Kamala Harris’s Side Eye Brings Comedic Relief to the Election
By Christian Grullon| Published by October 17, 2020
Recently on Oct.7, The Vice Presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence was held. Major news networks such as CNN, Fox, and NBC news covered the debate. Although the debate was much more civil than the spat with President Donald Trump and Presidential nominee Joe Biden, one thing that was noticeable was Harris’ facial expressions. In order to express her displeasure at Pence’s statements, Harris did not resort to interrupting like Trump constantly did to Biden in their debate. Instead, the expressions on her face said it all. Harris also showed composure in not reacting out of anger when it was her turn to speak. Harris never even resorted to name-calling or personal attacks on Pence at all, her facial expressions were on the spotlight throughout the whole entire debate.
Harris was noticeable side-eyeing towards Pence whenever he was speaking. Harris became a popular figure for meme jokes all over social media. Harris often smiled and shook her head whenever Pence gave false information. After the debate, her facial expressions became viral on social media through memes.
One meme on social media was posted by a Twitter user by the name Carolina A. Miranda in which she said “Kamala’s face when Pence is talking is the same face my mother made whenever I was explaining why I didn’t make curfew.” The post had a screenshot of Harris’s clear displeasure at Pence. The meme had 289 retweets, 19 quote tweets, and 1.9k likes.
Harris was also met with some criticism for her expressions as well. Frank Lutz, voting pollster, stated that undecided voters did not like Harris’s facial expressions in which he said in a tweet, “She is applauded for her knowledge, but they just don’t like her condescending reactions.”
Former Fox News and NBC News journalist Megyn Kelly scolded Harris on Twitter in which she posted “Take it like a woman, Don’t make Faces.”
Harris became the first African-American woman to be nominated Vice President for a major party after Democratic nominee Joe Biden selected her back in August. Pence’s and Harris’s debate was the only one that was being held. The next debate between President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden will be held on Oct. 22.