The Top Ten Kamala Harris Gaffes…This Week

The internal polling really has to be off-the-charts bad for Kamala Harris to be subjecting herself, and the rest of the country for that matter, to the parade of vapidity we’ve seen just since last Friday. And actually, according to the most recent polling making up the most current Real Clear Politics averages, both in national and battleground states, one gets the feeling the election is surely and steadily slipping away from Harris and the Democrats with just over three weeks to go.

RCP on Wednesday afternoon shaved three-tenths off of Harris’ national lead, down to 2 points again, but more telling were polls that show Donald Trump surging in Pennsylvania and also in Michigan. Their Electoral Map now shows, with leaning states tossed in, the former President will be the future President on January 20th. 

This is the new RCP average map.

This is trending towards a sweep for Republicans. pic.twitter.com/YxBhjaE1lM

— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) October 9, 2024

Mark Halperin, a lefty but one that does attempt to play it straight when it comes to polling analysis, has hinted he’s been privy to internal polling from both sides, and there’s trouble ahead for the Democrats. 

“I just saw some new private polling that’s very robust. Private polling,” says @MarkHalperin. Kamala Harris “is in a lot of trouble … In the conversations I’m having with Trump people and Democrats with data, they are extremely bullish on Trump’s chances in the last 48 hours.… pic.twitter.com/KF3tSM2sLo

— 2WAY (@2waytvapp) October 9, 2024

The Hill has picked up on this as well, reporting that Democrats have once again hit the panic button.

Democrats start to hit the panic button https://t.co/ZcfiuhmN3w

— The Hill (@thehill) October 9, 2024

Keep in mind, the last time the Democrats hit the panic button, Joe Biden got kicked off the ticket, and the Kamala Harris era was quickly ushered in. 

Over the past week, the Vice President doubled her previous media interview output. That’s not saying much, because she hardly did any media at all before October got underway. But she’s done a bunch in the last seven days, and they’ve all been colossal train wrecks. All of them. The panic in the Democratic camp being reported, if it’s accurate, would naturally lead to desperation, and maybe that’s why the campaign felt they couldn’t play ‘Hide the Harris’ anymore and put her out on friendly media, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t compound the problems with her candidacy. I’m here to tell you that as of today, that hope died. 

Here are my top ten Kamala Harris gaffes of just the past week. Many of these entries, in a sane world, would be disqualifying and campaign-ending rhetorical lapses. If the polling trends we’re seeing this week continue to degrade into next week, perhaps these interviews will be the final nails on the Harris ’24 coffin. 

#10 – Hurricane-splainin’ to the Weather Channel

As Harris is wont to do over the past four years, whenever she tries to cover up not knowing whatever it is she’s talking about, she resorts to treating her audience like they’re in kindergarten and gives them a primer lesson. She’s done this with space, AI, yellow buses, any number of times over the past four years. But on Wednesday with Hurricane Milton bearing down on the Florida Peninsula, Kamala went on the Weather Channel to explain hurricanes, as though this atmospheric anomaly was unprecedented and Americans had never experienced one of these things before. 

Duh. A Cat-1 will ruin your day. Anything over a Cat-3 can and probably will kill you, either directly or indirectly in the aftermath of it if you don’t get out of harm’s way. She’s babbling here trying to sound smarter than she really is. Any undecided voter in the path of this monster seeing or hearing this would have to think to themselves, especially after her awkward response to Helene earlier in the week, that if she becomes president, all future disaster response would be bollixed up worse than the damage from the actual storm. 

#9 – Kamala’s Mediterranean Salad

Yes, she fancies herself an expert in the kitchen, but no, this salad does not feature arugula and chickpeas. On 60 Minutes with Bill Whitaker, he asked her about the escalating war in the Middle East between Israel and Iran, and Iran’s proxy clients of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. She started out giving her set ‘ceasefire and hostage deal’ answer, but when pressed by Whitaker, had nothing to offer further but pablum.

“The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region…” The look on her face when Whitaker redirected seemed to indicate a completely different type of internal movement going on inside her abdomen. Her answer was not just gibberish, but dangerous gibberish, because it continues to demonstrate that she is two-faced about her expressed support of our most important ally in the region, and that equivocal rhetoric is very likely to lead to more people unnecessarily getting killed. 

#8 – Putting the FEMA in female

If you’ll recall that before leapfrogging into the vice presidency, Kamala Harris, at least allegedly, was a legislator. She was a United States Senator from my home state of California. She was assigned to four committees and five sub-committees during her brief tenure in the Upper Chamber. Would you like to take a guess at one of those four committees on which she sat? Of course – the Budget Committee. 

Harris, out of one side of her mouth, is saying FEMA has the resources to cover Helene and Milton damage, of course not having the slightest possibility of knowing that to be true because the damage costs haven’t been tallied, yet. But she says that FEMA was passed in a bygone era and isn’t relevant to the needs of today. FEMA’s budget ask is presented to the Budget Committee every year, the committee on which she served. The Committee then deliberates and uses the discernment the American people bestowed on them to legislate, and that number is included in the budget every year. At least that’s what happens when Democrats don’t force Congress to pass an endless string of continuing resolutions freezing spending in place at current levels. Appropriations then passes bills based off that budget and  orders the checks to be cut. If FEMA runs short because of increased weather events and/or crises, Congress simply passes a supplemental to add more money to the pot. There’s nothing bygone about it. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. Harris is showing she doesn’t know what she’s talking about without actually telling us she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. 

#7 – Unlike Smith-Barney, she didn’t earn it

With apologies to the late John Houseman, Kamala Harris had a whiffle ball set on a tee by Bill Whitaker on Monday’s 60 Minutes broadcast. She was asked about the switcheroo from Biden to her for the Democratic nomination. That changeout occurred over two months ago. It was literally the first thing her campaign had to wrestle with in order to secure the nomination before the Convention. There’s no way a normal candidate doesn’t have a set answer to this. But Kamala Harris is no normal candidate. 

The best part of this is Whitaker just staring quietly at her, allowing her to fill the silence with wave after wave of vacuity. Imagine Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin staring her down. God only knows what she’ll give up to make it stop.

#6 – Border Baseball

Sticking with the 60 Minutes interview, her exchange with Whitaker on immigration, in any other week, would be both the number one gaffe and disqualifying for high office due to it being so bad. Three times Whitaker tried to get her to answer why she didn’t do anything on immigration before now, and three times, Kamala at the bat swung and missed. 

In a week of mostly substance-free interviews Harris has granted, this exchange at least had some substance to it, at least in the question part. She’s just out of her depth. She’s not ready for this job, and you know this to be true. And we haven’t even cracked the top five. 

#5 – We’re on a live broadcast, guys. 

Kamala Harris is desperate to look the part of being the president, especially in a crisis. That’s why she set up a Zoom call with the government’s emergency management personnel to get “briefed” on the path of the hurricane in Florida and how the feds are going to respond. While someone else is speaking, a staffer was feeding Kamala a question to ask. Harris covered her mouth, said, “Live broadcast, guys,” and apparently did not know she had to hit mute to turn her outbound audio off. I’m not sure which is worse – having to get briefed in real time on how to run a briefing, or not knowing how a Zoom call works. As Ed noted at lunch today, this is a scene right out Die Hard With A Vengeance with Bruce Willis and Timothy Oliphant. 

 

#4 – I will not be ignored, Ron DeSantis

Kamala Harris’ Glenn Close moment on the tarmac of Andrews Air Force Base, whining that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wasn’t taking her calls and was being selfish was not just rhetorically walking into a door, it was wind sprinting into it. 

First, Ron DeSantis took her apart by saying he’s talked repeatedly to the actual president, Joe Biden, has coordinated with all levels of state and federal government, and that he doesn’t have time for Kamala’s cosplay presidency here. But what makes this cut so spectacular is Joe Biden with the follow-up stiletto to the kidneys a day later. 

Oof. It’s hard to look more petty and small than Kamala Harris right now. Good thing I have three more clips to help me out.

#3 – The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary – Vince Lombardi

At least that quote makes sense. This answer by Kamala Harris about what a successful end to war in Ukraine looks like doesn’t.

How exactly does the UN charter participate in anything? That’s like saying the United States will not successfully get out of the Global War On Terror without the Constitution participating in what that success looks like. I just saw the Constitution last week at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. I am happy to report that it is resting comfortably in a climate-controlled environment. Its pronouns are it and its. The Constitution is not participating in anything at the present time, because it’s technically neither a living document or a living person. It’s parchment. This faux intellectualism offered by the vice president is not winning hearts and minds across the country, and this is all happening as her polling is slipping before factoring in this October surprise of Gaffe Week. 

#2 – You know, O.J. Simpson wore number 32, and he had some work to do, too.

If a candidate has even a remote level of mental capacity, by the time that candidate has offered up their stump speech for the 100th time in 70 days, that candidate probably has committed the overall pith of the speech’s gist to memory. Not Kamala, though. Here’s what happens when the needle gets stuck in the record and Kamala has no clue what to say or do next. 

If she can’t think on her feet about a speech she’s given twice in the same day at times, how is she going to react if a crisis hits the United States and she has to make a snap decision? Lots of voices on the right have mocked her mercilessly for this, because it’s so cringe-funny. But this gaffe is demonstrative of her inability to critically think – not just critically think about serious matters, but critically think about anything at all. Remember, she failed the California Bar exam on her first try. There are plenty of attorneys that aren’t the sharpest tack on the corkboard practicing law who did pass the bar on the first attempt. What does that say about her? 

And now, (insert drum roll here), the number one Kamala Harris gaffe of this week is…

#1 – No Ragrets

In the 1950s and 60s, it was often said about Frank Sinatra that his ego was only outweighed by his talent. That certainly may be true. In 1969, he recorded his classic, “My Way”, where he crooned, “Regrets, I have a few…”. Amazingly, Ol’ Blue Eyes, even in his heyday, possessed more self-awareness and humility than Kamala Harris. 

On The View Tuesday, Kamala was asked by one of the show’s chief Democratic sycophants, Sunny Hostin, about what she’d do different than Joe Biden if she became president. After all, Harris keeps saying she’s the change candidate, right? This is another question that should be a no-brainer to someone running for the most important job in the world. 

The change candidate can’t think of anything she’d do differently at all from Joe Biden, who’s currently rocking this right track/wrong track number.

From @RCPolitics: pic.twitter.com/eGLR08qQlf

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) October 8, 2024

This was taped earlier in the day. She had a few hours after that for her staff to perhaps coach her up a bit on how to answer this question a tad better the next time it’s asked…like an afternoon taping with Stephen Colbert for CBS’ Late Show. 

You would need a bitcoin server farm in Wyoming, AI, and a 3D printer in order to create a political candidate with worse campaigning skills than Kamala Harris. She’s at Absolute Zero on the Kelvin Scale of politicking. In other words, she’s this guy. 

^ Gif stolen. No ragrets. pic.twitter.com/iWcMgSZLwo

— Elwin Ransom 👽 (@jesseleite85) March 12, 2024

Now before you say I had to stretch in order to get a top ten list, I left plenty on the honorable mention list. 

The debut of her Jamaican accent. 

Her word salad about her dozens of policy flip-flops. 

What to do about high grocery costs and inflation? Another word salad.

Flubbing why a U.S. presidential candidate is appearing on a sex podcast. 

All that polling inertia sliding away from her at the beginning of this column? That is all data sampled before this week’s media hits. Her numbers will be worse next week. She has had the worst 7-day stretch of any presidential campaign I can recall. And it’s only Thursday.