of excerpts from her upcoming book. Last week, an excerpt was released where Harris detailed angry calls she had with Biden.
In her book, Harris says she got a call from Biden shortly before a debate with Trump. He claimed she had bad-mouthed him to donors and demanded to know why. Harris wrote that the call caught her off guard, saying, “My head had to be right, I had to be completely in the game. I just couldn’t understand why he would call me, right now, and make it all about himself.”
In the book, Harris criticized Biden’s decision to run for re-election, calling the decision reckless.
“In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,” she wrote. “The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.”
In her interview with MSNBC, Harris added that she contributed to that recklessness.
“When I talk about the recklessness, as much as anything, I’m talking about myself,” she said.
Harris’ book “107 Days” is out now.
