Vice President Kamala Harris was slammed on Thursday for inappropriately bursting into laughter after being asked if the United States would accept Ukrainian refugees – leading the Ukrainian president’s former press secretary Volodymyr Zelensky to say that it would be a “tragedy” if she ever became president.
The awkward moment took place during a joint press conference with Harris and Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw.
The two leaders had been questioned about the United States accepting Ukrainian refugees or otherwise easing pressure on Poland’s limited humanitarian resources. When the reporter stopped talking, Harris and Duda looked at each other as if expecting the other to answer first.
“OK,” Harris finally said, drawing a chuckle from Duda and the assembled reporters.
“A friend in need really is a friend,” the veep added before laughing loudly at her own line. After the gaiety ended, Duda confirmed that he had asked Harris to help expedite the consular process so that Ukrainian refugees with family in the United States could stay with them.
Critics lined up to hammer the VP on Twitter, saying the topic was “no laughing matter.”
“It would be a tragedy if this woman won the presidency,” Iuliia Mendel, a former spokeswoman for Zelensky, said in a quote tweet responding to a video of the interaction. She later deleted the post after a backlash.
“Only Kamala Harris would find it appropriate to laugh when bringing up the subject of Ukrainian refugees,” tweeted Benny Johnson of the conservative group Turning Point USA.
“Kamala Harris has been very consistent in her live remarks with the Polish leader,” said George Papadopoulos, former campaign aide to Donald Trump. “She laughs awkwardly. Still. Talking about refugees is no laughing matter. Why she laughs at this is disturbed.
“None of this is funny” added Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean.
This isn’t the first time Harris has been criticized for laughing at an inappropriate time. In August, Harris cut off a question from reporters about the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan by saying, “Wait, wait – slow down, everyone” before dissolving into giggles.
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At the time, former ‘The View’ co-host Meghan McCain suggested that Harris had “some kind of real problem” and compared her to ‘Batman’ villain, The Joker.
“[S]he’s the VP and she’s had enough time and resources to train the media to react to every SINGLE crisis situation like she’s going to a late night show,” McCain tweeted. “She comes out so loose.”
On Thursday, Harris said she recognized the burden placed on Poland by the “unprecedented” flow of refugees – more than 1.4 million as of Thursday evening – but refrained from saying whether the United States had engaged to accommodate a number of them.
The vice president noted that Ukrainians currently in the United States whose visas are nearing their expiration date will be allowed to stay.
“We won’t be sending them back to what is a war zone,” Harris said.
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