After Vice President Kamala Harris fumbled away friendly interviews with the likes of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy, CBS’s 60 Minutes, and ABC’s The View in the past week, Harris went on SiriusXM for perhaps the friendliest and most Notable Quotable-worth interview she’ll ever face with former shock jock, Howard Stern.
For someone who made his living on indecency (and having certain guests ride a sex toy on his show), the apocalyptic germaphobe brought in Harris for a 75-minute sit-down which felt much more like a Stern monologue.
NewsBusters sifted through all 75 minutes for the worst moments, which include Stern declared she shouldn’t be “made fun of” because “there’s too much at stake,” claimed Trump supporters keep him “up at night,” doesn’t “understand how this election is close,” said the Supreme Court allows Donald Trump to assassinate her, told her to leave the country if Trump wins, predicted “the darkest skies on the planet” if Trump triumphs, and gushed over her (false) claim about working at McDonald’s.
Fortunately, it was bizarre from the start as, after the two discussed their shared love of Prince, Stern fawned over her proclamation that she doesn’t “like talking about” herself considering “the other guy is so only talking about himself.”
Stern added that what Harris has “taken on is extraordinarily difficult” and thus he’s “really nervous because I want this to go well for you” and “the country.”
He then said Harris shouldn’t be attacked or even mocked to any degree because “there's too much at stake” with “the entire future of this country right now” as the “land of the free, home of the brave”:
Howard Stern to Kamala Harris: “When — when you said you don't nap, I get it because, like, what you've taken on is extraordinarily difficult. And I — I mean, do you feel the pressure of the moment in the sense that — like — I — when I met you out in the hall, I said I'm really… pic.twitter.com/PZukwu6cVu
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 8, 2024
Stern also praised her for going on CBS:
Howard Stern to Kamala Harris: “By the way, I thought what was so amazing about 60 Minutes is the fact that Trump turned it down.”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 8, 2024
Harris: “Yeah.”
Stern: “I mean, it just says so much he didn't want to be fact checked. This is maddening. This is insanity. What do you mean you… pic.twitter.com/EE6ZHNPJgH
The SiriusXM host revealed “what keeps me up at night” is trying to “understand how my fellow Americans” don’t support Harris since “this election” shouldn’t be “close?”
Skipping past Stern relitigating his experience watching the September 10 debate and the failed Senate border bill, he hurled more hate at half the country and walked Harris through her earlier career:
Howard Stern to Kamala Harris: “Don't you want to say to his — that — the people who support him, well, what are you not hearing? Are you not hearing that we had a bill to solve this big pro — you're all afraid of this. Understood. We understand that. I mean, I — I — I hear these… pic.twitter.com/OAdc3tA1Jf
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 8, 2024
Stern clearly got the memo that voters are still unaware of who this shape-shifting progressive from California really is, so he honed in on every nook and cranny of her supposedly pristine biographer, including her mother as a scientist, how Harris lived for a time in Canada, and why she wanted to become a lawyer.
He then made this remark about her record:
Howard @SternShow to Kamala Harris: “It’s really weird too because to me you’re the law and order candidate. And yet they try to paint you like you’re some leftist who wants to have people running through the streets committing crimes. You were a prosecutor!” #Howard100 pic.twitter.com/mNU8ZZvTpb
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) October 8, 2024
Stern also took aim at the Supreme Court and questioned their legitimacy:
Howard Stern to Kamala Harris: “Does it infuriate you too that — first of all, it's something drives me nuts with Obama's presidency. He had the opportunity to appoint someone to the Supreme Court. Mitch McConnell goes, f you. I’m not appointing anyone to the Supreme Court,… pic.twitter.com/rJcnGNj5mF
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 8, 2024
It continued with this slippery slope:
Howard Stern: “Well, here's what I worry about. You got a guy who says probably you don't really need to vote if I win. You got a guy who says, hey, we're not stopping here. You know gay rights are next.”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 8, 2024
Kamala Harris: “Yeah.”
Stern: “You know it.”
Harris: “But Clarence… pic.twitter.com/y8B4HvgLwi
There was also this wild accusation about the Court allowing assassinations:
What do you think of these — uh — judges basically saying whatever Trump does in office is okay, including assassinating his opponents because he's doing it for the good of the country? What the hell is going on here? You're — you're the prosecutor. You're the attorney general. What — what is going on here? Is this America?
The apocalyptic rhetoric the left claims to hate cranked up to a 10 out of 10:
Howard Stern: “Let me ask you this. If he wins, God forbid, would you feel safe in this country? Would you stay in this country?”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 8, 2024
Kamala Harris: “Howard, I'm doing everything I can to make sure he does not win.”
Stern: “What if he does? How can you be safe? He's saying, oh, I'm… pic.twitter.com/JGGjD9I765
When they got on the topic of exercise, Stern wanted to know whether Harris watches MSNBC’s Morning Joe. This turned into a brief aside about how much they love co-host and former Trump pal Joe Scarborough:
Howard @SternShow: “I love” @JoeNBC Scarborough. Kamala Harris: “I do too....He loves our country.” #Howard100 pic.twitter.com/DYDMy42hPJ
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) October 8, 2024
Later, Stern lamented there must be “all this pressure on you right now and you've got to win” because “I really believe it's in — we're in for the darkest skies on the planet, like, the sun is literally gonna go out” if she fails.
“I — this is how I feel and I, and — and — and God bless you for doing this because I'm really afraid that people, good people, bright people are discouraged from going into public service now,” he added prior to a brief aside of Stern telling Harris she should start seeing a therapist to destigmatize mental health.
Turning to her personal life, there was this bizarre question:
Speaking of your husband, was it hard for you — because you were so successful at an early age, you know, being a prosecutor of the DA, Attorney General, all — all of these jobs — um — was it hard for you to make a love connection, to make a romance with Doug? Because I would think most men. would be intimidated by you.
There was also an allusion to her working at McDonald’s and later addressed when he fawned over her alleged work history. He even wanted to know whether it was “fun at all or is it really hard work”:
Howard Stern *did* return to McDonald's, but only to ask *when* she did and how she juggled everything else going on in her life. He also wondered if it was “fun at all or is it really hard work” and “a drag.”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 8, 2024
Here was the full exchange.....
Stern: “So when you were in college,… pic.twitter.com/1ZgU50lM2w
Stern played up the charges of sexism (click “expand”):
STERN: Do you think there are people who will not vote for a woman because she's a woman? I mean, I — I — I think — I think you're up against that — uh — which just, you know, my best associations in radio and in business have been collaborating with women.
HARRIS: Yeah.
STERN: Going back to when I made my movie, I had a female director and I — when I worked at the ET network, I had this woman Franche who was so fabulous.
HARRIS: Mmhmm.
STERN: There’s an energy and I believe that women — I've said this on the air a million times. Women have to work harder to get respect, so they actually go — like, in show business, they actually have to go to film school and then intern and then work their way up to become a director. Guys can bullshit their way through it and, and get away with a lot. And I don't understand this philosophy, especially guys who have daughters and sisters and mothers. What is the bias? I mean, what — what is it? They think a woman's gonna be weak in the White House? Is that — I mean, I don't know how you combat that honestly. I don't know what you say to those people.
The two made sure to give President Biden some flowers. Stern called him “a loving man” who did “the hardest thing in the world for him” after having done “a damn good job” taking “over in chaos” and Harris arguing “he’s still doing a great job.”
Stern had to also bring up the pronouncing of her name as some racist “slur”:
Howard Stern: “What are these guys up to with mispronouncing your name? They — they act as if they can't say Kamala.”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 8, 2024
Kamala Harris: “Yeah.”
Stern: “It's not that complicated.”
Harris: “It’s just —”
Stern: “What — what's going on? What — what really is going on there when… pic.twitter.com/4SR2LU0yUW
The most hypocritical moment came next when he suddenly bemoaned “hat[ing]” people because of political differences:
After spending an hour-plus smearing and attacking Trump supporters, wondering why they even exist, Howard Stern laments to Kamala Harris that Trump said he “hate[s] Taylor Swift” simply for “disagree[ing] with [his] politics”:
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 8, 2024
“I hear what you're saying and you know what even… pic.twitter.com/7GkEWuuul3
The guy couldn’t make up his mind as, after predicting Harris would “be a great president” because “you’re compassionate” and “had all the life experience,” he forcefully said anyone who doesn’t want to vote for Harris shouldn’t vote:
Voter suppression?
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 8, 2024
Howard Stern: “[I]f you don't agree with me, do not vote. I encourage people not to vote who are thinking in a direction of — uh — endorsing Vladimir Putin and all that stuff. I hope people get out and vote. I hope we wake up and — and just end this nightmare… pic.twitter.com/DR7Bp8RfhZ
The interview closed as it began with fluff as Harris shared how The View went, detailing her visit to see U2 at The Sphere in Las Vegas, and her Formula 1 fandom.
To see the relevant transcript of Stern’s October 8 interview (including weird moments with Stern gushing over her biography, a weird sidenote about the Postal Service, Harris talking up her love of Doritos, Raisin Bran, and Special K, and touting Harris’s claim she’d put someone from the opposing party in her cabinet as though it were a new thing), click here.