Harris’s Fiery Campaign of Rage Exposes Her Unpresidential Temperament

With just 18 days to go before the big day, Vice President Kamala Harris is introducing Americans to a new persona of her character: Rage. 

Insiders were familiar with this aspect of her personality from her Senate days and as a nominee in her own right in 2020. Her behavior continued as she assembled staff for her Vice Presidency, closeted by her sister Maya and other confidants from her 2020 run. According to Axios, she had the highest staff turnover of anyone recorded, with more than 92% leaving to seek opportunities elsewhere. This was before she became the Democratic nominee. 

Close-up shots of her anger and body language, expressing raw hatred for former President Trump during her appearance on Bret Baier's show on Fox News, have gone viral on X and other social media outlets. These shorter clips - as opposed to the full interview that formed the basis of our editorial on Thursday - magnify the narrative that she is out of control. 

Whether it is an act - after all, Hollywood types helped package her public image after President Biden abandoned the race - or whether she genuinely hates Trump as much will remain a mystery. No matter what her reasoning is, this kind of public outrage is unpresidential and does not provide comfort to Americans who are concerned that we live in a dangerous place. 

Harris generally remains calm among friendly hosts. She has had pleasant experiences with Oprah, Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Austin, and Charlamagne Tha God, in part because they are Black and avid Trump haters. Stephen Colbert of The Daily Show and Howard Stern absolutely detest Trump. Their questions to her were so soft in style and substance that Harris sailed through with ease. 

Her interview with the National Association of Black Journalists was surprisingly contentious in parts. The questioners, mainly unknown outside Black media, confronted her directly on policy questions related to African Americans. Her discomfort when challenged was evident at the end of the interview when she shook hands briefly and gruffly walked away. The joyous campaign that Hollywood had so carefully sold to the American people was beginning to show its strain. But while her body language was a stiff face, she didn't say anything unpresidential. 

Her first adversarial interview was with Bill Whitaker of CBS News on 60 Minutes. Teaser clips CBS released before the whole show aired showed Harris visibly upset when questioned about her immigration policies and Iran. 

CBS cleverly edited the interview to make Harris look a lot more personable in one of the sloppiest examples of media bias. We don't know if Whitaker, who is African American, was involved in the final edits and supported releasing the edited version to avoid a backlash from CBS management for having gone too hard on a Black politician. [CBS has recently been in the news. The top management publicly shamed its anchor, Tony Dokoupil of CBS Mornings, after conducting a gripping, high-quality interview with Black author Ta-Nehesi Coates. The management complained later that Dokoupil's interview "had fallen short of network editorial standards"]. 

Surrounded by a compliant media universe, with multiple layers of protection all the way to the top ensuring that journalists would always toe the line and act deferentially, Kamala Harris never had to worry about engaging in an intellectually intense discussion.

Her interview with Bret Baier was remarkably more adversarial. At one point, Harris used a comical tease to elicit compliance from Baier—"Come on, you and I both know what I'm talking about!" But Baier, who is white, deadpanned, "I actually don't. What are you talking about?" Harris expected that any compliant media personality would be sympathetic to her and bashed down former President Trump. When Baier wouldn't do it, Harris had to do all the heavy lifting alone. As the back and forth continued, Harris shifted uncomfortably in her chair, expressing raw rage toward former President Donald Trump. [Watch clip starting 19:32 to 20:45]. 

Perhaps Harris' handlers told her it was a winning moment in the interview. Maybe they said to her that in the waning moments of this campaign, she has to double down on expressing her rage against the 45th President, repeating that he is unfit for office to solidify the anti-Trump vote. Or perhaps they advised her that showing emotion in this manner would depict her as a stern leader able to take on any challenge in the Oval Office. Or maybe they thought this was a Hail Mary pass because, with a 69% wrong-track metric haunting her wherever she goes, she has nothing to lose. 

Whatever the cause, Harris is going around doing precisely that. At a public appearance the day after the Fox interview, Harris, sounding scary, with her body language ominously in sync, screamed: "[Trump] should never again stand behind the seal of [voice steadily rising] the President of the United States. Never again! Never again!! Never again!!!" 

It was a chilling display of vile hatred and unbridled emotion unbecoming of a presidential candidate. Sorry, Vice-President Harris, we have consistently found you unworthy of the country's highest office, but your lack of temperament and composure permanently disqualifies you.

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