WASHINGTON, D.C. — Kamala Harris is back — and she’s burning bridges.
In her first televised interview since leaving office in January, the former Vice President unleashed a searing attack on President Donald Trump, branding him a “tyrant” and accusing him of wielding government power for personal revenge. Harris’s remarks came during a 40-minute interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, in which she also slammed America’s corporate elites for their supposed silence under Trump’s leadership.
“They have been silent,” Harris said, referring to the business world. “Yes, I use the word feckless. It’s not like they’re going to lose their yacht or their house in the Hamptons.”
But it wasn’t just the former president in Harris’s crosshairs. Her comments — paired with explosive excerpts from her new memoir 107 Days, out Tuesday — reveal deep fractures inside the Democratic Party just one year after their humiliating defeat in the 2024 election.
“Right now we are dealing with… a tyrant,” Harris declared, doubling down on remarks she made earlier this year at a speech on the Ellipse. “We used to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators. That’s what we’re dealing with in Donald Trump.”
While Harris painted Trump as the singular threat to democracy, she didn’t spare her own side from scorn. Her memoir details grievances with former President Joe Biden, who she claims undermined her campaign — and even chastised her by phone minutes before her only debate with Trump.
“I just couldn’t understand why he would call me, right now, and make it all about himself,” Harris wrote.
According to the book, Harris also contemplated different running mates and made eyebrow-raising comments about race and gender. She reportedly wrote that Pete Buttigieg would have been an “ideal partner” — if only he were “a straight white man.” Buttigieg, now a likely 2028 contender himself, said he was “surprised” and pushed back firmly, noting, “Trust with voters is about what you’ll do for their lives, not on categories.”
Harris’s grievances extended to other prominent Democrats as well. She criticized Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for lacking urgency and commitment, and recalled how California Gov. Gavin Newsom never returned her call after Biden exited the race. Even Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, host of the 2024 DNC convention, wasn’t spared — with Harris suggesting his support came only after political calculation.
Behind the scenes, top Democratic strategists are not hiding their frustration.
“Salt, meet wound,” one Democratic operative told reporters. “Let’s keep rehashing everything — it’s really good for us.”
Another strategist accused Harris of throwing gasoline on the party’s internal fires: “Couldn’t come at a worse time for our party… Let’s pick new fights. Why not?”
Garry South, a veteran Democratic strategist from Harris’s home state of California, said the excerpts alone show Harris “came out with arms flailing and guns blazing, blaming everyone but herself for her loss.”
He added, “It is a curiously negative and ungracious tome for someone who reportedly thinks she can run again in 2028.”
Harris’s defenders, however, claim the book offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes of a chaotic and historic election cycle. Her communications director during the vice presidency, Jamal Simmons, said Harris “has a right to tell her story,” particularly if she was mistreated by the Biden administration.
Still, even allies admit Harris missed an opportunity for accountability. “It could have had a little more introspection and self-reflection,” one ally told reporters.
Some are comparing 107 Days to Hillary Clinton’s infamous 2017 memoir What Happened, another post-defeat tell-all that aired party divisions and left Democrats scrambling for unity.
As Harris embarks on a media blitz to promote her version of events, her critics say she’s given conservatives yet another gift: a divided, distracted Democratic Party airing its grievances in public while Donald Trump remains focused and firmly in control of his base.
And with whispers of a 2028 comeback already swirling, Harris may have done more to damage her prospects than enhance them.
As one Democratic strategist put it bluntly: “It gives the other side an excuse to call us a mess — while we air our dirty laundry.”
