Transcript: Rachel Maddow Live

21 April 2021

00:21:45

[UNCORRECTED AND NOT FOR PUBLICATION]

Page 2:

Rachel Maddow: Madam President, what do you think when you see those pictures?

President Kamala Harris: Well, you know, obviously, it’s a very moving sight. We haven’t had a president die in office since JFK, and you know, Rachel, in many ways I feel that President Biden was a fitting heir to that legacy.

Rachel Maddow: And here are some photos of your swearing in, any thoughts right now?

President Kamala Harris: Of course it’s an awesome moment, the history — and I’m very much aware as the first, not only female but also African-American president and also Jamaican and South Asian president —

Rachel Maddow: A lot of firsts!

President Kamala Harris: So true!

Rachel Maddow: Do we know yet for sure how President Biden died?

President Kamala Harris: Rachel, you know, that’s a mystery at this time and I know that there is a medical investigation going on right now, which is proper, and I’m sure there will be a report at the right time. To be honest, I’m just right now trying to get my arms around the job and of course keeping connected to the current administration, talking to Secretary of the Treasury Elizabeth Warren, that sort of thing.

Rachel Maddow: But we’re sure it wasn’t COVID-19?

President Kamala Harris: Amazingly, it wasn’t. As you recall, the president came down with COVID-19 a few days, really, after his inauguration —

Rachel Maddow: There was speculation at the time that in fact you were the one who infected him, and —

President Kamala Harris: Well that was just so silly!

Rachel Maddow: I guess people reacted to seeing you that day, without a mask, and you sneezed on him several times and then touched his face a great deal.

President Kamala Harris: Rachel, I’m not going to waste my time discussing absurd conspiracy theories. Joe Biden was a wonderful mentor and partner and in robust health, and did he get COVID-19? Yes he did. Did he get it from me? Impossible to say. Did he recover after a couple of days, really, on a respirator? He most certainly did.

Rachel Maddow: Of course, I get that. It’s just that after that he took that spill in the White House and it really looked like —

President Kamala Harris: Rachel, we’ve been through this and through this. Honestly, I don’t know why we’re going over this again. As everyone now knows, the floors were slippery, having been polished recently, and I lost my footing and was trying to grab for the banister and inadvertently, in the confusion, grabbed onto the president —

Rachel Maddow: And pushed him down the stairs?

President Kamala Harris: He fell down the stairs. I didn’t push him. Rachel, this is really Fox News kind of stuff, I’m surprised at you.

Rachel Maddow: Madam President, it’s just that people are a little confused about the past very unlucky months for the president —

President Kamala Harris: Former president. I’m the president. He’s the former president. The former, late president.

Rachel Maddow: But just to wrap this area up, there was the COVID and then the tumble down the stairs and then, food poisoning?

President Kamala Harris: Well, yes, and to be honest I really do feel bad about this one because as everyone knows I was the one who poured the coffee and so I guess I handed him the one with the, I keep forgetting what the substance was called —

Rachel Maddow: VX.

President Kamala Harris: Right, right. VX. Which is apparently something that the Russians use, so I’ll be investigating that of course, and I’ve directed Attorney General Klobuchar to look into it as soon as possible. But the real point is, President Joe Biden was made of some pretty strong stuff, believe me. He got dosed with VX and he bounced right back.

Rachel Maddow: He was hospitalized, though. And was in a coma for a day.

President Kamala Harris: Yes, I know that, Rachel. I was acting president at the time, which was a great honor, of course, as I was the first black and female acting president of African and West Indian and South Asian descent.

Rachel Maddow: And he hadn’t really recovered fully from the COVID-19, which he got, some say, from you.

President Kamala Harris: No he hadn’t.

Rachel Maddow: Or the fall down the stairs, also because of you.

President Kamala Harris: I really resent this line of —

Rachel Maddow: And then the poison in the coffee cup, which you poured.

President Kamala Harris: Rachel, you’re making me angry. You do not want to do that, girl.

Rachel Maddow: I’m just trying to understand.

President Kamala Harris: Understand what? Look, I loved the guy but he was elderly and accident-prone and the voters knew that. Can we please talk about the issues?

Rachel Maddow: One last question if I may on this. Do we, as yet, have any idea how the toaster got into the bathroom? Or how it tumbled into the president’s —

President Kamala Harris: Former! Late!

Continued on page 3.