Former Vice President Kamala Harris criticized President Donald Trump and urged Democrats to reclaim Congress during the Washington, D.C., stop of her 107 Days book tour Thursday.
The event was scheduled to start at 7 p.m., and the line to enter snaked around the block ahead of doors opening at 6 p.m., causing long wait times to get in.
Moderator Kara Swisher came onto the stage 20 minutes late and a video recounting Harris’s 2024 campaign played. Then, Harris came out to a sold-out crowd at Warner Theater. The two discussed a range of topics, including the government shutdown, her presidential campaign, and the future of the Democratic party.
“A conversation with Kamala Harris”
The event kicked off forcefully: Harris opened the discussion with a profanity-laced remark about the Trump administration, setting an intense tone for the evening.
Swisher started by recalling a conversation she had with Harris right before taking the stage, about Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warning that boys who were circumcised were twice as likely to be diagnosed with autism later.
Harris said her mother was a scientist and that she can’t laugh about the Trump administration’s actions regarding science.
HARRIS DROPS SERIES OF F-BOMBS IN PRESS STOPS AND ON BOOK TOUR
Then she said, “It’s f***ed up,” and the crowd erupted in cheers.
“What they are doing to push misinformation and lies at the highest level of government, it’s criminal, and people will die because of what they’re doing. I can’t laugh about that. I’m sorry,” Harris said.
Swisher questioned the former vice president on excerpts from her book and current events, including the recent indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James.
When asked if she worries about being indicted or targeted by the Trump administration, Harris said, “Sure, of course.”
Harris told the audience she doesn’t “know that it won’t get worse before it gets better.”
“Every day, something is coming out of this White House. And I said that yesterday in Atlanta, and then [James’s indictment] today – I’m serious. I said it yesterday. I said it the day before, everyday I have been on this book tour, and every single day something happens.”
On Trump and the government shutdown
“Whatever he’s doing is for his own well-being and to take care of himself. Let’s be clear about that. Let’s be clear about what he is doing to monetize this presidency for himself,” Harris said about Trump. “But this con man happens to be President of the United States, making decisions that are, in such a tremendous way, injuring the people of our nation.”
During the conversation, Harris kept referencing a line she wrote in the book about all the “guardrails” failing to protect democracy against the Trump administration’s actions. She also discussed Trump v. The United States, which decided former presidents have criminal immunity for official actions taken while in office, but not for private or unofficial acts.
Swisher asked Harris what people can do if there are no guardrail protections, and Harris responded: Democrats need to win the midterms.
“We can reinvest in the three co-equal branches of government and hope that where the courts fail, if it goes to the highest court, that we, at least at another branch, have a Congress,” she said.
“But we can also see that we’ve had complicit legislators who are Republicans and know what is wrong about this and are not stepping up,” Harris added.
Swisher asked Harris what her former colleagues in the Senate are telling her, and she said there are Republicans who believe they are doing the wrong thing but aren’t “stepping up.”
“I do believe there are a lot of people who know what’s wrong with this, don’t agree with it, even though they vote a certain way, but they are living in fear of retribution and more invested in their own political survival than speaking up and taking the hits that might come,” Harris said.
DEMOCRATS SEE ‘PROGRESS’ IN POSSIBLE GOP OLIVE BRANCH TO END SHUTDOWN
Harris praised her former Democratic colleagues in the Senate for standing firm during the government shutdown, after Congress failed to pass more funding earlier this month.
“I look right now at what my former colleagues in the Senate are doing, and I praise them for having the ability to say that we are not going to compromise affordable health care for the American [people],” Harris said. “I know there are plenty of Republicans who know this is wrong, but they’re not stepping up.”
Regarding how Democrats can combat the administration, Harris said the party needs to “chew gum and walk at the same time” by criticizing the administration and addressing the immediate problems for Americans, including the cost of goods.
“We have to continue to highlight the corruption and the – literally – the violation of rule of law and all of the essence and spirit behind rule of law and Constitution of the United States – free speech, free association, just freedom period,” she said.
“We also have to emphasize what our plan is immediately for bringing down the cost of everyday life, and all of those things have to happen at the same time.”
On the political future, including her own
Halfway through, Swisher revealed that she had a surprise “guest”: It was a prerecorded video of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking Harris about debating Trump.
“[Trump is] no doubt he’s unhinged, and I and Secretary Clinton did the work in her debates of demonstrating that, as I attempted to do in my debate with him, we have in this president the most, one of the most callous, corrupt and incompetent individual,” Harris said.
HARRIS BOOK TOUR HINDERS DEMOCRATS’ 2025 MOMENTUM
Harris also revealed that part of her “dilemma” is that she doesn’t have a solution on how to combat this administration.
“I don’t have the solution right now to how it stops before the end of his term, but I know that we have to fight,” Harris said. “We have to fight. We cannot get used to this. We cannot be overwhelmed. We cannot be silenced.”
During the conversations about the future and the stars of the Democratic Party, Harris gave a shout-out to Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. The audience erupted in applause and the theater put a spotlight on Scott, who waved to the crowd.
Harris also highlighted Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), and Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) as other stars, saying they are “for the people, looking out for the people.”
When it came to her own future and whether she’d run again in 2028, Harris said, “maybe, maybe not,” but that Democrats will need to invent and rebuild following Trump’s term.
“When this administration is done, there’s going to be a lot of broken stuff and part of what I write about is when it comes time then to be about rebuilding and hopefully transformation,” she said.
HARRIS HEATS UP ANTI-TRUMP RHETORIC: ‘UNCHECKED, INCOMPETENT, UNHINGED PRESIDENT’
Beyond 107 Days
Simon & Schuster announced last month that 107 Days is on track to be its best seller this year. The 15-city book tour has already taken Harris across the country to cities like Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York City. This is the second time the former vice president has returned to D.C. following Trump’s inauguration, and coming back was a “weird feeling.”
Harris said she wrote it to remind her supporters of a “sense of optimism” that was felt throughout her campaign.
“Part of what I hope this book does, and these conversations do, is just allow us all to see the community in which we gather today and remind ourselves that we’re all in this,” Harris said. “We feel the same way.”
KAMALA HARRIS’S BOOK TOUR: SIX TAKEAWAYS FROM HER RETURN TO THE SPOTLIGHT
“We’re not crazy, but we have to remember that, because, to your point, three years, we have three more years of this,” she added.
The event ended with Harris doing her call and response cheer from her campaign: “When we fight, we win.”
The next book tour stop is in Chicago on Saturday, Oct. 11.
