Kamala Harris has said she may run for president again in 2028, in her first UK interview since losing to Donald Trump.
The former US Vice-President told the BBC she would “possibly” be president one day and was confident there will be a woman in the White House in future. Asked if she had made a decision about another run, Harris said she had not but underlined that she still sees herself as having a future in politics.
“I am not done,” she told the BBC. “I have lived my entire career as a life of service and it’s in my bones.”
Harris dismisses poll predictions
Harris dismissed polls that put her as an outsider to become the Democrats’ pick for the next election, even behind actor Dwayne Johnson. “If I listened to polls I would have not run for my first office, or my second office – and I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here,” she said.
Speaking to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Harris also turned her fire on Trump, branding him a “tyrant”. She said warnings she made about him on the campaign trail had been proved right.
Trump accused of weaponising government
Harris said she believed predictions she made about Trump behaving as a fascist and running an authoritarian government had come true. “He said he would weaponise the Department of Justice – and he has done exactly that,” she said.
She pointed to the suspension of late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel by ABC after he made a joke about Republican reaction to the death of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
“You look at what has happened in terms of how he has weaponised, for example, federal agencies going around after political satirists… His skin is so thin he couldn’t endure criticism from a joke, and attempted to shut down an entire media organisation in the process,” she said.
Harris also criticised business leaders and institutions in America who have, in her view, bowed to the president’s demands.
“There are many… that have capitulated since day one, who are bending the knee at the foot of a tyrant, I believe for many reasons, including they want to be next to power, because they want to perhaps have a merger approved or avoid an investigation,” she said.
White House responds
The White House was dismissive when asked for a response to Harris’s comments about the president.
“When Kamala Harris lost the election in a landslide, she should’ve taken the hint – the American people don’t care about her absurd lies,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “Or maybe she did take the hint and that’s why she’s continuing to air her grievances to foreign publications.”
107 days to campaign
Harris has published her account of her campaign, 107 Days, the time that was left to her to run for the presidency after Biden withdrew from the race following months of speculation about his mental acuity.
In the interview, to be broadcast in the UK on Sunday at 09:00 GMT (05:00 EST), Kuenssberg pressed Harris on whether she ought to have urged Biden to make way for her sooner.
Among the Democratic soul-searching, Harris’s candidacy is often disparaged, her weaknesses as a leader pinpointed as the reasons for her defeat, not just the last-minute nature of Biden’s decision.
When questioned about what went wrong, rather than plunge into analysis, her contention is because she started so late, it was almost impossible to win.
Harris on election defeat
Harris and her team were devastated by the defeat, which came as a surprise to them. She has described it as traumatising. “My god, my god, what will happen to our country?” Harris says she repeated when the result came through.
Her attempt to explain it focuses on how narrow the gap in votes was between her and Trump.
The popular vote was tight, with less than 2% in it. However, Harris was trounced by Trump in the electoral college, where each state has a certain number of votes that tally up.
Future challenges for Democrats
Harris was willing to drop hints about her own future. But there’s less willingness from her, or other Democrats, grappling with their party’s dilemmas.
When challenged on why her campaign did not connect with working people, she said she needed more time to do that, and pointed to a drift away from her party among that group. She regrets she didn’t have long enough in 2024 to make her own pitch on issues like housing or childcare.
Harris said her grandnieces would, “in their lifetime, for sure”, see a female president.
Harris still travels with the trappings of an entourage. Aides watch the clock as her every minute is planned with precision. She travels between capitals for a book tour, not a presidential race.
