Kamala Harris berated staff for not prepping her for podcast: ‘What the f**k was that?’
WASHINGTON, DC: Former Vice President Kamala Harris revealed in her 2024 election memoir, ‘107 Days’, that she berated her staff for not preparing her for a health podcast interview right before the election with YouTube personality Doctor Mike. The clash highlighted her frustration with aides during a critical stretch of the campaign.
What infuriated Kamala Harris during the podcast
“What the f**k was that?” Harris asked her senior aides after a brief Zoom interview with Dr. Mikhail "Mike" Varshavski, according to her book.
Harris wrote that one of her staffers, Kirsten Allen, had informed her that the interview on November 1, 2024, would just be a “brief thing on the RFK appointment," referring to President Donald Trump announcing that he planned to give Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a “big role in health care” if elected.
Instead, Doctor Mike introduced Harris on his "Checkup" podcast by saying he wanted to discuss health care costs, anti-science rhetoric, barriers to primary care, and women’s health. “WTF?! This is clearly NOT a brief thing on RFK,” Harris wrote about her thoughts at the time.
“Doctor Mike was deeply knowledgeable, warmed up on all these issues, and raring to go. As I would have been, had I not just been ambushed by an unscheduled in-depth interview, with no notice, at the end of a nineteen-hour day.
I slid a scribbled note across the table: Where’s my briefing? The staff looked at each other. They had nothing,” the former vice president continued.
Harris mentioned that after the interview, her staffer Brian Fallon tried to explain why it happened. “I raised my hand and stopped him midsentence,” she wrote. “‘Brian,’ I said through gritted teeth, ‘that was a rhetorical question.’”
Kamala Harris’ criticism of Robert F Kennedy Jr during the interview
During the interview, which was published on November 3, Harris criticized Kennedy after Doctor Mike expressed concerns about Kennedy possibly joining the Trump administration in the future.
Harris said she intended to win the election and was working hard to stop Kennedy from gaining influence. However, Trump ended up winning, and Kennedy now heads the Department of Health and Human Services.
Criticisms of Kamala Harris’ new book
Harris’ latest book has drawn mixed to negative reviews, even from progressives, some Democrats calling it divisive and unhelpful.
A major criticism was her admission that she considered former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as her running mate but decided against it, fearing his gay identity would be too much of a “risk.”
Harris wrote that Buttigieg “would have been an ideal partner — if I were a straight White man. But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man.
Part of me wanted to say, screw it, let’s just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk,” she added. “And I think Pete also knew that — to our mutual sadness.”
