Kamala Harris Caught on Hot Mic Asking, 'Are We in Cleveland?'
It’s the oldest joke in the music joke book. The band takes the stage and says, “Hey, Cleveland!” The crowd stops cheering. They’re not in Cleveland.
To the extent that politicians are pop stars for people old enough to have 401(k)s and to ask who Post Malone is (you don’t need to know), Democrats will be pleased to note Kamala Harris almost didn’t make the mistake.
In fact, she technically didn’t. She really was in Cleveland on Saturday when she told supporters, “Hey, Cleveland, it’s Kamala!”
The success of her correct identification of the city was muted, however, because it came seconds after a hot mic caught her asking, “Are we in Cleveland?”
A hot mic caught Kamala Harris asking staff “are we in Cleveland?” before she spoke.
cc. OHIO
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) October 25, 2020
It probably is worth noting this was the second time that Harris had planned to come to Cleveland, canceling her first trip to Ohio after one of her staffers tested positive for COVID-19, according to Cleveland.com.
As much as Ohio is a swing state that President Donald Trump needs to win for there to be any chance for his administration to stay in office for four more years, maybe that was a sign for Harris to stay away.
A scan of social media revealed some positive images out of the trip for Democrats. Why, look, here she is talking with the proprietor of a black-owned soul-food restaurant in downtown Cleveland:
.@KamalaHarris stopped by black-owned soul food restaurant Zanzibar Soul Fusion in downtown Cleveland where she briefly spoke to owner Johnny Hutton. pic.twitter.com/Bod8ykF8vv
— Averi Harper (@AveriHarper) October 24, 2020
And to undo that, here she is addressing people in line for early voting in Cleveland with a curious — indeed, wholly superfluous — message:
.@KamalaHarris in Cleveland tells a long line of people waiting to vote, “make your voice head, VOTE!” pic.twitter.com/NxNecuc4FS
— Sabrina Singh (@sabrinasingh24) October 24, 2020
“@KamalaHarris in Cleveland tells a long line of people waiting to vote, ‘make your voice head, VOTE!'” the tweet reported.
Which is what I believe they were doing. She arrived in Ohio a day late for high school football games, so I guess we couldn’t get footage of her in the socially distanced bleachers, imploring both squads to “learn discipline and how to build strong relationships, play team sports!”
The voting picture was tweeted by Harris’ press secretary, by the way, proof that the lack of situational awareness here wasn’t just an issue at the top.
But she had some lines from her speech the media were inclined to quote, including where she torched the president’s “weird obsession with trying to get rid of everything that Barack Obama and Joe Biden created.”
At an early vote mobilization event in Cleveland, Sen. Kamala Harris said Trump “has this weird obsession with trying to get rid of everything that Barack Obama and Joe Biden created. Can I say we don’t need presidents with weird obsessions? We don’t need that.”
— Jack Turman III (@jackturmanIII) October 24, 2020
And then she had less-quoted lines from the speech, like this one where she inflated the COVID-19 death toll in the United States significantly by saying that “over 220 million” — instead of thousand — Americans had died from the illness.
Ooops, she did it again. Kamala Harris again claims that two-thirds of the U.S Population has died in the last several months. #BidenBrain pic.twitter.com/5B9G2TCm6z
— Michael J. McDonald – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@McDonaldNV) October 24, 2020
If these all seem like things Joe Biden might have done, by the way, it’s because they’re things he has done. To Harris’ credit, at least she asked where she was. Biden didn’t check with his staff in South Carolina and New Hampshire, which he identified as North Carolina and Vermont, respectively.
Joe Biden forgot what state he was in. Again.
While in New Hampshire he said: “I’ve been here a number of times… what’s not to like about Vermont…”pic.twitter.com/L7QLPb9u3T
— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) April 25, 2020
He’s also made the mistake of using “millions” instead of “thousands” when talking about lives claimed by COVID-19:
Joe Biden: “It’s estimated that 200 million people will die, probably by the time I finish this talk.”
That’s nearly 2/3 of the U.S. population. pic.twitter.com/lp23K11K3o
— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) September 20, 2020
If Biden hasn’t yelled at a line of voters to get out and vote, it’s likely because his campaign has assiduously kept him away from any situation that might provoke that response.
It’s almost like Joe Biden rubs off on a person after a while.
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