Speaking to voters in Savannah, Georgia, during a campaign stop, Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris made a wild claim about collard greens, a comfort food for which the African American community and the American Southeast, in general, are known, leading to much derision online.
The claim was that she made so many collard greens for a Christmas party that a friend was hosting that she would need to wash them in the bathtub rather than in the sink like normal, even if there were a large number of greens that had to be portioned out to be washed in the sink. The bathtub part was ridiculous but somewhat funny, given that it was an obvious exaggeration.
What led to the online derision was that Kamala was seemingly attempting to build camaraderie via collard greens despite being from California and not showing much of an inclination, before the comment, for cooking southern comfort food, particularly given that her parents are from Jamaica and India, not the southeast. While she might cook collard greens, that sort of cooking is not the sort of thing for which she has made herself known, or mentioned before.
In any case, making the comment about the Christmas Eve party and the bathtub, Kamala said, “I have a friend who had a Christmas Party Christmas Eve every year, and she asked me to make the greens for her party every year. And I am not lying to you, that I would make so many greens, that I’d need to wash them in the bathtub. I’m telling you the truth.”
Kamala then went on to describe how she cooks her collard greens, giving a pretty standard recipe. Beginning with the preparation, she said, “I slice up my garlic, but first I chop up the bacon and get all that fat going, then I put garlic, some chili peppers, and then a lot of water and a little chicken stock, and I let it go for a while before I put the greens in.”
Continuing, she described how long she cooks them and what she adds to bring out more flavor as they simmer. “And then, right? So, you get that going and all that flavor, and then I put the greens in for a couple hours, then I do vinegar, and then I cheat and do a little Tabasco,” she said. “So that’s how I do my greens,” she concluded.
Watch her here:
"*" indicates required fields
While many commenters on Kamala’s post about the collard greens, one asked why she’s focusing on greens rather than the real issues, saying, “Ok so you can make greens and break an egg with one hand. Is this going somewhere ? How is this relevant to your presidential campaign ? Can you explain how you want to fix America and the world ? Or you want to keep promoting your cooking and joking skills ?”
Similarly, many other commenters called her out for “pandering” rather than speaking about real policies. One commenter, for example, said that it is ridiculous that she is pandering rather than speaking about how she’ll fight inflation, saying, “The average American can’t afford housing or groceries. There are ZERO policies listed on your website. Your low energy pandering doesn’t pay our bills.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video