In her first interview since losing the election to President Trump and leaving office, former Vice President Kamala Harris told Stephen Colbert on \u201cThe Late Show\u201d that her decision not to run for California governor was more \u201cbasic\u201d than saving herself for a \u201cdifferent office\u201d \u2014 which is to say, another run for president in 2028.<\/p>\n
After years of being a \u201cdevout public servant,\u201d Harris said in the interview, set to air Thursday night, she just doesn\u2019t want to be \u201cin the system\u201d right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecently I made the decision that I just \u2014 for now \u2014 I don\u2019t want to go back in the system,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that was not to take away from the important work being done every day by \u201cso many good people who are public servants,\u201d such as teachers, firefighters, police officers and scientists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about them,\u201d she said. \u201cBut you know, I believe, and 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\u2019re not as strong as they need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she instead wants to travel the country and talk to Americans in a setting that isn\u2019t \u201ctransactional, where I\u2019m asking for their vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colbert said to hear Harris \u2014 whom he called \u201cvery qualified for the presidency\u201d \u2014 say that the American system is broken was \u201charrowing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, but it\u2019s also evident, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Harris replied, to applause from the studio audience.<\/p>\n
The interview came on the heels of Harris\u2019 announcements this week that she is not running for California governor and is releasing a memoir about her short, whirlwind presidential campaign following President Biden\u2019s decision to drop from the race, and it was a big get for Colbert in what appears to be his final chapter on late-night TV.<\/p>\n
CBS, blaming financial concerns across late night, announced July 17 that the 2025-2026 season of \u201cThe Late Show\u201d would be its last.<\/p>\n
The announcement followed Colbert sharply criticizing Paramount Global\u2019s $16-million settlement with Trump over a CBS News \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview with Harris during the presidential campaign, which Trump accused the venerable news show of manipulating to make her look better.<\/p>\n
Paramount Global was at the time seeking a major merger with Skydance Media and needed the Trump administration\u2019s approval, which it ultimately got. Just days before the announcement that his show would be ending, Colbert described the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d settlement as a bribe to get the merger deal done.<\/p>\n
All that caused many observers and allies of Colbert to speculate that the cancellation of the show was political in nature. The Writers Guild of America, for example, said the company appeared to be \u201csacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump Administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said it was \u201cnot true\u201d that he was \u201csolely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert,\u201d and that the \u201creason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT\u201d and that Colbert\u2019s show was losing Paramount millions of dollars a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it was only going to get WORSE!\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n
Paramount has said the decision was \u201cnot related in any way to the show\u2019s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,\u201d though some polling has suggested many Americans don\u2019t believe the company.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear whether Harris considered any of that in granting Colbert her first interview since leaving office. However, it would almost certainly not have been her only reason.<\/p>\n
Colbert is liberal and seen as a friendly interviewer by Democrats.<\/p>\n
During Thursday\u2019s interview, the late-night host heaped praise on Harris. After saying it was \u201charrowing\u201d to hear she feels the system is broken, he asked whether she was giving up fighting.<\/p>\n
Harris said she was not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am always going to be part of the fight,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThat is not going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In her first interview since losing the election to President Trump and leaving office, former Vice President Kamala…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":109959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[70003,70002,42044,15328,638,283,70001,51,27593,14165,1919,50,1812,16275,1807,70004,13895,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-109958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-16-million-settlement","9":"tag-american-system","10":"tag-announcement","11":"tag-cbs","12":"tag-company","13":"tag-decision","14":"tag-first-interview","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-kamala-harris","17":"tag-late-show","18":"tag-minutes","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-office","21":"tag-paramount-global","22":"tag-president-trump","23":"tag-presidential-campaign","24":"tag-stephen-colbert","25":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114952939775265275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}