‘These motherf—–s are crazy’: Kamala Harris urges storytellers to not be gaslit by Trump regime

“If our only focus is on Donald Trump as the reason that all this is happening, we’re gonna fall very short of the mission,” said the former vice president during a keynote chat at “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris was quite frank when talking about the state of the country under President Donald Trump during remarks she made in Los Angeles.

While speaking at “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation,” an event on Monday night that gathered television writers, producers, executives, artists, and digital storytellers, the former presidential candidate and author of the New York Times best-selling “107 Days” urged the room of culture makers to stand in truth, even at the time when they feel compelled not to.

Amid political turmoil and media corporations being pressured by the Trump administration to embrace its MAGA agenda, Harris told the room, “There’s so much about this moment that is trying to make people feel like they’ve lost their mind. When, in fact, these motherf—–s are crazy.”

Harris encouraged the room of storytellers and creators to use their art to meet the moment.

“I would ask you that all the emotions that we are feeling, give those emotions, gift that experience, to those people that you are writing about and writing for,” she said.

Despite her devastating loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, Harris asserted, “We cannot let any one circumstance, election or person take our power from us.”

“There is a powerful intention and force to divide the communities and the country, and make people feel alone…there is an agenda at play that is causing people to feel very disempowered,” she explained.

As the Trump administration makes major cuts to health care and other social programs, executes mass immigration raids and sends military troops to American cities, Harris admitted, “It feels chaotic, because every day something is happening.”

But she explained that the MAGA agenda is decades in the making.

“Look at The Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation. They’ve been working on this stuff for decades. I’m talking about go back to Reagan. Newt Gingrich. Pat Buchanan.  And the guy who’s in the White House now being kind of just almost the progeny or spawn of a toxic rule,” said Harris. She continued, “So part of what we also can do in helping to empower people right now is understand, this didn’t just fall out of the sky and happen. So let’s see how we got to this point.

She added, “Because if our only focus is on Donald Trump as the reason that all this is happening, we’re gonna fall very short of the mission.”

As storytellers, Harris told event attendees to acknowledge that they are likely receiving not-so-subtle “signals that now is not the time to speak with a certain level of candor.”

“There will always be risk associated with speaking truth…truth can often be difficult to speak and even more difficult to hear,” said the former vice president. “And so this moment, where there are so many lies and so much misinformation, the battle to tell truth is more profound than it’s ever been, because the counter forces that are spreading this information are so rampant, and ubiquitous.”

“So not only may you be deterred from speaking truth, for fear of consequence, because just, you know, let’s not talk about that right now, because it’s too controversial. Or, you know, I don’t know, people fund things may not want to fund it. But it also is about putting yourself out there, and being exposed … with at a certain level of vulnerability.”

Reflecting on the night she lost the election, Harris shared that she initially struggled with framing her concession speech, which she delivered the next day at her alma mater, Howard University.

“I said it at the end of every rally. I believe when we fight we win. I believe that. And I’m sitting there and I’m thinking, how am I gonna reconcile that with what just happened?” she recalled. “And in particular, I had young, the young people in mind. And so literally on the way to Howard, I changed the speech to say what I mean. Deeply. Sometimes the fight takes a while.”