Kamala Harris reclaims the stage in Washington at defiant book talk with Kara Swisher

Before a cheering, sold-out audience at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night, former Vice President Kamala Harris appeared at ease, unguarded, defiant, and even joyful.

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In conversation with queer journalist Kara Swisher for a live taping of On With Kara Swisher, Harris reflected on democracy under siege, the failures of institutional “guardrails,” and the light she believes Americans must keep alive through dark times as the administration of President Donald Trump wreaks havoc on the American experiment.

The evening felt less like a typical book talk than a homecoming. The crowd, thick with her former staffers, prominent Democrats, and families from across the region, roared their approval throughout the 75-minute exchange. Many in attendance were older Black women, several with their daughters beside them, some wiping tears as Harris spoke. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott sat a few rows from the stage, nodding often as the former vice president called for what she termed “joyful resistance.”

The event, promoting her memoir 107 Days, marked Harris’s first extended appearance in Washington since leaving office. She said she wrote the book to capture the “optimism, possibility, and dare I say joy” that fueled her short 2024 campaign. “We cannot be overwhelmed,” she said to sustained applause. “We cannot be silenced. The light inside of us — we cannot allow it to be extinguished.”

It was a recurring theme: persistence in the face of fatigue. “I can’t tell you how many people come up to me crying,” she said. “They’re in pain over what’s happening in our country. But the work of rebuilding hope is still ours to do.”

Early in the conversation, Swisher asked Harris about a headline-grabbing claim from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who earlier in the day had suggested that circumcision could be linked to autism because newborns are sometimes given Tylenol. Harris, visibly incredulous, drew laughter and applause as she replied bluntly: “It’s fucked up.”

The former vice president said Kennedy’s remarks were a reminder of what happens when “quackery is allowed to pass as science,” calling it “criminal” to deny or distort research for political gain. “People will die because of what they’re doing,” she warned. The crowd erupted in cheers, many standing to applaud her bluntness and anger at what she called “the war on science.”

Harris described the Trump administration as “moving relatively unchecked” and driven by a “decades-long plan” by far-right legal and political forces. “What we are witnessing is the culmination of decades of work,” she said. “The Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation — Project 2025 didn’t come out of thin air.”

Her voice rose as she spoke about corporate complicity, particularly among powerful executives who, she said, “know what is wrong but are too invested in their access to power.”

Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general from California who spent years in Silicon Valley’s orbit, was unsparing toward the tech industry. “I was surprised — and by the speed with which they did it,” she said of billionaires who’ve aligned themselves with Trump. “They’re not unintelligent. They’re not uneducated. They know exactly what they’re doing. It’s transactional.”

She compared the tech sector’s indifference to that of tobacco companies in the 20th century. “We’re not going to rely on the people doing the harm to tell us we’re addicted,” Harris said. “It’s about us saying we know the addiction can occur — and we’re going to require them to stop pushing it.”

When Swisher asked whether she was considering another run for president, Harris laughed. “Maybe, maybe not,” she replied, to loud laughter and knowing murmurs from the crowd.

Asked if she worries that Trump’s politicized Justice Department could indict her, Harris didn’t miss a beat. “Sure, of course,” she said. Earlier on Thursday, the DOJ had indicted New York Attorney General Leticia James, a frequent Trump critic and target of the president’s ire. Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted two weeks ago, after Trump directed Bondi to go after them criminally.

But as the night wound down, Harris’s closing words quieted the room. “The fight takes a while,” she said, her voice measured. “We’re not going to let any one election or circumstance dampen our spirit. They cannot defeat our spirit if we don’t let them.”