In her first public interview since leaving office, former Vice President Kamala Harris told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show Thursday night that she is stepping away from political office, citing a broken political system and a desire to reconnect with Americans outside of the campaign trail.
“I want to travel the country, I want to listen to people, and I don’t want it to be transactional,” Harris said. “I’m not asking for their vote.”
The interview marked Harris’s first appearance since she left office on January 20, following her defeat to Donald J. Trump in the 2024 presidential election. It also came just days after she announced she would not pursue a 2026 gubernatorial run in California, where she previously served as attorney general and U.S. senator.
Harris discussed her forthcoming memoir, 107 Days, scheduled for release on September 23. The book reflects on her whirlwind presidential campaign, which began after President Joe Biden abruptly dropped out of the race last summer, leaving Harris with less than four months to mount a national campaign.
She revealed that after leaving office, she and her husband, Doug Emhoff, tuned out political news for months, choosing instead to relax with cooking shows. “I was just not into self-mutilation,” she joked.
While Harris admitted to frustrations with the political system, she emphasized the need for continued civic engagement. “It’s broken, but that doesn’t mean we give up,” she told Colbert. She hopes her memoir will inspire readers to see themselves as part of the solution. “I hope people read this and think, ‘Hey, I could do that.’”
The book will also include personal anecdotes, such as Biden’s call to her the day he withdrew from the race and an amusing birthday misstep by Emhoff.
As for the Democratic Party’s future, Harris said leadership shouldn’t rest on a single figure. “It’s really on all of our shoulders,” she said, urging collective responsibility in a fractured political landscape.
