Megyn Kelly delivered a brutal assessment of Kamala Harris after the former vice president’s rambling public remarks prompted speculation that she might have been drinking. Kelly played the widely circulated clip of Harris speaking to a Broadway cast before offering a much simpler explanation for her performance. “Not drunk, just her normal self,” Kelly declared. The segment focused on the familiar, loosely connected political observations Harris became known for.
Kelly addressed the clip during a February 2025 episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show” alongside journalists Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn, the hosts of “America This Week.” Harris had recently appeared onstage following a performance of “A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical” in New York City. Her halting delivery and maze of familiar political phrases quickly attracted attention online, where viewers debated whether her manner of speaking had an explanation beyond her usual public style.
Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, attended both “A Wonderful World” and “Gypsy” during their trip to New York. Following the Louis Armstrong musical, Harris met with members of the cast and crew and attempted to deliver an inspirational message about political rights and optimism. Her wandering remarks weaved from political setbacks, the preservation of rights, the need for vigilance, and the importance of fighting for something rather than simply opposing it.
In the clip, Harris tried to turn a warning about political losses into a call for her allies to act. She began by speaking about “moments where we see things that are being taken,” then jumped to a metaphor that never became entirely clear. “But also let’s see it as, you know, nature abhors a vacuum,” Harris said. “So where there’s a vacancy, then let’s fill it. Right?” Harris appeared to mean that political setbacks create openings for action, though she never identified what “vacancy” she was referring to.
The former vice president then shifted to the country’s history and accused the United States of experiencing a political reversal. “And let’s know that the, the reality is that the progress of our nation has always been about the expansion of rights, not the restriction of rights,” she said. “We’re seeing a U-turn right now, but we have to keep fighting for those rights to be maintained, which means we have to be vigilant, and it’s just the nature of it.”
Harris continued by telling the cast that remaining politically vigilant did not require ignoring “the beauty in everything.” She said those competing ideas could coexist before adding, “But I believe we fight for something, not against it. Right? Right? And that’s our optimism, right?” Her pauses, repeated use of “right,” and wandering path through the remarks fueled the online speculation that Kelly later addressed alongside Taibbi and Kirn on her program.
Watch Kelly deliver her verdict here:
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“By the way, before we take a break, was Kamala Harris drunk in this clip, or wasn’t she?” Kelly asked after introducing the footage. “It went everywhere.” Once Harris finished speaking, Kelly announced, “I’m going to give you my verdict: Not drunk, just her normal self. That’s how she is.” Kelly squashed the online theory while pointing out that she did not consider Harris’ performance unusual for the former vice president.
Kelly didn’t stop at the initial punchline. As her website later reported, she described Harris as someone who “fills the air with absolute nothingness.” Kelly added, “You feel like you ate a big air sandwich, and then she walks away.” During her primary against Joe Biden and her tenure as Vice President, Harris became known for her tendency to use sweeping language and lofty-sounding phrases without clearly identifying the subject of her remarks or explaining the point she intended to make.
Kirn agreed with Kelly’s assessment of Harris’ speaking style, calling the former vice president “the queen of pseudo profundity.” Taibbi, who covered Harris during her 2020 presidential campaign, said journalists had struggled to describe similar performances because she was “essentially spinning these giant sandcastles of nothingness.” Kelly closed the discussion with a final recommendation for anyone attempting to understand Harris’ remarks: “You have to watch it to believe it.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.