Inside Kamala Harris’ ‘bleak’ election evening occasion and concession speech
The world is still coming to terms with the result of the US general election, which saw Republican Donald Trump triumph against the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Harris had entered the race following the withdrawal of Joe Biden from the race in July and challenged Trump in the polls. However, as the results started to come in it soon became obvious that Trump was making clear gains on 2020 and heading to the Whitehouse in January.
The Mirror was at Harris’ watch party at Howard University in Washington DC, where the mood soon turned ‘bleak’ as reality began to kick in.
Speaking on The Division Bell podcast, the Mirror’s Mikey Smith said: “I was at Kamala Harris’s election night watch party on election night…Let me tell you, there was a lot of watching going on, not a lot of partying. It was bleak.”
“It was clear at about eleven-thirty that it was not going her way. She was not winning where she needed to win. And in the places where she was winning, she wasn’t winning by enough. So even though at that point they hadn’t called any of the swing states, we knew which way it was going.”
“Everyone just got very, very downcast very quickly. And then about one in the morning…in this huge outdoor space with thousands of people there, this guy just comes out on the stage where she was supposed to make her victory speech and said she’s not coming out tonight.”
The following day, Harris conceded the election to Donald Trump in a passionate speech at Howard University.
She encouraged America to “never give up the fight” and said: “Let me say, my heart is full today. Full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country.”
Mikey was at her speech at the Whitehouse, although he questions if the optimistic tone resonated with everyone.
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He said: “A handful of [people] came back the next day, including me, to see a concession speech, which was what it had to be. It was – you know – ‘all is not lost, will win eventually, lost the battle win the war’ sort of thing. I think that was what some people needed to hear.”
Mikey continues: “I think some people were upset about that speech because she spent quite a lot of the campaign saying fairly apocalyptic things about what would happen if Donald Trump wins.”
“And then she seemed like she was coming out on stage to say this is going to be all right. And people were like: ‘but you just spent the last six weeks telling us it’s really not going to be all right.’ I’m not sure it’s going to be all right.”
For more, you can listen to The Division Bell on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts.
