Kamala Harris tells BBC she may run for president again

Former US Vice President Kamala Harris told the BBC she may run for the White House again.

In her first interview in England, Harris said she would “probably” be president one day and was confident there would be a woman in the White House in the future.

Harris, who made the strongest suggestion yet that she would make another presidential bid in 2028 after losing to Donald Trump last year, has rejected polls that show her as the Democratic choice in the next election.

To talk Sunday with Laura KuenssbergHarris also fired back at her former rival, branding Trump a “tyrant” and saying the warnings he made about her during the campaign turned out to be true.

As the Democratic party searches for answers about Republican Donald Trump’s decisive victory a year ago, much of the blame has been directed at former President Joe Biden for not recanting sooner.

But questions have also been raised about whether Harris can run a better campaign and send a clearer message on the number one issue: the economy.

In the BBC interview, Harris weighed in on the possibility of another run for the White House and said her grandchildren would see a female president “in their lifetime, of course”.

He confirmed he was considering running again for a senior post, saying “probably” when asked if that would be him.

Harris underlined that she has not made a decision yet, but still sees herself as a future in politics.

“I’m not done yet,” the former vice president said. “I’ve spent my entire career being a life of service, and it’s in my bones.”

Responding to odds that cast him as an outsider to win a spot on the Democratic ticket (even trailing Hollywood actor Rock Johnson Dwayne), he said he doesn’t listen to the polls at all.

“If I had listened to the polls, I wouldn’t be running for my first or second term, and I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here.”

Harris also said she believes her predictions that Donald Trump acts like a fascist and runs an authoritarian government have come true.

“He said he would weaponize the Department of Justice, and that’s exactly what he did.”

He noted that ABC suspended late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel after he joked about the Republican response to the death of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.

His removal from the Trump-celebrated broadcasts came after the Trump-appointed regulator threatened Kimmel’s broadcasters.

“You look at what’s happening, how he’s weaponized it, like federal agencies going after political satirists… His skin is so thin he couldn’t take the criticism of a joke and tried to shut down an entire media outlet in the process.”

Harris also criticized business leaders and institutions in America who, in her view, caved in too easily to the president’s demands.

“There are many people who have surrendered and kneeled before a tyrant since day one, I believe that for many reasons they want to be on the side of the government, perhaps because they want to see a merger approved or to avoid investigation.”

The White House was dismissive when asked to respond to Harris’ comments about the president.

“When Kamala Harris lost the election by a landslide, she should have gotten the hint; the American people don’t care about her ridiculous lies,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.

“Or maybe he got the hint and that’s why he continues to vent his complaints to foreign publications.”

Harris has just released her account of her roller-coaster campaign called 107 Days, the time she has left to run for president after Biden withdrew from the race following months of speculation about his mental acuity.

In our full interview with the former vice president, which will air in the UK on Sunday at 09:00 GMT (05:00 EST), I pressed Harris several times on whether she should have encouraged Biden to give way to her sooner.

How much information did he really know about his health? And there is a question that bothers him: If Biden had withdrawn earlier, would he have become president now instead of Donald Trump?

The answer is clearly unknowable: the big “if” that could change America’s destiny.

Among Democrats, Harris’ candidacy is often disparaged; his weaknesses as a leader are cited as reasons for his defeat, not just the last-minute nature of Biden’s decision.

When asked what went wrong, rather than diving into deep analysis, his claim was that it was almost impossible to win because he started so late.

But when he sits down with the former California prosecutor in the gilded surroundings of a luxury hotel in London, rather than in the increasingly golden surroundings of the Oval Office where Donald Trump has polished off his decor, the possibility of power is something he doesn’t want to leave behind.

Previous hints of future presidential ambition have seemed reserved and neutral – “maybe, maybe not” or “I’m not focusing on that right now”.

His sincerity in our conversation was even more remarkable. He was quick, even willing, to put himself in the frame for a return to power. However, he stopped short of making a concrete commitment.

This may be surprising given the sheer scarring nature of what he described as a traumatic defeat. He and his team were devastated by the defeat, which came as a surprise to them.

“My God, my God, what will happen to our country?” Harris said he repeated when the results came back.

His attempt to explain this focuses on how narrow the actual vote gap between him and Trump is.

The popular vote was very tight indeed, with less than 2% of the vote. But Harris was defeated by Trump in the crucial electoral college, where each state receives a certain number of votes.

Harris was ready to drop heavy hints about her own future. But he, or frankly other senior Democrats, appear less willing to grapple with their party’s long-term dilemmas.

How can a center-left party with mainstream leaders fight a right-wing populist leader? Is focusing on Trump the answer? Or argue more forcefully in favor of Main Street?

When I challenged the former vice president about why his campaign wasn’t connecting better with working people, he said he needed more time to do so and noted a long-standing estrangement from his party within that group.

He regrets not having had long enough in 2024 to make his own move on livelihood issues like housing or child care.

But if he had had longer next time, this was far from a guarantee that his arguments would have been more convincing or more welcome.

Kamala Harris still travels with the trappings of her entourage. Aides watch the clock anxiously as every minute of it is planned with military precision. Non-stop travel, choreographed events in different capitals, a small number of carefully planned TV interviews.

This time, Harris is taking action not for the presidential race, but for her book tour. But maybe, if he gets his way, this could be the start of another campaign.