Harris’s Garbled Pep-Talk Line Falls Flat at Half-Empty Mississippi Rally, So She Says It Again
Photo: Lawrence Jackson / The White House, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Former Vice President Kamala Harris tried to give an inspiring message at a Democratic rally in Columbus, Mississippi, on Thursday, but it was met with near silence. The event was held in a high school gym that was far from full, where Harris was campaigning for Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom.
Harris began by talking about the advice she gives to young people she mentors. The uplifting message soon got lost in the kind of looping phrasing that has repeatedly drawn attention to her public remarks.
“You know, I mentor a lot of young people, and I talk to them sometimes, and part of the advice I give them is, you know, never let someone else with limited ability to see your capacity be a limitation on your ambition,” Harris said.
The line drew barely any response from the crowd. Met with silence, Harris chose to deliver the confusing phrase a second time.
“Let me repeat that: Never let anybody else’s, somebody else’s limited ability to see your capacity to be a limitation on your ambition,” she said. The second try got more of a reaction from the audience.
Harris then kept trying to explain the point. “That’s their limitation. That’s not our limitation. That’s their limitation,” she said.
The explanation soon gave way to more of the speaking style people have come to associate with Harris. She spoke to the Mississippi crowd in broad terms about ambition, possibility and the future.
“We are not limited in our ambition and desire and ability to see what is possible and what can be,” Harris said. The remark came after her first attempt at an applause line had fallen flat.
The rally was held to support Colom, a state district attorney who is running against incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the midterm elections. Colom admitted that bringing in Harris, the losing 2024 presidential candidate, had raised some eyebrows.
Before Harris spoke, Colom told the audience that people had asked him, “Why would you do that?”
His answer was short. “You know what I told them, ‘Why not?’” Colom said.
The reaction to Harris wasn’t confined to the quiet gym. On social media, users focused on what they called a “new accent” the former vice president seemed to use at the Deep South event.
“Kamala Harris just unveiled a new accent at a rally in Mississippi,” End Wokeness posted on X. “This might be the worst one yet.”
The post included a video of Harris repeatedly shouting “Mississippi matters” and “We got 12 days,” a reference to the time left before the election.
Talk show host Chris Ripa also reacted on X. “Holy cringe… it’s like nails on a chalkboard,” he wrote. “And what’s with the new accent.”
The rally left Harris with two awkward moments: a motivational quote that at first drew almost no reaction, and an accent that quickly drew attention online. Repeating the garbled line only drew more attention to words that had already left the crowd cold.
For Colom, the appearance put his high-profile guest at the center of his own event. Harris came to Mississippi to help his Senate campaign, but her muddled quote and repeated slogans ended up being what people noticed most about the rally.
