'I'm not done': Kamala Harris tells BBC she could run for US president again

Making the strongest suggestion yet that she will run for president again in 2028 after losing to Donald Trump last year, Harris dismissed polls that had her ranked as an outsider to become the Democratic nominee in the next election.

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Kamala Harris, Photo: BBC
Kamala Harris, Photo: BBC
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

Former US Vice President Kamala Harris told the BBC that she could run for the White House again.

In her first interview in the UK, Harris said she "possibly" will be president one day and that she is confident that there will be a woman in the White House in the future.

Making the strongest suggestion yet that she will run for president again in 2028 after losing last year lost to Donald Trump, Harris rejected polls that ranked her as an outsider to become the Democratic nominee in the next election.

In a conversation for Sunday with Laura Kensberg, Harris lashed out at her former rival, calling Trump a "tyrant," and said that predictions she made about him during the campaign had proven accurate.

BBC

As the Democratic Party seeks answers about Republican Donald Trump's landslide victory a year ago, much of the blame is being placed on former President Joseph Biden for not withdrawing from the campaign sooner.

But questions are also being raised about whether Harris could have run a better campaign and delivered a clearer message on the most important issue - the economy.

In an interview with the BBC, Harris said she was considering running for the White House again, saying her grandchildren would "certainly" see a woman as president of the United States "in their lifetimes."

When asked if it might be her, she replied: "Possibly," confirming that she is considering another run for the highest political office in America.

Harris said she has not yet made a decision, but stressed that she still sees herself as someone who has a future in politics.

"I'm not finished," said the former vice president.

"I've spent my entire career in service and it's in my bones."

Responding to odds that place her as an outsider to win a spot on the Democratic ticket - even behind Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson - she said she never paid attention to the polls.

"If I had paid attention to the polls, I wouldn't have run for my first or second term - and I certainly wouldn't be sitting here."

Harris said that her predictions that Donald Trump would act like a "fascist and pursue authoritarian policies" have proven to be true.

She pointed to the suspension of TV host Jimmy Kimmel's show after he made a joke about Republicans' reaction to the death of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

His removal from the program, which Trump welcomed, came after a Trump-appointed regulator threatened Kimmel's producers.

"Look at what happened in terms of how he armed, for example, federal agencies that were going after political satirists...

"His skin is so thin that he couldn't handle criticism for a joke and tried to shut down an entire media organization in the process," says Kamala Harris.

Harris also condemned businessmen and institutions in America who, in her opinion, gave in too easily to the president's demands.

"Many have... capitulated from day one, bowing their backs to the tyrant, I believe for many reasons, including because they want to be on the side of the government, because they may want to be approved for a merger (of a company) or to avoid an investigation," she claims.

The White House declined to respond to Harris' comments about Trump.

"When Kamala Harris lost the election by a landslide, she should have realized that the American people don't care about her absurd lies," said spokeswoman Abigail Jackson.

"Or maybe she got the message and that's why she continues to express her dissatisfaction in foreign media," Jackson added.

After Biden withdrew from the election campaign following months of speculation about his mental fitness to serve as president, Kamala Harris had 107 days to campaign.

In the full interview with the former vice president, which will air in the UK on Sunday at 9am GMT, I pressed Harris several times on whether she should have invited Biden to give her a spot on the campaign trail earlier.

How much did she really know about his health?

And the question that may haunt her - would she be president now, instead of Donald Trump, if Biden had dropped out earlier?

The answer is clearly unknown - a big "if" that could change the fate of America.

Among Democratic Party officials still analyzing the defeat, Kamala Harris' candidacy is often disparaged, and her weaknesses as a leader are cited as reasons for her defeat, not just Biden's last-minute decision.

When asked what went wrong, rather than delving into an in-depth analysis, she claims that since she started so late, it was almost impossible to win.

But the possibility of having power is something she is not ready to give up and leave behind.

Previous hints of her future presidential ambitions seemed timid, reserved - "maybe, maybe not" or "I'm not thinking about it right now."

Her honesty in our conversation was more striking.

She was quick, even eager, to frame herself for another attempt at power.

But she made no concrete promise and made no commitment.

This is not surprising given the painful defeat and the experience she described as traumatic.

She and her team were devastated by the defeat, which took them by surprise.

"Oh God, what's going to happen to our country?" Harris recounted the thought she had when the results of the November election were announced.

I also challenged the former US Vice President by asking why her campaign wasn't better connected to the problems of working people.

She replied that she needed more time in the campaign to do that, and pointed out that her party had been distancing itself from that particular group of people for years.

She regrets, she says, that she didn't have enough time in 2024 to express her position on basic issues, such as housing or childcare.

But if she had more time next time, it is far from a guarantee that her arguments would be more convincing or more readily accepted.

Kamala Harris continues to travel with an entourage.

Assistants watch their watches impatiently as her every minute is planned with military precision.

Constant travel, public events in different capitals, a small number of carefully planned TV interviews.

This time, Harris is on tour for a book, not a presidential race.

But maybe, if she has her way, this is the beginning of another campaign.

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