Kamala Harris praised Disney‘s decision to return Jimmy Kimmel to the air during an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last night.
“Talk about the power being with the people and the people making that clear with their checkbooks as it relates to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel,” Harris told Maddow. “We saw the power of the people over the last few days, and it spoke volumes and it moved a decision in the right direction.”
During the interview, Harris referred to Donald Trump as a “tyrant” and said he is “abusing the power the people vested him with.” She reflected on the president’s efforts to control the actions of corporations like Disney, who caved to pressure from the FCC when they pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air last week. Harris noted that corporate leaders seem to want to “please” Trump.
“I always believed that is push came to shove, these 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 — I use the word feckless. It’s not like they’re going to lose their yacht or their house in the Hamptons.”
She continued, “I am a lifelong public servant. I’ve 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. And one by one by one, they have been silent. Perhaps it is because they want to please him and nominate him for a Nobel Prize. Perhaps it’s because they want a merger approved, or they want to avoid an investigation, 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 explained the the issue is “bigger than Donald Trump.” “So when we talk about where the fight must go, there is the aspect of it that is about the immediate moment, such as the weight of the federal government being used to silence critics, citizens, and it must be about understanding that this did not just happen overnight, and we have to pay attention to an agenda that is not going to necessarily go away when this guy is finally turned out of office,” she said.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Maddow asked Harris about her relationship with Joe Biden. In her book, Harris wrote that Biden’s decision to run for re-election was driven by “recklessness.” Harris told Maddow she takes responsibility for contributing to that.
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“So when I write this, it’s because I realize that I have and had a certain responsibility that I should have followed through on,” she said. “And so when I talk about the recklessness, as much as anything, I’m talking about myself.”
Maddow asked Harris if she would consider running again in 2028. “That’s not my focus right now,” Harris responded. “That’s not my focus at all. It really isn’t.”
Last week, Harris blasted ABC and Disney’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel Live. “What we are witnessing is an outright abuse of power,” Harris wrote on X, without mentioning Kimmel directly. “This administration is attacking critics and using fear as a weapon to silence anyone who would speak out. Media corporations — from television networks to newspapers — are capitulating to these threats.”
From Rolling Stone US
