Vice President Kamala Harris has continued her battle with two formidable nemeses: thought and speech.
Alas, the cartoonish vice president has seldom spoken in public without sounding phony, pretentious and either ill-informed or downright deceitful.
In an interview with Tim Boyum of Spectrum News on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina, Harris put those qualities on display when she delivered a “history lesson” about women’s college basketball filled with falsehoods so obvious and egregious that one prominent sports-media personality had no way to explain it.
The full nine-minute interview featured questions on a number of topics, including Israel’s war against Hamas. Should they wish to do so, readers may view the entire interview here.
Near the end of the interview, Boyum asked Harris’ thoughts on the ongoing men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments. The North Carolina State Wolfpack, he noted, have seen both their men’s and women’s teams advance to their respective Final Fours. He did not say, though it bears mentioning, that the Connecticut Huskies have done likewise.
But Boyum asked particularly about the women’s tournament, which has exploded in popularity thanks in large part to thrilling performances turned in by superstar guard Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes, who defeated star forward Angel Reese and her defending national champion LSU Tigers on Monday, 94-87, to advance to the Women’s Final Four, where they will face the Huskies and legendary coach Geno Auriemma on Friday.
Harris, a basketball fan, became visibly animated and excited to talk about a sport she follows.
From there, however, everything went downhill.
“Do you know? Okay, a bit of a history lesson. Do you know that women were not — the women’s teams — were not allowed to have brackets until 2022? Think about that. And what — that — talk about progress, you know? Better late than never, but progress,” Harris said.
Women’s college basketball had no tournament brackets until 2022? Surely she misspoke, right?
Nope. In fact, she doubled-down on the assertion.
To find that repeated assertion, however, readers and listeners must sift through a good deal of verbal clutter.
“And what that has done — because of course, when, you know, I had a bracket, and it’s not broken completely, but I won’t talk about my bracket — but you know what, just how we love, we love March Madness. And even just now allowing the women to have brackets and what that does to encourage people to talk more about the women’s teams, to watch them. Now they’re being covered, you know, and, and this is the reality,” the confused vice president added.
Even the logic of Harris’ imaginary, bracket-less, pre-2022 world made no sense. According to that logic, no brackets meant no media coverage. But now the media covers the women’s game, and people watch, she insisted, all thanks to brackets.
“People used to say ‘Oh women’s sports, who’s interested?’ Well, if you can’t see it, you won’t be. But when you see it, you realize, ‘Oh, we’re talking about star athletes who are incredibly gifted.’ And of course on the men’s side as well. This is not exclusive to one gender. But it’s nice that we’re finally giving women in sports that kind of platform,” Harris said.
One hardly knows where to begin.
On the social media platform X, sports writer and analyst Clay Travis of Outkick called Harris’ brackets assertion “legitimately the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard a politician say about sports.”
“I don’t even understand how this opinion is possible for anyone with a functioning brain,” Travis added.
I mean, this is legitimately the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard a politician say about sports. I don’t even understand how this opinion is possible for anyone with a functioning brain. Legit how did they me think they picked who played before 2022? I can’t get over this.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 5, 2024
In a follow-up tweet, Travis wondered how Harris’ camp would spin the gaffe and why Boyum said nothing.
“I can’t even think of what she could possibly be trying to say here. That is, this is so dumb I can’t even think of what they can claim she was misspeaking about. I also love the reporter nodding along. No pushback at all. How can even he be this dumb?” Travis tweeted.
I can’t even think of what she could possibly be trying to say here. That is, this is so dumb I can’t even think of what they can claim she was misspeaking about. I also love the reporter nodding along. No pushback at all. How can even he be this dumb?
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 5, 2024
To illustrate the mind-numbing stupidity of her remarks, consider that Harris made women’s NCAA Tournament bracket predictions prior to 2022. In fact, she posted her 2021 bracket on X.
So you went with #1 seeds. I thought you were a fan of #2s! https://t.co/lYGnY4lT9B
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) March 18, 2021
Harris’ office told Mediaite that the vice president meant to say that the copyright for “March Madness” was only extended to NCAA women’s basketball in 2022.
But even that left-wing outlet did not fully buy it. In fact, Mediaite described Harris’ comments as “delivered with an air of condescension by someone giving an insightful history lesson that is sadly wrong.”
On the bright side, those lame-brained comments meant that we might expect another hilarious video from Harris impersonator Estee Palti.
WARNING: The following video contains language that some readers might find offensive
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So why did Harris insist that the women’s NCAA Tournament had no brackets prior to 2022? Who knows? We can only guess.
Still, one possible explanation lies in the nature of the liberal mind.
Affluent liberals, of course, tend to regard themselves as benefactors to the oppressed. To sustain this false perception, they find oppression everywhere, though conspicuously not in their own behavior.
Likewise, many liberals view life’s problems in administrative terms. In other words, a simple policy change, orchestrated by experts, can solve everything.
Thus, these twin pathologies in the liberal mind could explain, first, why Harris would immediately think in terms of unfairness, as if tournament brackets held a Rosa Parks-like significance, and second, why she would attribute the exploding popularity of women’s basketball to a bureaucratic decision.
Or, she might simply have made those comments because, like President Joe Biden, she seldom says anything coherent.
