Brandon Scott laments Kamala Harris’ loss, treatment of Black women in viral video
A video of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott publicly lamenting the loss of Vice President Kamala Harris — and America's treatment of Black women in general — has gone viral.
In remarks Wednesday, a day after Harris' resounding defeat by former President Donald Trump, Scott spoke in highly personal terms about Harris' loss and what he felt it said about the country.
He said he was "extremely disappointed" in the results, and that it was clear that there would be a second Trump term as president. On Election Day, Scott had enthusiastically tweeted about making history by electing Harris.
Despite being the first Baltimore mayor to win reelection since 2004, Scott struck a more somber tone the following day.
"It is really on my heart this morning to say that as a man, but more importantly as a Black man, that this country does not deserve Black women or Black people, but specifically Black women," Scott said.
He continued, "This morning, I woke up and I just gave my wife a hug because I know how heavy this is weighing on Black women. And they have carried this country and saved this country too many times and continue to be the most disrespected human beings on the planet. And it quite frankly, it disgusts me."
A tweet showing Scott's remarks by — VOTE For Community, VOTE For The Babies, VOTE — had received 1.1 million views as of early Friday morning.
"Baltimore got them a Real One," the X member who shared it wrote.
A video posted on the mayor's Instagram account had drawn more than 500,000 views.
On Tuesday, voters picked the 78-year-old Trump, a former president who was convicted last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, over Harris, the first woman, Black and person of Asian descent to be elected vice president. She quickly emerged as the Democrats' choice after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race following a shaky debate performance and endorsed her. Trump was elected despite longstanding questions about his racial attitudes and the uttering of racist comments by speakers at his closing rally in New York City.
"I'm thinking about the world that we're going to bring our daughter into in a few months," Scott said. "And I want the vice president to know that her and her team did everything right in the right way. But the unfortunate reality is that this country is still steeped in racism, sexism and misogyny."
Scott seemed beside himself that voters had picked Trump over Harris, despite what political observers called a strong debate performance and a well-executed campaign.
"I am personally proud of her and I know that so many others are the same. We appreciate her tenacity, her focus, her decency and how she handled herself throughout this campaign. And I don't want to hear anybody saying that they should have done something different, she should have been running longer. The fact is, is that they did everything that a campaign can do and more. But we as a country really have a lot of soul searching to do and that's really what I wanna say about that today."
