The former vice president challenged a room of Black women to have “courage” at a time when many fear what else is to come from President Donald Trump’s administration.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris spoke out for the first time publicly against President Donald Trump and his first few months in office on Thursday at the Leading Women Defined Summit in California.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee who lost to Trump in the 2024 election last November, briefly addressed the unprecedented actions taken by the Trump administration–like bypassing congressional authority to close down agencies, cutting funding for programs already approved, and firing tens of thousands of federal workers, including heads of independent agencies.
The former vice president lamented that despite Trump’s actions—largely led by Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and not a federal employee—many have chosen not to condemn Trump publicly.
“We are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats,” Harris said at the summit for Black women founded by former BET president Debra Lee. “And these are the things that we are witnessing each day in these last few months in our country, and it understandably creates a great sense of fear. Because, you know, there were many things that we knew would happen.”
Harris then elicited roars from the audience when she said, “I’m not here to say I told you so.”
The former presidential candidate challenged the room of Black women to have “courage” at a time in the country when many are living in fear about what else is to come in the next four years under a Trump presidency.
“When one person, when a few, stands with the courage that is the courage exhibited by the leaders in this room every day, to stand, to have the courage to say, I feel fear,” she said. “The courage to say what is happening is wrong, the courage to say that there is a way that we must chart to get through this, understanding our power in the democracy we still have if we hold on to it, courage is contagious.”
According to BET, Harris also used her Thursday remarks to emphasize the importance of sisterhood. “What has not changed is our sisterhood,” she said. “What has not changed is our understanding of the great shoulders upon which we stand — and the great shoulders we possess.”
Harris has been gradually returning to the public spotlight since her devastating defeat in the 2024 election. She has remained in her home state of California, meeting with victims and volunteers of the Los Angeles wildfires, and accepted the Chairman’s Award at the NAACP Image Awards in February.
As theGrio previously reported, Harris is also considering a potential run for California governor in 2026; however, she has asked her advisors to keep all options on the table, including another run for president in 2028. Harris will reportedly decide whether to run for governor by the end of summer.
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