Former Vice President Kamala Harris reemerged from months out of the public eye on April 3, 2025, delivering a forceful address at the Leading Women Defined Summit in Dana Point, California. In her first major public comments since the 2024 election, Harris admonished organizations and individuals who have remained silent or “capitulated to clearly unconstitutional threats,” warning that their inaction has fostered “a great sense of fear” across the country
During the speech, Harris did not hesitate to call out this climate of silence.
“We’re seeing people stay quiet. We are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats. And these are the things we are witnessing each day in the last few months in our country. And it understandably creates a great sense of fear.”
Then, breaking into laughter, she quipped:
“I’m not here to say ‘I told you so’… I swear, I wasn’t going to say that.”
He also urged viewers to mobilize this weekend for the nationwide “Hands Off!” protests in Washington, D.C., where more than half a million demonstrators, including Raskin himself and other Democratic leaders, are expected to rally on the National Mall to defend democratic norms and protect the civil service from political retaliation
Later that evening on MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki, Representative Jamie Raskin joined the discussion to expand on Harris’s warnings. Raskin pointed to an unprecedented wave of federal purges—from the IRS laying off over 20,000 employees to the abrupt dismissal of national security and Justice Department officials—as clear evidence of an authoritarian power grab designed to silence dissent and consolidate control
