Former Vice President Kamala Harris sidestepped a direct question Thursday night when asked who leads the Democratic Party.
During her interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Harris appeared hesitant. It was one of her first major media appearances since losing the 2024 presidential race. Colbert didn’t waste time getting to the point.
“There is generally a leader of the Democratic Party,” Colbert said. “Who comes to mind?”
Harris hesitated. “There are lots of leaders, and—” she began. Colbert cut in. “Who is the leader?” Harris declined to name anyone. “I’m not going to go through names because then I’m going to leave somebody out and I’m going to hear about it,” she said.
Instead, she shifted the focus. “It is a mistake to put this all on one person. It’s on all of us,” Harris said. “It really is.”
Later, Colbert brought up Democratic Sen. Cory Booker’s recent Senate tirade. Booker accused fellow Democrats of being “complicit” in letting Trump’s agenda move forward. Harris appeared to agree with him. She called it “capitulation” and said she “didn’t see that coming.”
“I believed there were people who saw themselves as guardians of democracy,” Harris told Colbert. “But they just gave in.”
Harris recently ruled out a run for California governor. That move has fueled speculation that she’s eyeing another presidential run in 2028.