Kamala Harris has never been one to mince words. During her latest book tour, the former Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee opened up about her bruising campaign against Donald Trump — and dropped a few bombshells along the way, including a private phone call with Trump himself.
Her new memoir, 107 Days, details her unexpected rise, crushing loss, and what she calls the “most painful period” of her public life. The title refers to the brief window between her nomination and Election Day — a whirlwind she describes as “a sprint through chaos.”
Harris’s promotional tour has taken her across fifteen U.S. cities, but it was her recent appearance in Los Angeles that sent social media into overdrive. Speaking at the “Day of Unreasonable Conversation” summit on October 6, Harris didn’t hold back when talking about the state of American politics or the people running it.
“We are living history right now,” she told the audience. “You — the storytellers, the journalists, the artists — are living it too. You’re not passive observers. You’re shaping how this moment will be remembered.”
Her tone shifted, turning sharper. “Because let’s be honest,” she said, gesturing to the crowd, “there’s so much about this time that makes people feel like they’ve lost their minds. When in fact, these motherf***ers are crazy!”
The audience erupted in cheers and laughter, with Harris briefly joining in before continuing. “I call this ‘The Freedom Tour,’” she added, smiling. “Because freedom starts with truth. And sometimes the truth is messy.”
For Harris, that truth includes the painful aftermath of her loss to Trump in what she describes as a “historic landslide” — a devastating outcome for a campaign that once held the promise of electing America’s first female president.
After President Joe Biden’s abrupt withdrawal from the race, Harris stepped into the spotlight as the Democratic nominee. Polls initially predicted a tight contest, but as the campaign wore on, Trump’s lead widened. Harris writes that she “felt the ground shift” in the final weeks — a mix of fatigue, misinformation, and what she calls “an avalanche of hate.”
When the results came in, Harris says she couldn’t find the words. “I kept saying, ‘My God, my God.’ I had never felt that kind of pain except when my mother died,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I wasn’t just grieving the loss of an election. I was grieving for the country. I knew what was coming next.”
Still, even in defeat, Harris claims she received a phone call from Trump that left her stunned.
According to her memoir, the call came shortly after the second assassination attempt on Trump’s life in September 2024 — an event that dominated global headlines and led to the conviction of Ryan Wesley Routh. The attack, she says, seemed to shake Trump in ways few things could.
“He called me out of the blue,” Harris writes. “At first, I thought it was a prank.”
But it wasn’t.
“Kamala, how do I say bad things about you now?” Trump allegedly said. “I’m going to tone it down. I will. You’re going to see.”
The former president, known for his relentless attacks on political rivals, reportedly sounded uncharacteristically subdued. “He told me he’d be nicer from then on,” Harris recalls. “I didn’t believe him — but for a moment, I heard something I’d never heard from Donald Trump before: vulnerability.”
Harris says the call lasted only a few minutes, but the tone lingered with her. “He wasn’t apologizing,” she clarifies in the book. “He was recalibrating — the way someone does when they realize the game almost ended.”
Despite that brief moment of civility, Harris didn’t spare Trump in her public remarks. Her book portrays him as “a showman with no moral compass,” and she doesn’t shy away from criticizing the broader culture that, in her view, enabled him.
“Trump didn’t create the darkness,” she told a crowd in Atlanta earlier in her tour. “He just gave it a microphone.”
In 107 Days, Harris describes the 2024 campaign trail as a battlefield of misinformation and misogyny. She recalls online trolls calling her “illegitimate,” pundits dismissing her as “unlikable,” and extremist groups spreading conspiracy theories about her family and faith.
“It wasn’t just politics,” she writes. “It was warfare — psychological, emotional, and deeply personal.”
Yet Harris insists that her story isn’t one of bitterness, but of resilience. The memoir is equal parts reflection and warning — a chronicle of what happens when democracy is treated like a sport rather than a shared responsibility.
At her Los Angeles appearance, she spoke candidly about the emotional toll of losing not just a race, but a vision of what could have been. “It felt like America looked at me and said, ‘Not yet,’” she told the audience. “And maybe that’s true. But it doesn’t mean never.”
The crowd erupted again — not just in applause, but in what felt like shared catharsis. For supporters still reeling from the 2024 loss, Harris’s words were both a confession and a rallying cry.
She also took aim at what she called the “politics of cruelty,” a phrase she uses frequently in the book. “The danger,” she said, “isn’t just in the lies politicians tell. It’s in how those lies make people stop believing in anything — even each other.”
Still, the moment that grabbed the most headlines was her unfiltered comment about Trump’s team being “crazy.” It was raw, unscripted, and deeply Kamala — the kind of blunt honesty that made her both admired and polarizing. Within hours, the clip went viral, drawing both praise and outrage. Trump’s supporters called it “disrespectful.” Her fans called it “authentic.”
In interviews since, Harris hasn’t walked back the remark. “I said what I said,” she told Rolling Stone. “If you’ve watched what’s happened over the last few years and you don’t think it’s crazy, then I don’t know what to tell you.”
As the tour continues, Harris seems determined to use her platform not to dwell on defeat, but to ignite discussion about the future — especially the role of women in leadership. “Losing doesn’t erase your voice,” she told a crowd in Chicago. “It just changes how you use it.”
Her critics accuse her of rebranding failure into self-promotion. Her supporters see something different — a woman who, despite public rejection, refuses to disappear quietly.
“People think defeat ends the story,” she said near the close of her Los Angeles event. “But sometimes it’s just the first honest chapter.”
Whether Harris plans another political run remains unclear. For now, she insists her focus is on storytelling, advocacy, and, as she puts it, “rebuilding trust in the idea that America can still get better.”
As for Trump, she says the call they shared after the assassination attempt was the last time they spoke. When asked if she believes he meant what he said, Harris doesn’t hesitate.
“No,” she replies. “But the fact that he said it — that’s what’s telling. Even Donald Trump, for a moment, recognized how fragile all of this really is.”
Her smile then fades into something colder, quieter.
“Power doesn’t make you untouchable,” she says. “It just makes your fall louder.”
