Harris calls Trump a ‘tyrant,’ lambasts ‘feckless’ CEOs for capitulation
Former Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Monday for her first interview since her loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Harris, 60, didn’t hold back, calling her Republican opponent a "tyrant" and lambasted American CEOs for, what she deemed, capitulation to Trump.
"I worked closely with the private sector over many years, and I always believed that if push came to shove, those titans of industry would be guardrails for our democracy, for the importance of sustaining democratic institutions," Harris said. "And one by one by one, they have been silent. They have been, you know, yes, I use the word feckless."
Harris ridiculed the idea that the billionaire class would lose their yacht or their house in the Hamptons if they spoke out against Trump. She argued that capitalism thrives better under democracy than under authoritarian regimes.
"Democracy sustains capitalism. Capitalism thrives in a democracy. And right now, we are dealing with – as I called him at my speech on the ellipse – a tyrant. We used to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators. That's what we're dealing with right now under Donald Trump. And these titans of industry are not speaking up," she said.
Harris said she understood their hesitancy to speak out against the president, noting that his administration has gone after his critics.
"But at some point, they’ve got to stand up for the sake of the people who rely on all of these institutions to have integrity and to at some point be the guardrails against a tyrant who is using the federal government to execute his whim and fancy because of a fragile ego," Harris said.
Monday night’s interview on MSNBC came a day before the release of her new book, "107 Days," which will recount her tumultuous experience replacing former President Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after he dropped out of the race.