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WaPo Edits Out Kamala Harris Joke About Prison Inmates Begging For Water

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The Washington Post said Friday that it “repurposed and updated” a story containing joking comments made by Vice President Kamala Harris about prison inmates.

WaPo’s 2019 Harris campaign trail feature formerly contained comments wherein Harris compared her life on the campaign trail to the trials of prison inmates.

She dwelt with particular emphasis on how nice it was for her to “actually” sleep in and relax when she stayed in Miami before one of the presidential debates.

Reason first published the excerpt that WaPo removed.

It was the Fourth of July, Independence Day, and Kamala Harris was explaining to her sister, Maya, that campaigns are like prisons.

She’d been recounting how in the days before the Democratic debate in Miami life had actually slowed down to a manageable pace. Kamala, Maya and the rest of the team had spent three days prepping for that contest in a beach-facing hotel suite, where they closed the curtains to blot out the fun. But for all the hours of studying policy and practicing the zingers that would supercharge her candidacy, the trip allowed for a break in an otherwise all-encompassing schedule.

“I actually got sleep,” Kamala said, sitting in a Hilton conference room, beside her sister, and smiling as she recalled walks on the beach with her husband and that one morning SoulCycle class she was able to take.

“That kind of stuff,” Kamala said between sips of iced tea, “which was about bringing a little normal to the days, that was a treat for me.”

“I mean, in some ways it was a treat,” Maya said. “But not really.”

“It’s a treat that a prisoner gets when they ask for, ‘A morsel of food please,’ ” Kamala said shoving her hands forward as if clutching a metal plate, her voice now trembling like an old British man locked in a Dickensian jail cell. “‘And water! I just want wahtahhh….’Your standards really go out the f—ing window.”

Kamala burst into laughter.

WaPo’s VP of Communications Kristine Coratti Kelly told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a Friday statement that the publication “repurposed and updated” the Harris story “as part of our Transfer of Power coverage and special sections produced on Biden and Harris.”

Kelly said that WaPo “should have kept both versions of the story on The Post’s site (the original and updated one), rather than redirecting to the updated version.”

“We have now done that, and you will see the link to the original at the top of the updated version,” she told the DCNF.

WaPo originally added a line noting that “this story has been updated from an earlier published version.” Following Reason’s story, the publication added a link to the earlier version of the piece.

The @washingtonpost has now added a link (on “earlier published version”) to the original 2019 Kamala Harris profile in its updated version of the profile that removed an embarrassing anecdote. Link to archived version included here:https://t.co/bLwvSo6Adc pic.twitter.com/WDZ7ugVpCG

— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) January 22, 2021