Former Vice President Kamala Harris faced a wave of bipartisan criticism after her appearance on the “Late Show” with ousted host Stephen Colbert, with some viewers even speculating she may have been intoxicated during the segment.
While others stopped short of calling her drunk, many blasted Harris for giving vague, rambling answers and offering no clear message about her political future or the Democratic Party’s direction.
During the interview, Harris addressed her decision not to run for governor of California, saying broadly, “Just for now, I don’t want to go back in the system. I think it’s broken.”
On CNN, NOTUS White House Correspondent Jasmine Wright, who covered Harris on the campaign trail, criticized the former vice president’s use of “amorphous phrasing” like “the system” and questioned whether viewers could understand what she meant.
“I think what people want are solutions, and she has not said a single one,” Wright said. “And consistently, people want her to be descriptive about what she says is wrong. And I don’t think that that interview, she was able to do that. And it’s a shame because she’s had six months to figure it out.”
“She hasn’t said anything really for six months,” CNN panel host Manu Raju agreed.
CNN senior reporter Aaron Blake pointed to a broader messaging problem within the Democratic Party.
“But we don’t see, like, a very consistent message from Democrats on this,” Blake said. “Maybe that’s because they don’t have somebody with kind of the heft and the constant presence in our daily lives to drive that message. But it seems like something where they pop up every once in a while and say, ‘Hey, this situation is pretty bad.’ And then they kind of fade away.”
Raju added that Harris came across as overly guarded.
“I was a bit surprised because she had been gone. She’s now not running for office, at least at the moment. And she was not, perhaps, as forthcoming about some of the issues with the campaign than maybe what I personally expected,” Raju said, before playing a clip of billionaire Mark Cuban claiming Harris is far more charismatic behind closed doors.
AP White House reporter Michelle Price said Harris appeared “especially robotic,” calling it part of a long-standing issue for the former vice president.
“She even looked physically uncomfortable, like her shoulders seemed up into her neck most of that interview, which was just striking because, you know, she has nothing to lose right now. She could be energetic or much more candid than she was,” Price said.
Price added that Harris delivered no message of leadership or direction. “It seemed more like a lament for where things went last year, where the party is now,” she said. “There was no message of leadership or moving forward, or even clarity on what, again, like Jasmine said, what is the system? Is she talking about the California gubernatorial system, the election system?”
Wright said Harris is falling short of her responsibility to explain what went wrong in 2024 — both for herself and her party.
“I think that after how damaging 2024 was, not just for her personally, but for the Democratic Party, I think that what is required of her is to really be honest about what went wrong with her campaign, what went wrong with the party, and what she wants to do,” Wright said.