Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election because of Kamala Harris. That is the subject of my talking points today.
You know, I really thought that someone on the left would write ‘the true story of how Kamala Harris lost the presidential race.’ I thought they would be so angry with her for losing to Donald Trump that they would be clamoring to write the in-depth piece and how she blew it like journalists would normally do. Silly me.
I thought we would get to read all the juicy details about how this well-known bully – who lost 92 percent of her staff as vice president because no one could stand working for her, who was impossible to manage, who wouldn’t take advice, who couldn’t execute prepared strategies, who was too paralyzed with fear to make decisions except for the big one that she did make, which was to pick Tim Walz as her running mate (and we all know how that turned out) – failed.
But so far, nothing. There have really only been a couple of lame, surface-level pieces. Maybe it will still happen, but what has happened so far is ‘she lost because of racism and sexism and maybe because of Joe Biden.’ We are being spoon-fed a bunch of nonsense – oh, what a change – about how Kamala Harris hit all of her marks, so you can’t be mad at her.
These are lies. Maybe it is just easier for them to blame Joe Biden. He is the white guy who stayed too long and was far too infirm. I guess he is not going on Mount Rushmore anymore as Nancy Pelosi suggested. Or maybe it is because this is the Democrat Party and you don’t blame problems on black women – period.
I don’t know exactly their reasons for not digging into it or whether they will eventually get around it. I am still an optimist at heart, I guess. But before we close this chapter in presidential history and say, ‘Sayonara, Kamala,’ I decided we need to take an honest look back. So, here goes:
The Name Game
From the start, it was very important that we get her name right. They devoted portions of the Democratic National Convention to her nieces teaching the crowd how to say ‘Kamala’ (it’s comma-la). And then if you did not get her name right after you had received the lesson, you were racist. Just ask Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).
Helpful articles were written explaining that mispronouncing someone’s name is a microaggression, an effort to disparage them, a disrespect rooted in the racist tradition of othering black people in subtle but meaningful ways, even though it is routinely done to white people as well, like Matt Gaetz, and Demi Moore, and Ralph Fiennes, and Steve Buscemi. Nicolle Wallace was on MSNBC the other day asking her producer to spell Pete Hegseth’s name for her.
And by the way, even well-known Democrats pronounced Kamala Harris’ name wrong. Al Sharpton, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden… I guess they didn’t get the memo. Are they racist, too? Or is it just Nancy Mace because she is a Republican?
In any event, that is how things kicked off for Kamala Harris. Everyone is racist for mispronouncing her name, except for all the Democrats who can’t pronounce her name either.
Joy and Brat
Then we moved onto the ‘Kamala is brat‘ phase of the campaign – the meaning of which nobody knows except maybe Charlie XCX. The message for voters is that she is not awkward. She is not off-putting. She might be dumb, but she is actually the cool ‘wine aunt’ you love to hang with at Thanksgiving.
That is absolutely perfect for the presidency. Everything about her had to be made over, you see, because the public spent four years watching her and had come to deeply dislike this woman. In June 2024, a majority of Americans had an ‘unfavorable’ view of her. For over 40 percent of people, it was ‘very unfavorable.’
The most important rebrand to start her makeover with? The cackle. It is not a cackle, they told us. It is this campaign of infectious and dynamic joy. Whole think pieces were written, like this one from The Atlantic entitled “Kamala Harris and the Threat of a Woman’s Laugh.”
It told readers that Trump doesn’t really laugh. He smirks. He bares his teeth silently. He is a rabid dog, you see. Kamala, according to The Atlantic, well, her laugh is wholesome, it’s honest, it’s human. She is joyful and also wholesome and honest and human – and you are sexist.
Enter: Tim Walz
At first, she was tightly controlled. Obviously there would be no interviews, but some big decisions were required before the Democratic National Convention… like deciding who would step into her shoes if she were incapacitated as president.
She later explained that she went on instinct with the pick of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. How did that work out?
It promptly came out that Tim Walz was a radical leftist. The man who was supposed to win over midwestern, working class men for Kamala had mandated tampons in the boys bathrooms and made his state a sanctuary for underage kids claiming to be another gender who wanted to castrate and sterilize themselves. It was a story so extreme that many did not believe it, but it was true.
Turns out, the “weird” insult Walz hurled at Republicans that caught Kamala Harris’ attention and led to her making him her VP running mate was no more than a mere projection.
Tim Walz also lied a lot – a couple dozen times at least – about a lot. There was the controversy surrounding his inflated military rank. He was not a retired command sergeant major. He did not serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, as he led people to believe.
He lied about being a head coach, which he wasn’t; using IVF, which he didn’t; receiving a commendation from the Chamber of Commerce, which he didn’t; being in China when the Tiananmen Square massacre took place, which he wasn’t; his son witnessing a mass shooting, which he didn’t; and much, much more. It was clearly a problem. And pretty soon, we stopped seeing much of Tim Walz on the campaign trail.
Policy Problems
I think it is fair to say the joy is gone at this point in our story. They had tried ‘brat’ and ‘joy’ and kept her mostly under wraps, putting her out only in highly controlled scripted settings like the Democratic National Convention or at rallies with the teleprompter. But there was still the matter of her radical policy statements from 2019 when she first ran for president.
She wanted to ban fracking, to eliminate private health insurance, to ban meat, to ban gas cars, to ban and confiscate guns. She wanted to mandate taxpayer-funded sex-change procedures for prisoners and illegals. She thought the wall was a stupid vanity project. She was open to reparations. My God, where to begin with the cleanup?
Some radical positions were either reversed on paper by a random, nameless spokesperson or seemingly disavowed by new messaging, but not all.
The Media Blitz
It took about a month, but next came her first sit-down interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. It was embarrassing for all parties involved. Then came MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, another friendly sit-down she struggled through.
Meanwhile, everything Kamala said seemed tightly scripted or painfully stilted. When reporters shouted questions to her that would have required an off-the-cuff response, she sounded like a Stepford Wife – programmed and empty.
The problem is pre-rehearsed lines may help you through a debate (and they did, along with the ABC News moderators), but sometimes they are not enough. Every once in a while, you are going to have to be subjected to a question that you have not anticipated with rote lines ready to be unleashed. And these moments were unmitigated disasters for Kamala Harris.
Despite all their planning, their message control, their attempts over and over to hide her weaknesses – like her stupidity and inability to think in the moment – the act was ultimately doomed to fail. They tried to defraud us into thinking this woman could be president.
Star Power
Then came the town hall with Oprah Winfrey and a bunch of Zoomed-in celebrities in Michigan. Amazingly, you are going to be shocked to learn Oprah’s yelling did not move the needle in the polls. So, Harris moved on to real celebrities. She got the endorsements from Taylor Swift, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Bradley Whitford, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, George Clooney, and Beyoncé. And not one of them got her a bounce. They all failed miserably. No one moved the needle because they have no influence.
Meanwhile, the press sneered and laughed at Trump’s Hulk Hogan, Dana White, Kid Rock, and Dennis Quaid endorsements. All of these guys are beloved by working class Americans. All of them spoke for Trump with humor, fun, kindness, and relatability. None over-acted (here’s looking at you, JLo).
They mocked them because they – the liberal elite and the Democrat Party – really do hate the right half of the country. They agreed with Hillary Clinton on “deplorables” and with Barack Obama on “bitter clingers.” They saw no problem with Joe Biden calling Trump supporters “garbage” or with Tim Walz calling them Nazis. This is why they won’t have Thanksgiving with us now. We voted for Hitler, so it is done.
Desperation Mode
In the waning days of the campaign, The New York Times and The Atlantic trotted out former White House chief of staff John Kelly, who for the first time on the record and in his own voice, called Trump a fascist. Oh, fascist porn. Stop the presses! It was a claim that Harris agreed with on CNN. Game changer… Or not.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, who has never been the answer to anyone’s problems, became a fixture on the campaign trail with Harris. To whom does she appeal again exactly?
The lying ramped up as virtually everyone in media and on Team Harris called Trump a fascist, white supremacist, a white nationalist, a Nazi, and so on. That pause in Hitler comparisons after Trump was shot in the head lasted about two minutes, and then they went right back to it. The “good people on both sides” lie resurfaced from Barack Obama no less. Harris and Walz peddled it too, along with the “bloodbath” and “dictator” lies.
People pretending to be journalists, like Mika Brzezinski, were hysterical on the air saying women will die if Trump is reelected. You see, the left and Mika, they are all about women’s rights – except when it comes to the nanny first gentleman wannabe Doug Emhoff allegedly cheated with on his first wife behind her back, and then impregnated, and then allegedly did something to her that caused her to lose the pregnancy (so reports The Daily Mail). He denied it, but he admitted the affair. Or when it comes to the ex-girlfriend he allegedly beat. He denied it, but she came out in The Daily Mail and gave a first-person account with witnesses.
Or when it comes to Laken Riley and others like her who get killed in the prime of their life by illegals from Venezuela. Or when it comes to Payton McNabb and girls like her who get traumatic brain injuries from trans players. Or the Chloe Coles who have their breasts chopped off by radical trans-activist doctors who look at her like a pay day. For those women, the left has nothing to say other than to shame them into silence.
The Harris team reportedly realized that the Trump ad on the trans issue was crushing her. Bill Clinton urged her to respond. Oh, Bubba knows an actual controversy when he sees one. She didn’t listen. Reportedly, they cut a few responsive ads but nothing resonated with the audience before whom they tested it and instead of innovating, they abandoned the fight.
Honestly, what could they say? The Trump ad was true, she still believes in that radicalism, and she is too afraid of her left flank to say otherwise.
The Final Push
Harris skipped the traditional and beloved Al Smith dinner in New York before a host of prominent American Catholics. The last presidential candidate to do so was Walter Mondale, and we all know how that wound up. She also snubbed Joe Rogan, who offered her an opportunity before his enormous audience. She said she was too busy, but there is a report she was afraid of alienating or leftist base.
Donald Trump accepted the invitation even though Joe Rogan voted for Bernie Sanders four years ago. That interview has since gotten over 50 million views and ended in a Rogan endorsement. Kamala did Saturday Night Live, which ended with a thud.
She got The New York Times to print a bunch of nonsense about women voters flocking to the polls and early voting in Pennsylvania. Ann Selzer of Iowa tried to throw her a lifeline with a bullsh-t poll driven by dreams, not data. Allan Lichtman – the so-called Nostradamus of presidential predictions – embarrassed himself and later blamed sexism and racism for his faulty predictions about what Americans would do.
Why Trump Won
American voters – who had been lied to, dodged, insulted, and manipulated by a terrified campaign and a dishonest, complicit media – headed to the polls in droves. Young, old, white, black, Latino, Asian, Jewish, Muslim, male, and female, they saw right through the B.S. and the spin, the dire warnings and the drama, the horrific warnings and the catastrophizing and did the most extraordinary thing. They pulled the lever for Donald J. Trump.
He won because inflation is really hurting people. He won because the open border is costing American lives. He won because the trans insanity has gone too far. He won because Americans trust him to break up a system that has been working against them, because he has a sense of humor, because he is self- deprecating, because he went to McDonald’s and drove a garbage truck, because he is strong to the point of being nearly superhuman, because he never gave up despite all the lawfare, because he faced down a bullet and said, “fight, fight, fight,” while still bleeding.
And he won because he ran against a uniquely terrible opponent – whether the media will be honest about her or not – an empty-headed, know nothing, an actress who should never have been a senator or vice president, who failed upward to enormous power and who should exit the national scene in January understanding her hubris and lack of self-awareness cost her party everything.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 945 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.