Kamala Harris Criticized After Viral Staff Interaction During Hurricane Milton Broadcast - 'Exposed'?

As Hurricane Milton was taking aim at Florida, Vice President Kamala Harris found herself in a different kind of storm—one involving a viral hot mic incident.

The moment occurred during a virtual briefing about the Category 3 storm, featuring Harris and President Joe Biden, which led many to speculate she was receiving guidance from someone off-screen, feeding her lines and questions.

The Wednesday afternoon briefing also included key officials such as National Weather Service Director Ken Graham and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell, among others.

One of the primary takeaways from the briefing was a strong statement from the president regarding claims that “the money is needed to — for the — in the — for this crisis is being diverted to migrants.”

“This has to stop,” Biden said, as reported by RealClearPolitics. “In times like this, there are no red or blue states.”

It remains to be seen whether this will quell the ongoing debate about federal funds allegedly being tied up due to the administration's handling of the border crisis. However, the briefing also gained attention when Harris experienced a moment that mirrored some of Biden’s notable gaffes.

Though the vice president was not physically present at the White House, she participated virtually to discuss the risks posed by Hurricane Milton, which later made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast Wednesday night, according to The Associated Press.

Just before Harris was about to speak, she was caught covering her mouth and telling someone off-camera, “It’s a live broadcast.”

She then shifted to her question for Graham: “Hey, Ken, I have a question for you. You mentioned ‘words matter,’ and I know there is a lot of media following this briefing. So, we’ve seen the storm go from a Category 5 to a Category 4, and the term that’s being used is ‘downgrade,’” she noted, according to a White House transcript.

“But it seems like you’re warning us that using that term might give a false sense of reduced danger, when it’s actually still quite severe. Can you expand on that?”

Interestingly, the White House transcript did not include the vice president’s “It’s a live broadcast” remark. Instead, the transcript labeled her remarks as “(Inaudible.)”

Conservative voices and social media accounts—among them the Trump War Room, an official campaign account on the platform X—were quick to point out the blunder, hinting that Harris was being fed questions.

“Kamala can be heard telling an aide (who is feeding her questions) that it’s a ‘live broadcast’ before immediately asking the question,” the Trump War Room post read. “She’s completely inauthentic.”

Others echoed this sentiment:

Still, it was not entirely clear whether she was, in fact, receiving lines from off-camera assistance.

Regardless, the incident reignited concerns over a recurring issue in the Biden administration: the editing of official White House transcripts to make the president or his inner circle—this time his potential successor as the Democratic nominee—appear more composed.

While this practice has often involved correcting Biden’s errors, a notable example of this revision for Harris occurred in July 2023, when she addressed a crowd in Baltimore, saying, “When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population, more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water.”

In the official transcript, “population” was replaced by “pollution,” with the word added in brackets.