Harris Repeats False Claim About 2024 Election Following Blow-Out Loss to Trump
Former Vice President Kamala Harris continued to incorrectly claim that the 2024 presidential election was the “closest” of the 21st Century before standing up and shouting that President Donald Trump “does not have a mandate” during her weekend book tour stop in Houston.
Harris made the comments Saturday at the Hobby Center for Performing Arts, a 2,650-seat venue, while promoting her new book, 107 Days. She told the audience she was proud of what she called an “unprecedented” 3.5-month campaign against Trump, who she said “had been running for 10 years.”
“Here’s the other thing that is quite unprecedented — and it was the tightest, closest presidential election in the 21st Century,” Harris said, rising from her seat. “He does not have a mandate! That is not a mandate! That is not a mandate!”
The outburst drew loud cheers from the audience, with one attendee shouting back, “And he never did!”
Harris later joked that moderator Carlos Eduardo Espina — a self-described “community organizer and immigrant rights activist” — became so energized by her comments that he stood up too.
The former vice president has repeated the claim that the 2024 race was the closest of the century multiple times during her recent tour, including at her alma mater, Howard University, on Sept. 27, and during an MSNBC appearance last month.
But by every major measure, Harris’s claim is false.
Trump defeated Harris in the Electoral College, 312 to 226 — the largest margin since 2012. In the popular vote, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign finished closer to victory than Harris’s, and by the “tipping point” metric — which measures the smallest shift in votes needed to change the outcome — Harris’s loss also trailed the performances of John Kerry in 2004, Clinton in 2016, and Trump in 2020.
During the Houston event, Harris reflected on her 2024 campaign, saying she missed the “optimism, enthusiasm, and dare I say, joy” that surrounded it. She urged supporters not to lose hope, saying, “It is the light that we each carry inside of us … and we cannot lose sight of that or let that light be in any way extinguished.”
Harris is currently on tour promoting her tome, “107 Days,” which describes her truncated 2024 presidential campaign, and by many indications, things have not gone well.
Harris entered the 2024 presidential race with significant advantages, including a campaign fund exceeding $1.5 billion, a large base of reliable Democratic voters, and strong support from mainstream media outlets.
Despite those factors, Harris ultimately lost every key swing state and failed to win the national popular vote — the first time a Democratic nominee had done so in more than two decades.
In her forthcoming book, Vice President Kamala Harris writes that California Governor Gavin Newsom declined to endorse her during the campaign, reportedly responding to her outreach with a brief text saying he was “hiking” and then never following up.
Harris also reflects on her vice-presidential selection process, writing that she believed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg could have energized the ticket but that the country was “not ready” for a gay running mate.
She ultimately chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, whom she describes in the book with mixed feelings.
She also wrote that she believed it was reckless for Biden to run for reelection, but she nevertheless kept up the facade that he was capable and could serve another four-year term.
In an exclusive Sept. 22 interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Harris was asked if she would consider another White House bid.
“That’s not my focus right now. That’s not my focus at all. It really isn’t,” Harris said.
