Former Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday said everything she warned would happen in a second Trump term became true, but admitted what she “had not anticipated was the capitulation” of those in power.
“The number of powerful people who have stood quietly by in the face of what they know to be corruption and behavior and approaches that are contrary to the best interest of our country, the powerful people who you know bend the knee at the foot of a tyrant. I hadn’t anticipated that that was going to happen, to the degree it has,” the former VP told Keke Palmer on her show Tuesday.
Harris’ remarks come amid President Donald Trump’s sinking popularity amongst voters due to his administration’s handling of the economy and war in Iran. Nearly two-thirds of Americans even believe that the president engaged in illegal or unethical activity in order to profit from the office, according to a poll by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Despite his growing unpopularity among common voters, several powerful figures, including billionaire Elon Musk who spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency, Meta head Mark Zuckerberg and other tech moguls have continued to show the president a level of support.
Harris told Palmer she has “come to realize that there are some people, and in particular among some of the most powerful, who are purely transactional.”
“They’re not pretending to be guided by what’s morally right, or what’s value based, or what’s principled. They’re in it to get what they can get out of it,” she said. “They’re in it to get theirs. ‘I’m gonna get mine. When it stops producing for me, I’ll move on.’ And that is part of what we have seen, and what I didn’t see that coming to the extent that we’ve seen it happen. I have to admit.”
However, the former vice president said this realization is also why she tells Americans to be “transactional voters” instead of refusing to vote, despite “failures of the system.”
“There are a lot of things that have worked, but there are many things that have not. But in your disappointment, don’t take yourself out of the game by not voting because you’re literally… you’re being silenced,” she said. “And this is not a moment where we can afford to be passive.”