Did Kamala Just Admit That Her Political Career Is Over?

AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis

The New York Times wants you to know, and spent over 3,000 words on Tuesday explaining why, that “Kamala Harris Isn’t Ready to Be Written Off.” The subhead on this interminable puff piece is “She was seen for two decades as a future face of the Democratic Party. Is she now suddenly a figure of its past?,” and of course, the Times’ answer is a resounding no. And yet there is a peculiar note in the Times’ article that is simultaneously both full of braggadocio and elegiac, as if Harris were conceding defeat while insisting it was really a victory all along.

Advertisement

What does it say about the Democrat hopefuls for 2028 that Kamala Harris, who failed spectacularly as a presidential candidate in 2024 and then quickly lost her initial name-recognition advantage in early polling for 2028, is now the object of an all-out Times effort to reverse her fortunes? Do Times top dogs really find the prospects of Newsom, Buttigieg, Booker, and the rest really that dim? Apparently, they do if Kamala Harris is suddenly once again the candidate of choice.

And that’s exactly what she seems to be. The Times leads off its adoring profile with this: “The one thing that Kamala Harris absolutely, definitely, most certainly does not want to talk about is whether she is thinking about running for president again.” It even attempts to capture her vapid valley-girl cadences, continuing: “‘It’s three years from nooooow,’ the former vice president pleaded in an interview last month, sitting in a leather chair backstage at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville before one of the final stops on her nationwide book tour. ‘I mean, honestly.’”

Yeah, honestly. How could anyone possibly be thinking of 2028 now? The Times is sad that she seems to be paying so little attention to the upcoming election, no matter how far off it may be: “There has been virtually none of the strategic repackaging that a future candidate typically does, the buffing out of flaws and shining up of strengths.” This is in part because poor Kamala has the sads: “Defeat hit Ms. Harris deeply. She had not felt such grief since the death of her mother, she has said, a line that sears even as she repeats it so often as to become a talking point. She spent the early months of 2025 cooking and cocooning away from the cameras.” 

Advertisement

Now, however, the Times thinks she has been sad for long enough, and it’s time to get to work: “But it has been a year since her loss to President Trump, the traditional period of mourning.” Yet despite its best efforts, there just isn’t all that much here to work with. After reeling off a series of questions about the future course of the Democrat Party, the Times quoted Harris giving us one of her famous faux-wise articulations of the blazingly obvious: “This sounds really corny. But we have to stand for the people. And I know that that sounds corny. I know that. But I mean it. I mean it.” No kidding, really? Wow! Why didn’t any other politician ever think to say such a thing? 

It gets worse from there. Instead of being unburdened by the past, as she so often exhorted us to be, Harris seems content with her place in it. “I understand the focus on ’28 and all that. But there will be a marble bust of me in Congress. I am a historic figure like any vice president of the United States ever was.” 

This isn’t conceit or braggadocio. It’s a simple statement of fact. There are actually busts of all the vice presidents, from the first, John Adams, right up to “Richard B. Cheney,” in the Senate wing of the Capitol. There are no busts yet of Old Joe Biden, Mike Pence, Kamala, or JD Vance, but they’re likely on the way.

Related: Michelle Obama Has Produced the Most Important Book of the Century 

This is not precisely an honor; it’s just a list, an observation that these people held a certain office. This is clear from the fact that all the vice presidents from Adams to Cheney are included, including Spiro Agnew, even though he resigned in disgrace (and was actually a tardy addition for just that reason); Aaron Burr, even though he shot and killed Alexander Hamilton; and J. Danforth Quayle, even though he couldn’t spell “potato.”

Advertisement

Kamala Harris’ pointing out that her bust will one day join this illustrious company was tantamount to saying that her political career is over. And maybe it is. So even if her 2028 presidential run is already a bust, she can console herself with the fact that she’ll always have her bust.

Whatever else it does, this New York Times piece on Kamala shows once again that the establishment media is not news; it's the propaganda arms of the Democrat Party. PJ Media, in contrast, tells you the truth. Become a VIP member today — get all our content and none of the ads. Use code FIGHT for 60% off

Recommended

Trending on PJ Media Videos

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement