Vice President Kamala Harris is turning heads with a word salad she tossed on her visit to Highland Park, Illinois, in the wake of the mass shooting at the Chicago suburb’s Fourth of July parade.
Ms. Harris touched down Tuesday to meet with local law enforcement and deliver remarks to the town’s residents still reeling from the tragedy that struck the day before.
“We’ve got to take this stuff seriously, as seriously as you are, because you have been forced to take this seriously,” the vice president said in her remarks.
“The whole nation should understand and have a level of empathy to understand that this could happen anywhere [to] any people in any community. And we should stand together and speak out about why it’s got to stop,” Ms. Harris said.
Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Sheridan shared a clip of Ms. Haris’ speech with annotation on Twitter Tuesday evening. The post soon lit up with Twitter users mocking the vice president’s remarks.
“Don’t they have Obama’s speech writers on retainer or something, what’s up?” wrote Edward Ongweso Jr., a staff writer at Vice Media’s Motherboard.
One user proposed a theory that Ms. Harris was suffering from “brain fog from long covid.”
“Okay, she did not always sound this incoherent when put on the spot, right? Am I misremembering? It’s getting Weird,” freelance writer Ashley Reese posted.
The response to Ms. Harris’ speech Tuesday adds to criticism of her growing list of meandering soundbites.
In March, Ms. Harris’ response to a question during an interview on NBC’s “Today” about why the Biden administration was continuing to purchase Russian oil after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine drew a similar cringe.
“Let’s take this one step at a time, understanding that right now on the issue of energy, our allies have stood firm and unified in a way that many of the pundits didn’t predict would happen, to ensure that we are unified in our approach to this issue,” she said during the interview.
That same month, Twitter lit up following her remarks during a White House visit by Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
“We also recognize, just as it has been in the United States, for Jamaica, one of the issues that has been presented as an issue that is economic in the way of its impact has been the pandemic,” Ms. Harris said. “So to that end, we are announcing today also that we will assist Jamaica in COVID recovery by assisting in terms of the recovery efforts in Jamaica that have been essential to, I believe, what is necessary to strengthen not only the issue of public health but also the economy.”
Zenger News’ David Martosko called the speech “the definition of ’word salad.’”
“It’s practically word goulash,” he said.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.