On August 23, 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris took to the stage at the United Center in Chicago to officially accept the Democratic nomination for president. She looked the part and was wearing her usual uniform: a bland suit and understated jewelry. This time, she skipped the $60,000 necklace she wore during her only visit to the U.S. southern border.
In the lead-up to her remarks, DNC volunteers rushed to give delegates and attendees American flags to wave aggressively during her remarks. Moments before Harris took the stage, volunteers appeared with extra large flags and stood in the entry points to the arena. That Monday, when Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepted his nomination as the vice presidential candidate, convention goers received a camouflage ball cap with "Harris-Walz 2024" embroidered in hunter-orange letters. Symbols they had viciously vilified as signs of white nationalism, colonialism and toxic masculinity for years.
It was all a big, phony show. Just like the rest of her campaign would become.
In the lead-up to the DNC, Harris aides anonymously told their allies in the media that the vice president's far-left, radical policy positions and record as the most liberal U.S. senator had changed. She was no longer in favor of banning fracking, taxpayer-funded sex change operations for illegal immigrants and prisoners, eliminating private health insurance and much more.
This lying and inauthenticity only got worse as she traveled the swing states in hopes of convincing voters she was the woman for the most important job in the world.
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Staged visits to a gas station, the home of supporters and a phone call in a campaign office backfired.
And when she started stealing Donald Trump's policy ideas, like no tax on tips, she was mocked relentlessly. Even "Saturday Night Live" got in on the joke.
Despite these efforts, Harris was exactly who she had always been, an admission she made during a rare interview with CNN.
"My values haven't changed," she said.
In the final week of the campaign, Team Harris projected the dishonesty of their nominee on voters and made things personal.
"A political video reminded women that they can vote for Vice President Kamala Harris without telling their husbands," NBC reported. "The video, which began circulating last week, opens with a woman about to enter the polling booth after her husband, looking nervously back at him before she makes her choice. She locks eyes with another woman as they fill out their ballots for Harris."
Americans from all walks of life and backgrounds saw right through all of it — the flip-flopping without explanations, the divisive tactics – and viewed the act for what it was: disrespectful and disqualifying. They voted for former President Donald Trump, giving him a historic, landslide victory and mandate.
Kamala Harris is a woman in an empty suit, and the American people know a phony when they see one.
