Former Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged that she might have been too cautious in deciding not to choose former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as her running mate in last year’s election because he is gay.
Harris—in her first prominent news interview since losing the presidential election—on Monday night sat down with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to promote her new book 107 Days. Harris also called President Donald Trump a “tyrant” in the exclusive appearance on the host’s eponymous Rachel Maddow Show.
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment via email outside office hours.
Why It Matters
Trump and Vice President JD Vance defeated Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, in the 2024 presidential election, ushering in an administration that has brought radical change and, according to its critics, set the U.S. on a path to authoritarianism.
The administration has derided and dismantled diversity, equity and inclusion programs and maintained a relentless attack on Democratic rivals for being too “woke.”
What To Know
Harris became the Democratic candidate to run against Trump in 2024 after then-President Joe Biden announced he would withdraw from the race amid concerns over his health and fitness for a second term.
Harris revealed in her book that Walz was not her first choice for running mate and that she would have picked Buttigieg but felt the American public was not ready for the pairing of a Black woman and a gay man.
“To be a Black woman running for president of the United States, and as a vice presidential running mate, a gay man … with the stakes being so high, it made me very sad but I also realized it would be a real risk,” she told MSNBC’s Maddow.
“When I had to make that decision with two weeks to go, you know, and maybe I was being too cautious,” she said.
“But that’s the decision I made … with a great deal of sadness about, also, the fact that it might have been a risk.”
Buttigieg told Politico on Thursday that he believes in “giving Americans more credit” than assuming they would not have voted for such a presidential ticket.
Harris also took aim at Trump in her interview and questioned why business leaders were not standing up to defend the democracy that she said capitalism needed to thrive.
“Right now we are dealing with … a tyrant. We used 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,” she told Maddow.
“Perhaps it is because of his threats and the way he has used the weight of the federal government to take out vengeance on his critics … Perhaps it is because they want to please him …[or] they want a merger approved or they want to avoid an investigation.”
“But at some point, they’ve got to stand up for the sake of the people who rely on all of these institutions to have integrity and to, at some point, be the guardrails against a tyrant who is using the federal government to execute his whim and fancy because of a fragile ego.”
What People Are Saying
Harris said of the Trump administration: “What we are witnessing is a high-velocity event. We are witnessing something that has been happening so rapidly, and it feels chaotic, but what I would offer you, is what we are witnessing is the swift implementation of a plan that was decades in the making … Project 2025 didn’t just drop out of thin air.”
What Happens Next
Harris and Buttigieg could make a run for president in 2028 although neither has formally announced their candidacy and is unlikely to do so until after next year’s midterms.
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