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

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 Show 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 quick-lived presidential marketing campaign and turbulent remaining weeks in workplace.During the dialog, Colbert thanked Harris for fulfilling her constitutional obligation by certifying the 2024 election outcomes on January 6, 2025 — regardless of the tense political local weather and threats of unrest.“One of the things I thought of after the election and before January 20th is that you were still the vice president,” Colbert stated. “And you had to be there on January 6th and count out those electoral ballots and certify. First of all, thank you for doing your constitutional duty.”Harris replied, “Without any question. I was fully aware of what that moment required — not just of me, but of our country. I talk about it in the book. That was… it was a difficult day, to be sure.”She recalled the emotional weight of returning to the Capitol, the place she had as soon as served as a senator and vice chairman-elect. “I had been at the Capitol four years before because I was then vice president-elect and a United States senator,” she stated. “So what I talk about in the book is that drive to the Capitol and remembering four years before, and what Mike Pence did, and what our Constitution requires — and the importance of fulfilling those responsibilities.”(*6*) she added.Colbert then requested if she had ever spoken to former Vice President Mike Pence about his actions on January 6, 2021.“I did not,” Harris responded. “But I’ve been very happy to compliment him as often as I can for having the courage to do what he did.”

Harris additional instructed Stephen Colbert that what stunned 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 did not see that coming,” Harris stated on The Late Show 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 told you so,” contemplating her previous warnings about Trump’s management—equivalent to alienating allies and slashing taxes for the rich.“I believed that on some level, there should be many who consider themselves to be guardians of our system and our democracy, who just capitulated,” she replied.Without naming names, Harris appeared to focus on Republicans in Congress for failing to examine Trump’s energy grabs. “I think there are a lot of people who think they are riding out the storm as an excuse to be feckless,” she stated.She criticized Congress, particularly House Republicans, for failing to behave towards strikes like Trump’s try to dismantle the Department of Education. “Congress has the role and responsibility to stand in the way of that, and they’re just sitting on their hands,” she stated, slamming their determination to go on recess amid Democratic requires transparency on Jeffrey Epstein-related information.Harris, who obtained a standing ovation from the viewers, additionally mentioned her new e-book, 107 Days, which displays on her temporary 2024 presidential marketing campaign.Her new e-book, 107 Days, set for launch on September 23 by Simon & Schuster, provides a behind-the-scenes account of her temporary marketing campaign after Biden withdrew from the race final yr. Harris says the e-book is a candid reflection on the marketing campaign path and the teachings she realized throughout that turbulent interval. She stated her current determination to not run for California governor or any workplace for now was a aware step away from a system she sees as deeply flawed.“I just, for now, I don’t want to go back into the system,” Harris stated. “I think it’s broken.”While praising frontline public servants, she expressed disillusionment with institutional politics: “I always believed that as fragile as our democracy is, our systems would be strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles. And I think right now that they’re not as strong as they need to 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 have an incredible amount of respect for him… He believed in the rule of law… and that’s where I will leave that.”When requested who at present leads the Democratic Party, Harris stumbled. “There’s a lot of leaders,” she stated, with out naming one.