Kamala Harris’ first interview after 2024 loss: Former VP recounts painful experience of certifying Trump’s January 6 win – Watch – Times of India

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Former Vice President Kamala Harris made her first public look since her defeat to Donald Trump within the 2024 presidential election, becoming a member of Stephen Colbert on The Late Present Thursday night time.The interview got here only a day after Harris introduced she wouldn’t run for California governor in 2026 and as she begins selling her upcoming memoir, 107 Days, which displays on her brief-lived presidential marketing campaign and turbulent remaining weeks in workplace.Through the dialog, Colbert thanked Harris for fulfilling her constitutional responsibility by certifying the 2024 election outcomes on January 6, 2025 — regardless of the tense political local weather and threats of unrest.“One of the issues I assumed of after the election and earlier than January twentieth is that you simply had been nonetheless the vp,” Colbert stated. “And also you needed to be there on January sixth and rely out these electoral ballots and certify. First of all, thanks for doing all your constitutional responsibility.”Harris replied, “With none query. I used to be absolutely conscious of what that second required — not simply of me, however of our nation. I speak about it within the ebook. That was… it was a tough day, to make certain.”She recalled the emotional weight of returning to the Capitol, the place she had as soon as served as a senator and vp-elect. “I had been on the Capitol 4 years earlier than as a result of I used to be then vp-elect and a United States senator,” she stated. “So what I speak about within the ebook is that drive to the Capitol and remembering 4 years earlier than, and what Mike Pence did, and what our Structure requires — and the significance of fulfilling these tasks.”“It was a tough day as a result of it conjured rather a lot in phrases of what that actual day was, what that day has meant within the historical past of our nation — the current historical past of our nation,” she added.Colbert then requested if she had ever spoken to former Vice President Mike Pence about his actions on January 6, 2021.“I didn’t,” Harris responded. “However I have been very blissful to go with him as usually as I can for having the braveness to do what he did.”

Harris additional instructed Stephen Colbert that what shocked her most throughout Donald Trump’s return to workplace was the extent of give up inside the U.S. political system.“I didn’t predict that; I didn’t see that coming,” Harris stated on The Late Present with Stephen Colbert, referring to what she described as widespread “capitulation” to Trump’s agenda, particularly amongst congressional Republicans.Colbert had requested if Harris felt like saying, “I instructed you so,” contemplating her previous warnings about Trump’s management—corresponding to alienating allies and slashing taxes for the rich.“I believed that on some stage, there ought to be many who contemplate themselves to be guardians of our system and our democracy, who simply capitulated,” she replied.With out naming names, Harris appeared to focus on Republicans in Congress for failing to verify Trump’s energy grabs. “I feel there are rather a lot of individuals who suppose they’re using out the storm as an excuse to be feckless,” she stated.She criticized Congress, particularly Home Republicans, for failing to behave towards strikes like Trump’s try to dismantle the Division of Schooling. “Congress has the position and duty to face in the way in which of that, they usually’re simply sitting on their arms,” she stated, slamming their choice to go on recess amid Democratic requires transparency on Jeffrey Epstein-associated data.Harris, who obtained a standing ovation from the viewers, additionally mentioned her new ebook, 107 Days, which displays on her temporary 2024 presidential marketing campaign.Her new ebook, 107 Days, set for launch on September 23 by Simon & Schuster, gives a behind-the-scenes account of her temporary marketing campaign after Biden withdrew from the race final yr. Harris says the ebook is a candid reflection on the marketing campaign path and the teachings she realized throughout that turbulent interval. She stated her current choice to not run for California governor or any workplace for now was a acutely aware step away from a system she sees as deeply flawed.“I simply, for now, I don’t wish to return into the system,” Harris stated. “I feel it’s damaged.”Whereas praising frontline public servants, she expressed disillusionment with institutional politics: “I at all times believed that as fragile as our democracy is, our techniques can be sturdy sufficient to defend our most basic rules. And I feel proper now that they’re not as sturdy as they must be.”Pressed on whether or not she began getting ready for a run after President Biden’s poor debate efficiency in June 2024, Harris stated, “I’ve an unimaginable quantity of respect for him… He believed within the rule of regulation… and that’s the place I’ll go away that.”When requested who at the moment leads the Democratic Celebration, Harris stumbled. “There’s rather a lot of leaders,” she stated, with out naming one.