Kamala Harris' first interview after 2024 loss: Former VP recounts painful experience of certifying Trump’s January 6 win - Watch

Former Vice President Kamala Harris made her first public appearance since her defeat to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, joining Stephen Colbert on The Late Show Thursday night.The interview came just a day after Harris announced she would not run for California governor in 2026 and as she began promoting her upcoming memoir, 107 Days, which reflects on her short-lived presidential campaign and turbulent final weeks in office.During the conversation, Colbert thanked Harris for fulfilling her constitutional duty by certifying the 2024 election results on January 6, 2025, despite the tense political climate and threats of unrest.Colbert reflected on the timeline and said, “One of the challenges for you, I thought of that last year. Or actually, gosh, it's still this year. One of the things I thought of after the election and before January 20th is that you were still the vice president.” “And you had to be there on January 6th and count out those electoral ballots and certify. First of all, thank you for doing your constitutional duty.”Harris replied, “Without any question. I was fully aware of what that moment required, not just of me, but of our country. I talk about it in the book. That was… it was a difficult day, to be sure.”She recalled the emotional weight of returning to the Capitol, where she had once served as a senator and vice president-elect. “I had been at the Capitol four years before because I was then vice president-elect and a United States senator,” she said. “So what I talk about in the book is that drive to the Capitol and remembering four years before, and what Mike Pence did, and what our Constitution requires, and the importance of fulfilling those responsibilities.”“It was a difficult day because it conjured a lot in terms of what that exact day was, what that day has meant in the history of our country — the recent history of our country,” she added.Colbert then asked if she had ever spoken to former Vice President Mike Pence about his actions on January 6, 2021.“I did not,” Harris responded. “But I've been very happy to compliment him as often as I can for having the courage to do what he did.”Harris further told Stephen Colbert that what surprised her most during Donald Trump’s return to office was the level of surrender within the U.S. political system.“I didn’t predict that; I did not see that coming,” Harris said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, referring to what she described as widespread “capitulation” to Trump’s agenda, especially among congressional Republicans.Colbert had asked if Harris felt like saying, “I told you so,” considering her past warnings about Trump’s leadership, such as alienating allies and slashing taxes for the wealthy.“I believed that on some level, there should be many who consider themselves to be guardians of our system and our democracy, who just capitulated,” she replied.Without naming names, Harris appeared to target Republicans in Congress for failing to check Trump’s power grabs. “I think there are a lot of people who think they are riding out the storm as an excuse to be feckless,” she said.She criticised Congress, especially House Republicans, for failing to act against moves like Trump’s attempt to dismantle the Department of Education. “Congress has the role and responsibility to stand in the way of that, and they’re just sitting on their hands,” she said, slamming their decision to go on recess amid Democratic calls for transparency on Jeffrey Epstein-related records.Harris, who received a standing ovation from the audience, also discussed her new book, 107 Days, which reflects on her brief 2024 presidential campaign.Her new book, 107 Days, set for release on September 23 by Simon & Schuster, offers a behind-the-scenes account of her brief campaign after Biden withdrew from the race last year.She said her recent decision not to run for California governor or any office for now was a conscious step away from a system she sees as deeply flawed.“I just, for now, I don’t want to go back into the system,” Harris said. “I think it’s broken.”While praising frontline public servants, she expressed disillusionment with institutional politics: “I always believed that as fragile as our democracy is, our systems would be strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles. And I think right now that they’re not as strong as they need to be.”When Colbert pressed on whether she started preparing for a run after President Biden’s poor debate performance in June 2024, Harris said, “I have an incredible amount of respect for him.” “I think that the way that we should be thinking about where we are right now is to remember that we had a president of the United States who believed in the rule of law, who believed in the importance of aspiring to have integrity and to do the work on the behalf of the people, and that’s where I will leave that,” she added.When asked who currently leads the Democratic Party, Harris stumbled. “There’s a lot of leaders,” she said, without naming one.