Topline
Former Vice President and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris attacked President Donald Trump, criticized industry leaders for not standing up to him and addressed her criticism of former President Joe Biden's decision to run for a second term in her book, in her first major televised interview since leaving office on Monday night.
In a 40-minute-long interview on MSNBC, Harris told host Rachel Maddow she had always believed that “titans of industry” would serve as a guardrail for democracy in the country.
But said “one-by-one-by-one, they have been silent…I’d use the word feckless,” adding “It’s not like they’re going to lose their yacht or their house in the Hamptons.”
Harris then warned business leaders that “Democracy sustains capitalism,” and said: “Right now we are dealing with…a tyrant.”
The former vice president said the U.S. used to “compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators…That’s what we’re dealing with right now in Donald Trump, and these titans of industry are not speaking up.”
Harris said the silence from business leaders is “perhaps because of [Trump’s] threats and the way he has used the federal government to take out vengeance on his critics.”
The former vice president also posited that the industry “titans” may be silent because they want a merger approved or wish to avoid a federal investigation, but at some point, they’ve got to stand up for the sake of the people who rely on all of these institutions.”
In the interview, Harris was asked about the remark she made in her new book, “107 Days,” on the former president’s “recklessness” in running for a second term. Harris said: “So when I write this, it's because I’ve realized that I have and had a certain responsibility that I should have followed through on…And so when I talk about the recklessness as much as anything, I'm talking about myself. There was so much as we know at stake.” She added that she thought at the time asking Biden not to run would have come off as “completely self-serving.”
Harris talked about people organizing to resist Trump’s actions and gave the example of late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s scheduled return on Tuesday. Kimmel’s show was taken off the air last week for a monologue that criticized the GOP and President Donald Trump after the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “Talk about the power being with the people — and the people making that clear with their checkbooks — as it relates to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. We saw the power of the people over the last few days, and it spoke volumes, and it moved a decision in the right direction.”