Kamala Harris took a moment from promoting her memoir about her doomed presidential bid at an event in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night to blast Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s record as Health Secretary as “f***ed up.”
In an onstage discussion with podcaster Kara Swisher at the Warner Theatre, Harris contrasted her own mother’s work as a scientist working to “uplift the human condition” with the Trump administration’s efforts to “deny science”, as she put it.
In particular, she railed against RFK Jr and the current stance of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under his leadership.
“When I see what these people are doing right now to end the war on cancer, to deny science and fire scientists … it’s personal for me,” Harris said.
Harris’ book, “107 Days,” was released in September. The title refers to the length of the hyperspeed campaign that the former vice president launched against Trump after Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
“And I can’t laugh at it because, like so many of you, who have known people who suffer because of unknown diseases, or cancers for which there are no cures, or there is the beginning of [a cure], but more work that needs to be done…
“What they are doing to push misinformation and lies at the highest level of government – it’s criminal. And people will die because of what they’re doing. I can’t laugh about that, I’m sorry.”
“It’s f***ed up,” she added, to rapturous applause.
At one point later in the conversation, Harris told the audience, “Well, some people have actually said I was the most qualified candidate ever to run for president.”
Swisher jokingly responded: “I like the ‘some people say,’ very nice, but go ahead.”
“I’m just speaking fact,” Harris replied.
Harris’s book tour has generated a considerable quantity of headlines, including revelations that the grief she felt at losing the election was comparable to the pain of losing her mother.
Also, that while on the campaign trail, Biden called her before she appeared on a critical televised debate with Trump, asking her if she’d been badmouthing him to Democrat donors.
She was heckled at another appearance in Chicago, at which the former vice president clapped back at a heckler who’d shouted a comment about her “legacy”. Nonvoters, she responded, had earned a “legacy” of Donald Trump’s return to the presidency by refusing to support her campaign.
During the book tour, she has labelled Trump a “tyrant”, and likened him to a “communist dictator,” while calling big industry bosses who have supported him “feckless”.
While mounting her White House run, Harris also described Trump as a “fascist” who had become “increasingly unhinged and unstable”.
