Harris says 'everybody needs to be woke' in viral clip

Now that Vice President Kamala Harris has taken the Democrat nomination, it appears that the country will be saddled with her as one of the general contenders, whether voters want her or not.

Because of the change that came following President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the election, Harris has been under a microscope, and according to a recent Fox News report, a 2017 clip of Harris saying that "everybody needs to be woke" has been making the social media rounds.

The video has prompted critics and conservatives to criticize the official Democratic nominee as a "Communist functionary" who is "too radical" to stand for the office of president.

"We have to stay woke. Like everybody needs to be woke. And you can talk about if you're the wokest or woker, but just stay more woke than less woke," then-Sen. Harris said.

Commentary Context

Together with philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs—the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs—the remarks were delivered at Recode's annual Code Conference.

Harris expressed her opposition to the Trump administration's drug and immigration policies at the conference, just moments before she urged Americans to become "woke."

"I get upset when we say we're going to shut our door to refugees who are fleeing such atrocities and have been standing in line for two years to qualify for refugee status, and they arrive here, and we turn them away.

"Yes, I'm gonna get mad about that. I'm gonna get mad when we have an attorney general who's trying to resuscitate the war on drugs. And he thinks the greatest evil that mankind has ever seen is marijuana. … Leave grandma's medical marijuana alone," Harris said.

Other Instances

Harris reiterated her observation in a message that was posted to X the following day, stating, "We have to stay active. We have to stay woke." We have to stay woke."

We have to stay active. We have to stay woke. #codecon

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) June 1, 2017

In 2017, the term "woke" gained prominence as dictionaries like Oxford and Merriam-Webster included the phrase in their lexicons, defining it as individuals who are concerned with issues such as social justice. It has since evolved into a general term that encompasses left-wing agendas and issues.

Critics on social media are criticizing the presumptive Democratic nominee, Harris, over the recording, seven years after Harris participated in the 2017 conference. Conservative author James Lindsay has referred to Harris as a "Communist functionary."

"Kamala is a low-level Communist functionary, and I'm tired of being told we have to pretend she's not," he wrote.