The Kamala Harris ‘French accent’ saga is really strange

It’s highly possible that the vice president simply chose to emphasize the word “the,” and meant nothing by it. It is also possible that she did try to use an accent, as she is no stranger to cringeworthy moments during her public appearances.

If your reaction, (like this author’s), is “who cares?” the answer is, well, evidently, a lot of people. 

Somewhat predictably, Fox News ran several segments and published many articles on the topic, but that was to be expected. What isn’t necessarily expected is former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo going on Fox News and declaring the alleged accent a possible national security threat.

“The clip from Vice President Harris is just it’s more than embarrassing on the world stage,” Pompeo said. “Our adversaries watch that and see weakness. They see people who aren’t serious, they see people who aren’t determined precisely the opposite of what we did for four years. It feels a lot more like the Carter administration in terms of how they view America as a danger to the world and apologize everywhere they go.”

On Friday, the saga was given new life when Harris spoke again in Paris, and Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs pointed out that Harris again used the “thee” pronunciation. She did not allege that Harris used an accent but was still accosted by prominent liberal Twitter users who have decided that simply ignoring the fatuous story — now three days old — is not an option.

“What is wrong with you?” former Media Matters for America editor Parker Molly tweeted at Jacobs.

“Delete this crap, Jennifer,” wrote another verified user.

It remains to be seen if the animated reaction to the video (and the reaction to the reaction to the video) will linger into next week.