‘We call that a sore loser’: Harris addresses Trump’s potential election-loss denials on the Howard Stern Show
The vice president tells the shock jock that her Republican rival is ‘dangerous and unfit’ for office
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Your support makes all the difference.Kamala Harris told Howard Stern that Donald Trump is preparing to be a “sore loser” as the former president continues to refuse to say he is willing to accept the results of the 2024 election.
Stern — who repeatedly assailed the former president as he interviewed his Democratic rival on Tuesday— blasted Trump’s “delusional” framing of the outcome of this year’s election.
“‘If I win, it’s a fair election. If I lose, Kamala Harris and her buddies fixed it,’” Stern said. “That’s delusional.”
“In America, we call that a sore loser,” Harris replied.
During a mostly friendly, hour-long interview, Stern peppered Harris with questions about her thoughts on Trump and his “chaos” in and out of office, from the “insanity” that he turned down an interview with 60 Minutes because he refused to be fact-checked to the moment he baselessly accused immigrants of eating pets during their only debate.
“I believe that this election is about strength versus weakness,” the vice president said. “Weakness is projected by someone who does not have the strength to stand in defense of themselves.”
Stern also joked that he wished that Russian President Vladimir Putin would “get COVID and drop dead” after it was revealed that Trump reportedly secretly sent him tests for personal use at the height of the pandemic.
“This is what keeps me up at night,” Stern said. “I don’t understand how my fellow Americans … I don’t even understand how this election is close. Yes, I’m voting for you but I’d also vote for that wall over there. … Why do my fellow Americans want this kind of chaos overseas? Why?”
Harris said that Putin has “punked” Trump into supporting an “adversary.”
“It’s a sign of weakness in a leader to not stand in defense of your people,” said Harris, listing off former Republican officials and members of Trump’s cabinet who have refused to support him.
“The people who have known him best have let us know … he is dangerous and unfit,” Harris said.
The Democratic nominee appeared on Stern’s SiriusXM broadcast during a weeklong blitz of unscripted media appearances, landing on the so-called king of media’s long-running talk-radio show better known for rampant misogyny and on-air pranks.
The shock jock has made an unlikely transformation into an uncontroversial and familiar face in American homes, from his appearances on the extremely family-friendly America’s Got Talent competition series to his earnest interviews on his long-running radio broadcast.
The Howard Stern Show, which surged in popularity after its national syndication in the late 1980s, was known for pushing the limits of bad taste with racist, derogatory and generally offensive segments inside a studio used as a clown car full of oddball characters and people with disabilities who were often the butt of his jokes.
Stern, who has broadcast on SiriusXM satellite radio since 2006 to roughly 10 million weekly listeners, has in recent years pivoted to an interview approach that appears to be more interested in probing, introspective questions than sex and fart jokes and asking his guests to take off their clothes.
He was also once a longtime associate of the former president, who made several appearances on The Howard Stern Show in the 1990s and 2000s. Like Stern’s “Wack Pack” regulars, Trump was often lured into a false sense of security to blurt out admissions that have trailed his political career.
It was on Stern’s show that Trump called avoiding sexually transmitted diseases his “personal Vietnam”; claimed that he “could have” had sex with Princess Diana; and said “I guess so” when asked whether he supported the Iraq War.
In 2017, Stern said Trump had “no f******g idea the s****y life” he was in for after he was elected president. The next year, Stern said Trump should “get the f**** out of the White House” and “go back to Mar-a-Lago and hang.”
During an appearance on Fox News last month, Trump said Stern has “gone woke” and “changed.”
“If woke means I can’t get behind [Trump], which is what I think it means, or that I support people who want to be transgender, or I’m for the vaccine — dude, call me woke as you f*****g want,” Stern responded.
In 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and revoked a constitutional right to an abortion, Stern blasted the appointment of three conservative justices to the high court “by a president who lost the popular vote by 3 million votes.”
He told Harris on Tuesday that women should be able to “make that decision for herself.”
“What is this? I don’t want Donald Trump and his party deciding,” he said. “I don’t want Clarence Thomas deciding.”
Trump “hand selected three members … to do exactly what they did,” Harris said.
“I ask people to take a step back … whatever your gender, and it’s not about abortion,” she said. “You have basically, now, a system that says you as an individual do not have the right to make a decision about your own body. The government has a right to make that decision for you.”
The US is now seeing “a restriction of rights, fundamental rights,” she said.
“What could be more fundamental about making decisions about your own body?” she added. “This issue is not about trying to convert people. One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs.”
Stern laid into Trump for attacking Taylor Swift for endorsing Harris and asked the vice president how Americans can elect someone “with that kind of mentality.”
“Donald Trump is an unserious man, and the consequences of him becoming president again are hugely serious,” she said.
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