Every night during the 2024 presidential campaign, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris prayed to God that the work she put in that day would bring her another step closer to winning the 2024 election.
“Please, let me have done everything I can possibly do,” Harris said she would plead.
Although her prayers did not lead her into the White House, Harris said the fight is not over; it just takes some time.
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In “A Conversation with Kamala Harris,” at The Wiltern on Tuesday, the former vice president of the United States discussed her new book, “107 Days,” as well as the days ahead with actress Kerry Washington.
With every chapter counting down to Nov. 5, 2024, Election Day, Harris said the text reflected on the campaign she was thrown into 107 days before the decisive election. Harris said her book is not only for her own reflection, but also a journal of the collective journey of all the people who recall the days leading up to the election.
“I hope that you will also remember, during those 107 days, how so many people felt: The optimism, the belief of the possibilities, dare I say, the joy,” Harris said. “That [joy] is in each of us, and it cannot be taken away by one election or an individual that happens to sit in the White House right now … . The light that is in each of us cannot be wiped out or diminished. We cannot let our spirit be defeated.”
The book also detailed what Harris called the warning signs of the Trump administration’s actions and the capitulation of billionaires, law firms, universities, media companies and newspapers in favor of Trump throughout the fall of 2024.
The editorial boards of The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times were set to endorse Harris, but the papers’ owners pulled the endorsements, moves that Harris said foreshadowed the lengths people would go to in order to “bend the knee at the foot of the tyrant,” referring to President Donald Trump.
“We are witnessing this feckless response to overt vengeance,” Harris said. ”Maybe they want a merger granted, or they want to avoid an investigation.”
Harris said there is a question of trust and transparency in leaders because of a lack of listening and that leaders instead tell people what they need. The question of trust is not only between Americans and their government, but also between and among Americans themselves, Harris said. She said Americans became unable to trust that others “are not a threat to [their] very existence.”
Harris criticized the Democratic party for feeding into the nation’s distrust of their neighbors by deciding that there were certain regions with reasonable people and certain regions without. Harris heavily refuted and countered that point, questioning if people are getting the same set of information.
“We really are at a moment where we need to challenge ourselves about the assumptions that we are bringing to our conclusions,” Harris said. “An assumption that I think is quite commonplace [is] that we’re just working with a different set of values and moral principles and priorities [than Trump voters], instead of perhaps wondering and asking, ‘Am I assuming that we’re working with the same information?’”
Washington also took questions from audience members, including one from a “proud 21-year-old Latino” and hopeful city council candidate. The potential candidate asked the former vice president for advice on his campaign and how to make a meaningful impact.
“There will be many situations in which you walk in a room and you are the only one who looks like you or who has had your life experience, and part of what I want you to do is walk through those rooms … with your chin up and your shoulders back,” Harris said. “Remember we’re all in that room with you, and that we expect a lot of you.”
Although Harris said she has not decided if she will run again for president in 2028, the crowd erupted in enthusiasm when Washington proposed the question, chanting “Kamala! Kamala! Kamala!”
The crowd cheered just as loud when Washington told Harris, “I want you to know, and I want this audience to back me up. I do want you to leave this tour knowing that we know that you did everything you could.”
