Kamala Harris on Stephen Colbert—Five Takeaways

Vice President Kamala Harris cracked open a beer and repeatedly attacked her 2024 rival Donald Trump during her interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert onTuesday
Harris also discussed hopes for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, and reacted to allegations that Trump secretly sent Russian President Vladimir Putin COVID-19 testing kits in 2020.
Harris’ friendly and joke-filled interview with Colbert was part of a planned media blitz for the vice president in the final few weeks of the 2024 campaign. Earlier that day, Harris went on ABC daytime talk show The View and on veteran radio host Howard Stern’s SiriusXM program.
The vice president has previously been criticized for largely avoiding taking hard-hitting questions from traditional news media outlets since she became the Democratic presidential candidate. Harris was interviewed by 60 Minutes’ Bill Whitaker in an interview broadcast Monday, which was considered one of the toughest the vice president has faced during her 2024 campaign.
Harris’ campaign said the tactic to appear more late-night shows and podcasts, including the hugely popular female-targeted Call Her Daddy, will mean she can appeal to wide range of voters in the neck-and-neck race with Trump.
“Kamala Harris showed herself to be a stone-cold liar and fraud, unable to answer any questions truthfully or intelligently,” a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign told Newsweek about the interview.
“She repeated false claims and tried to gaslight the American people, but the reality is that she can’t run from the disastrous policies she oversaw for the past four years that have caused pain and destruction.”
Newsweek has contacted Harris’ campaign team for comment via email.
Colbert told Harris the 2024 race had been called by some the “vibe election” when she selected running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Colbert added that this is what cuts through with voters, similar to how candidates are judged on whether voters would like to have a beer with them or not.
“So would you like to have a beer with me? So I can tell people what that’s like?” Colbert asks before bringing out two cans of Miller High Life, which is brand the vice president asked for beforehand.
“The last time I had a beer was at a baseball game with Doug,” Harris said referring to her husband, Doug Emhoff.
“The champagne of beers,” she added in reference to Miller High Life’s nickname.
“So that covers Wisconsin,” said Colbert, in reference to the key swing state where the Miller Brewing Company was founded.
Harris mocked the former president after Colbert asked her whether she believes Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
“I’m going to tell you what some of the people in my rallies [say]—quite a few people are showing up by the way,” Harris replied.
“When you’ve lost millions of jobs, you lost manufacturing, you lost automotive plants, you lost the election, what does that make you? A loser.
“This is what when somebody at my rally said, I thought it was funny,” Harris added. “This is what happens when I drink a beer.”
In another segment, Harris essentially told Colbert she was thinking “wtf” (what the f***) at one point during her presidential debate with Trump on September 10.
While showing Harris a viral picture of the vice president clutching her chin appearing deep in thought while listening to her opponent during the debate, Colbert asked the vice president what she was thinking at that moment.
“It’s family TV, right?” Harris replied. “It starts with a W. There’s a letter between, and then the end, the last letter is F.”
Harris also criticized Trump over claims made by veteran Watergate journalist Bob Woodward in his new book War that Trump sent Putin COVID-19 tests for the Russian president’s personal use in 2020. Trump and his campaign have denied the claims.
“I ask everyone here and everyone who is watching, do you remember what those days were like? You remember how many people did not have tests and were trying to scramble to get them?” Harris said.
“You remember people by the hundreds were dying every day, we would watch the number every day being reported of people who were dying…and this man is giving COVID test kits to Vladimir Putin?
“He thinks Vladimir Putin is his friend. What about the American people? They should be your first friend.”
“Donald Trump openly admires dictators and authoritarians. He has said he wants to be a dictator from day 1 if he were to be elected again as president,” she said. “He admires so-called strongmen and he gets played because they flatter or offer him favor.”
Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung told Newsweek that Woodward’s book, which was was obtained by several media outlets ahead of its release on October 15, belonged in a “bargain bin.”
“None of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome,” Cheung said.
Harris said she was still is hoping that a peace deal can be arranged to stop the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
“We must have a ceasefire and hostage deal as immediately as possible. This war has got to end,” Harris said.
“We cannot lose some belief in the possibility of it, because then we throw up our hands instead of rolling up our sleeves.”
More than 1,200 people were killed after Hamas launched a large-scale attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel’s yearlong offensive in Gaza has resulted in the deaths of more than 41,000 Palestinians, as well as around 720 Israeli soldiers, according to The Associated Press. Israel says around 97 of the hostages who were abducted on October 7 remain in Gaza.
Colbert asked Harris to expand on what the administration means when they say a ceasefire deal has been “close” several times since the fighting erupted last October 7.
“Close means that a lot of the details have been worked out, but details remained,” Harris said.
“So, there has been some progress, but it is meaningless unless a deal is actually reached. So I don’t want to suggest to you that we should be applauded for getting close at times to a deal.”
Update 10/09/24, 7:00 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from the Trump campaign.