Vice President Kamala Harris’s track record of gaffes and word salads fell into the spotlight this week after she became the Democrats’ de facto presumptive nominee.
Harris is infamous for spouting odd phrases and explanations for simple ideas. In 2022, for example, she marveled over Venn diagrams. Another time she rambled about the “significance of the passage of time.”
“More alphabet soup from Kamala,” one X user mocked.
The Harris campaign apparently believes its candidate will make more gaffes as the party’s de facto presumptive nominee and hopes its content creation can be “ironic content online that’s signaling earnest support for her candidacy — without turning cringe and ruining it,” West Wing reported this week.
The campaign should use restraint when pushing Harris memes and videos created by her fans, a campaign staffer said, noting it would be good if the campaign doesn’t “lean in too much to the point that it becomes cringey.”
The cringeworthy material floating around on social media, however, might impress young voters, staffers told West Wing. “The idea is to wink and nod at the memes so that online supporters feel seen rather than to co-opt the memes themselves,” the outlet reported.
Harris holds a 55-percent unfavorable rating among ages 18-34, a Monday Quinnipiac poll found. Overall, Harris’s approval rating is low at 37 percent, while 51 percent disapprove, according to FiveThirtyEight. Her approval rating is below the 50 percent threshold that incumbents historically need to win reelection.Below are Harris’s top five word salads:
ONE
Speaking about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Harris said the “great aspiration of our nation has been to expand freedom. … But the expansion of freedom clearly is not inevitable, and it certainly is not something that just happens.”
Harris, continuing to speak about overcoming political opposition, which she dubbed “odds and the obstacles,” tried to deliver an inspirational line to the audience about overcoming the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“We push to move forward; that we are guided by what we see that can be, unburdened by what has been,” she stated, with no applause forthcoming. “And I know everyone in this room understands this,” she claimed.
TWO
Speaking alongside Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness in March 2022, Harris struggled to convey that the United States would be providing economic assistance to the island nation. “We also recognize — just as it has been in the United States — for Jamaica one of the issues that has been presented as an issue that is economic in the way of its impact has been the pandemic,” she said.
“So to that end,” Harris continued, “we will assist Jamaica in COVID recovery by assisting in terms of the recovery efforts in Jamaica that have been essential to, I believe, what is necessary to strengthen not only, uhhh, the issue of public health, but also the economy.”
THREE
The vice president rambled about the “significance of the passage of time” during a speech in Sunset, Louisiana. Harris noted the “significance of the passage of time” four times within 32 seconds.
FOUR
During her trip to Poland in the spring, she seemed to read her notes with difficulty while expressing exactly where she was as she spoke.
“I am here, standing here on the northern flank, on the eastern flank, talking about what we have in terms of the eastern flank and our NATO allies, and what is at stake at this very moment. What is at stake this very moment are some of the guiding principles,” she said.
FIVE
Harris delivered another word salad as she painstakingly explained where “community banks” are located.
“We invested an additional $12 billion into community banks because we know community banks are in the community, and understand the needs and desires of that community as well as the talent and capacity of community,” Harris said.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.