Kamala Harris did something unprecedented last year: She had just 107 days to whip up a winning presidential campaign, the most compressed timeline ever for a major-party bid. But while she fell short in November, ceding victory to President Donald Trump, many believed she would run for governor of California; in early polling, she was beating every other candidate by double digits. But in an interview with Stephen Colbert, the former vice president explained why she’s sitting this one out.
“Recently, I made the decision that for now I don’t want to go back in the system. I think it’s broken,” she said, eliciting gasps from the Late Show’s live audience.
“Listen, I am a devout public servant,” Harris said. “I have spent my entire career in service of the people, and I thought a lot about running for governor. I love my state, I love California. I’ve served as elected district attorney, attorney general, and senator. But to be very candid with you, when I was young in my career, I had to defend my decision to become a prosecutor with my family. And one of the points that I made is, ‘Why is it when we think we want to improve a system, or change it, that we’re always on the outside on bended knee, or trying to break down the door? Shouldn’t we also be inside the system?’”
While Harris made it clear to Colbert she is “always going to be part of the fight, that is not going to change,” the 60-year-old politician said she would rather spend time traveling the country and listening to people without it being “transactional, where I’m asking for their vote.”
“There are so many good people who are public servants who do such good work,” Harris continued. “Teachers and firefighters and police officers and nurses and scientists. It’s not about them, but I believe that as fragile as our democracy is, our systems would be strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles. And I think right now, they‘re not as strong as they need to be. And I just don’t want to go back in the system.”
Harris agreed with Colbert, that a former vice president and one-time presidential candidate calling the system “broken” is “harrowing,” but acknowledged that “the power is with the people.”
“You can never let anybody take your power from you,” Harris said. “And that’s what I’d like to remind folks of.”
You can watch Colbert’s full extended interview with Harris below.
