Kamala Harris Subtly Shades Trump & Elon In First Public Speech Since 2024 Election

After giving herself some time to accept losing the presidential election to Donald Trump and readjust to living her life outside of the White House once again, Former Vice President Kamala Harris is back in the public eye and expertly throwing shade right and left. On February 22, 2025, she accepted the Chairman Award at the 56th NAACP Image Awards and gave her first public speech since Harris' 2024 campaign ended in defeat. BET, which broadcasted the awards ceremony, shared a clip of her acceptance speech on X, formerly known as Twitter, and they praised all of Harris's decades-spanning work before offering their congratulations to her too.

Our Chairman Award recipient @kamalaharris gave us 107 days (and 30-plus years of service), so she deserves all the flowers our hands can hold. Congratulations #NAACPImageAwards #BET pic.twitter.com/UfXXNNF9lB

— BET (@BET) February 23, 2025

In front of an audience that included Cynthia Ervio, Zoe Saldana, and Keke Palmer, the former Democractic nominee explained how the founders of the NAACP knew they would face many difficult obstacles. "Those who carried its legacy forward had no illusions about the forces they were up against," she said. Harris then compared that struggle to what the people of today are experiencing, subtly shading both President Trump and Elon Musk.

"While we have no illusions about what we are up against in this chapter in our American story, this chapter will be written not simply by whoever occupies the Oval Office, nor by the wealthiest among us," she declared. "The American story will be written by you." It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the former VP is telling both Trump and his pal that they won't control the narrative without pushback from the American people.

The response to Kamala Harris' acceptance speech online was somewhat mixed, but many people responded to BET's tweet on X with praise and even longing for what could have been. "She should have been our President, and she is, in my heart. We will keep working to do what is right," tweeted one such person. "America f'ed so unbelievably bad! It's OK. They never deserved Harris, but right now, they deserve the orange wannabe dictator," posted another. Similarly, a third user agreed with the former vice president about keeping their fighting spirit alive and never giving up.

However, several other respondents were less than kind or optimistic. Several people wildly claimed that she "isn't even Black," which doesn't make sense. Harris' parents are Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris. Gopalan, who sadly passed away in 2009, was from southern India, while the former VP's father was born in Jamaica. That makes her half Indian, half Jamaican, which means she is part Black, and 100% a person of color. Though Donald Trump once claimed that Harris didn't always identify herself as Black, Reuters fact-checked that assertion and found him to be incorrect.