Rachel Maddow, host on MS Now (formerly MSNBC), revealed in an interview on Tuesday that she wishes she had pressed former Vice President Kamala Harris more during a September interview on her latest book, "107 Days."
On a recent episode of the “At Our Table” podcast with former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison, she argued that Harris was more blunt and cutting when she wasn't in front of a camera.
I'm not, like, friends with Vice President Harris. I've spoken to her a handful of times in non-public settings, you know like in preparing for interviews, you know, or at the White House or whatever. But it's not like we have a close personal relationship. But even in the little bit of talkignt hat I've done to her off the record, I know that she sharper and more blunt, and honestly more cutting, and more incisive, than she is when she knows the cameras are rolling.
"And her book is very good, actually," she added. "Whatever you think of the arguments she makes and the scores that she settles in that book, it's a very well-written book. And some of her innate, natural bluntness and incisiveness come through in that book. But in the interview, with the camera rolling, she’s being careful."
More of the unfiltered political breakdowns you won’t see on cable news. Rachel Maddow joins @harrisonjaime on the next episode of #AtOurTable. pic.twitter.com/TXiQaT4uww
— At Our Table (@AtOurTableShow) December 8, 2025
In the former Vice President's book, she blamed everyone but herself for her election loss, from Democratic allies to her former boss Joe Biden. But on her nationwide book tour, she has been far more hesitant to say those things outright. The picture she paints in sit-down interviews is noticeably more forgiving than the one in her book.
For example, she criticized Biden for turning their pre-debate phone call into a conversation about himself, yet she has never leveled that criticism on camera.
The same goes for Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who at the time was a contender to be Harris’s running mate. In her book, she cast him as someone who would want to be “in the room for every decision,” a politician with clear ambitions of his own. She even claimed he had a habit of hijacking conversations and had to be reminded repeatedly that he wouldn’t share equal power. But in interviews, she hasn’t been nearly as blunt. Gov. Shapiro has dismissed the claims as "bullsh*t."
"And I wish I would have just kind of pulled the — and said, like, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. I read the book. I’ve talked to you off camera. I know what you really think about these things. Like, no, stop being so safe. Like, let’s just, let’s get real,” Maddow went on. “You may be running for president again, in which case you can clean this up then. But, like, let’s not, let’s just be messy. Let’s just do it. Let’s just put it all out on the floor. Because I know what she is capable of in terms of just cutting right to it. I wish I would have pushed her more to do that rather than receiving the way she conducted that interview.”
“In my mind, walking away from that interview, I felt like, ‘Oh, I could have punctured it somehow,’” she added.
The Kamala Harris Maddow claims to know has yet to be seen by the American public. To many voters, Harris came across as a terrible communicator, repeating odd phrases, cackling nervously when faced with tough questions, and offering a campaign platform made up of little more than pleasant-sounding words.
We would expect someone who has spent years in the public eye, as California’s Attorney General and as a U.S. Senator, to be well beyond this kind of stage fright. Yet Harris still struggles to present a coherent, intelligent version of herself, even as she keeps her political options open for 2028.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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