Hold onto your hats, folks—former Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly unleashed a verbal storm on CNN’s Anderson Cooper after a bruising interview last summer.
Fox News reported that, according to a new book, Harris didn’t just disagree with Cooper’s line of questioning; she felt downright disrespected as the second-in-command of the United States. And if the excerpts are to be believed, her frustration boiled over into some choice words behind closed doors.
A bombshell account in “Original Sin” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson paints a vivid picture of Harris’s clash with Cooper following a tense June 2024 interview about President Biden’s faltering debate performance against Donald Trump.
The stage was set when Biden faced off against Trump in a debate that left many Democrats reeling, with critics calling it everything from a “disaster” to a “trainwreck.”
Harris, as Biden’s loyal deputy, stepped up to defend him on CNN. But what unfolded in that interview with Cooper was anything but a friendly chat over coffee.
During the June 2024 sit-down, Cooper didn’t pull punches, pressing Harris on Biden’s shaky showing against Trump. He even reminded her of how different Biden seemed four years prior when she debated him, hinting at a decline that’s hard to ignore.
“You debated against then-Vice President Biden four years ago, and he was a very different person on the stage,” Cooper pointedly noted.
Well, that jab didn’t land softly, and Harris pushed back hard, insisting substance matters more than a 90-minute stumble. “I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three-and-a-half years of performance,” she fired back. Turns out, a deflecting style for substance only works if the audience buys it—and Cooper wasn’t sold.
Harris also tried to steer the conversation to Biden’s broader record, saying, “I got the point that you’re making about a one-and-a-half hour debate tonight.”
She doubled down with, “I’m talking about three-and-a-half years of performance in work that has been historic.” Noble effort, but when the debate clips are looping on every screen, three years of history take a backseat to a rough night.
Visibly frustrated on air, Harris couldn’t hide her irritation with Cooper’s relentless focus on Biden’s missteps. According to “Original Sin,” she took the questioning as a personal slight against her role as Vice President. And when the cameras stopped rolling, that irritation reportedly exploded into something rawer.
Behind closed doors, Harris didn’t mince words with her team, allegedly calling Cooper a less-than-flattering term. “This motherf----- doesn’t treat me like the damn vice president of the United States,” she vented, per the book’s account. If true, it’s a rare glimpse into the unfiltered frustration of a politician who felt cornered by a media she expected to play nicer.
She also reportedly lamented to colleagues, “I thought we were better than that.” It’s a sentiment many conservatives might echo—not about Harris, but about a media that often seems to revel in tearing down anyone, left or right, for a headline. Still, when you’re in the hot seat, expecting kid gloves is a rookie mistake.
Cooper’s line of questioning wasn’t just sharp; it reflected a broader concern among Democrats about Biden’s ability to counter Trump’s falsehoods on stage.
“One said it was a disaster and another called it a trainwreck,” Cooper told Harris, relaying the party’s panic. For many on the right, this was less about Biden’s stumbles and more about a party finally waking up to a problem they’d ignored for too long.
Harris’s visible anger during and after the interview, as described by Tapper and Thompson, suggests she felt ambushed by Cooper’s tone. But let’s be real—when you’re defending a performance even your side calls a wreck, a little heat from the press shouldn’t come as a shock. Turns out, stepping into the ring with a seasoned anchor means you’d better bring your best game.
The book paints Harris as taking Cooper’s approach personally, a reaction that might resonate with anyone who’s felt dismissed in a high-stakes moment.
Yet, from a conservative lens, it’s hard not to wonder if this outrage is selective—plenty of leaders face tough questions without reportedly cursing out their interviewers. Tough skin isn’t optional in politics; it’s the job description.