Vice President Kamala Harris came unglued on Thursday morning as she snapped during a “Today” show interview with host Savannah Guthrie when Democrats’ failed voting rights bills came up.
When President Joe Biden was asked during a press conference on Wednesday if the midterm elections would be “legitimate,” he replied by saying that “it all depends.” This appeared to be him saying that it would depend on whether or not the left’s voting rights package passed later that night, which it ultimately did not.
“‘Is [Biden] really concerned that we may not have fair and free elections?” Guthrie asked Harris on Thursday morning, according to Daily Mail [1].
“The president has been consistent on this issue,” Harris responded. “And the issue is that there are two bills – the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act – that have been the solution that has been offered to address the fact that around our country, states have put in place laws that are purposely making it more difficult for the American people to vote.”
Harris went on to claim that the laws failing to pass would impact 55 million Americans of all political parties and walks of life. The interview then began to go off the rails as Guthrie and Harris began a tense back and forth that culminated in Harris snapping and asking to be allowed to finish speaking.
“The president put a lot of blame yesterday on Republicans for failure to get some of these key initiatives passed. But, you know, you have a 50-50 tie in the United States Senate, as you are well aware. Did the administration fail to temper its initiatives to meet political reality?” Guthrie asked.
“In other words, should you have been more willing to compromise to try to get all Democrats on board? These initiatives failed because Democrats weren’t united, let alone Republicans. Was that an error as you look back on this year?” she questioned.
“Well, when I look back on this year, I think about things like the bipartisan infrastructure law. Administrations, both Democrat and Republican, have tried for years –” Harris began, before Guthrie cut her off by asking, “Well, doesn’t that show Republicans were willing to help if the initiatives were good?”
“Please let me finish!” a visibly frustrated Harris shot back.
Harris would go on to be asked to be allowed to finish speaking a few more times during the contentious interview.
#KamalaHarris [2]
Touchy Kamala snaps at Savannah Guthrie and suggests midterms will now be unfair after failing to get voting rights bill over the line in round of 𝗰𝗮𝗿 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗵 morning show interviews. https://t.co/6T0X7SFWEs [3]
— Political Clown Parade 🇺🇸 (@PoliticalClownP) January 20, 2022 [4]
These voting rights bills failing to pass were a crushing defeat for Biden, who responded by saying, “I am profoundly disappointed that the United States Senate has failed to stand up for our democracy. I am disappointed — but I am not deterred.”
It seems that the pressure is finally starting to get to the Biden administration. These midterms will be very interesting, indeed.