Kamala Harris Addresses Sunny Hostin’s Election-Changing ‘The View’ Moment

Kamala Harris was the featured guest on Tuesday’s (September 23) episode of The View, and the former vice president talked about her perspective on what happened in the 2024 presidential election, including how her prior appearance on the show might’ve changed things altogether.

Harris, who is promoting her memoir 107 Days, was asked to describe how she felt on the night of the election when she began to realize Donald Trump would win.

“That night, I grieved in a way that I have not since my mother died,” she said in an emotionally poignant moment. “And the pain was not at all about losing a race. I knew what it was gonna mean for the country… I knew what it was going to mean. I knew, and all I could say over and over again was, ‘My God, my God, my God.'”

She was also asked to identify the primary reason why she didn’t win the election, and Harris said, “There are many factors I think that played into the outcome of that election. But I think, probably one of the biggest in my mind is we just didn’t have enough time. We didn’t have enough time.”

Related

'The View's Whoopi Goldberg on Finally Addressing Jimmy Kimmel Suspension: 'No One Silences Us'

Harris explained that the reason she wanted to write her memoir and lift the curtain on her side of the race was to get her voice on the official historic record. “It was important to me that when history is written, that my voice be present,” she said.

She also addressed her prior appearance on The View, which some pundits have pointed to as a turning point for the worse in her campaign.

“That interview, for me, really was symbolic of the issue. It was not — it did not create the issue, but it was symbolic of the issue, which is that I am a loyal person, and I didn’t fully appreciate how much people wanted to know there was a difference between me and President Biden. I thought it was obvious, and I didn’t want to offer a difference in a way that would be received or suggested to be a criticism, and in the campaign full-time, I was pointing out the differences. My theory of the case was, ‘We need to bring costs down. We’re going to extend the Child Tax Credit. We’re going to have Medicare cover home health care for people, including people in the sandwich generation, who are raising young children and taking care of their parents. It was about, we’re going to take on price gouging, bringing down costs.’ And I thought I was making the point, and I realize now that I didn’t fully appreciate how much of an issue it was.”

When it was Sunny Hostin‘s turn to speak, she turned to the much-fussed moment when she asked Harris what she would do different than Biden and how her answer became a talking point for her opponents.

“During your appearance, and you write about it, you say, ‘Everything about my appearance on The View was going well until it wasn’t.’ And if you recall, you were here 28 days before the election, and I asked you if there was anything you would have done differently than President Biden during the past four years. And you said, quote, ‘There is not a thing that comes to mind.’ End quote. You write, you had no idea you just pulled the pin on a hand grenade in the moment, I knew the Trump campaign weaponized your answer against you … Do you think that moment tipped the election?” Hostin asked.

“No, no,” Harris responded. “I do believe one of the biggest deciders of the outcome of that election was that the American people were sick of things being so expensive…. This is part of why I wrote the book, which is, let’s remember, in those 107 days with Donald Trump, he was talking about, first of all, he said his number one priority and the number one thing was to bring down costs. Yeah, that’s what he said. And I believe there are a lot of people who voted for him believing that that’s what he would do. Fast forward to today. Yeah, hello. Prices are higher, the cost of food is higher, inflation is higher, unemployment is higher. He lied.”

The View, Weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC