In 2024 we may well be watching Kamala Harris and Mike Pence go head to head as presidential
candidates. Not only do both have presidential ambitions, but thanks to their running mates'
advanced ages, both could easily become president by succeeding to the office.
Prior to the 2020 Vice Presidential debate, Senator Harris and Hillary Clinton sat down
to chat about what to expect. Clinton offered,
"I think you should... be prepared for the slights, the efforts to diminish you, you
personally [and] you as a woman who's about to be our next vice president... there will
be a lot of maneuvering on the other side to try to put you in a box."
If the ex-Secretary of State was concerned, she needn't have been.
The List talked to body language expert and psychologist Dr. Reneé Carr, who gave us
exclusive insights into what Kamala Harris' body language at the VP debate revealed.
Dr. Carr, who is also a political and corporate advisor, told The List that while Senator
Harris showed up prepared for a formidable opponent, she was still confident in her skills
at speaking and relaxed in the debate setting.
Carr based her judgments on movements that some may find unexpected or surprising. The
fact that Harris' crossed her legs behind her desk at times? That means, says Carr,
that
"She was poised internally and not poised just as an external show of confidence."
In their pre-debate huddle, Harris told Clinton that she was preparing to confront, quote,
"a series of untruths." After the debate, Dr. Carr confirmed to The List what Harris
herself predicted. She noted,
"Harris often raised her left eyebrow when listening to Pence's responses as if she were
both skeptical ... and was also expecting an absurd response."
Carr further pointed to Harris' raised eyebrows and squinting eyes. These expressions exuded
a feeling of:
"'I really want to hear what incredulous comment he's about to say.'"
On the debate floor, Harris came particularly prepared to counter the Trump Administration's
response to COVID 19. Not only, Carr said, was the Senator "ready and eager" with counter
statistics, but she had also meticulously prepared talking points. According to Carr,
"She deliberately used the word 'dead bodies' to invoke a sense of appall, rather than using
softer wording such as 'loved ones lost' or 'victims of the virus.'"
Per Dr. Carr, Harris revealed her true feelings when she and Pence sparred over ISIS.
"You gotta know who your adversaries are, and keep them in check."
When she did so, Carr observed, Harris "put her hands parallel to each other and positioned
them to her right." Why is that significant? Carr says,
"She also used this same hand positioning when referring to President Trump — revealing
that she views Trump not merely as an opponent but more as an adversary."
When Harris critiqued the Trump administration's COVID-19 response, Carr observed,
"Harris spoke of the anxieties mothers faced when worried about their children not being
able to go back to school."
It was an attempt, says Carr, to appeal "to the mothers and caretakers of America" by
evoking "the experiences that homemakers could relate to during the shutdown that came with
the pandemic."
In other words, she reached out to viewers not just with her rhetoric, but with body
language as well. Her expressions were carefully calculated to ensure voters felt she was relatable,
honest, and familiar. When, for example, Harris assured voters with a wide-eyed expression
that "Joe Biden will not ban fracking,"
"[Her eyes] pleaded with viewers to not only listen to her words but to also fully understand
that she was explicitly refuting Pence's claim."
By informally calling the VP debate moderator by her first name, Susan, Harris went a step
further in her quest for relatability. Carr said,
"Harris was engaging in a tactic to not only directly engage the moderator but to also
create an experience for viewers' to feel as if they were a fly on the wall hearing
Kamala's honest conversation with a colleague or friend."
For all of Harris' apparent efforts to exude self-control, Dr. Reneé Carr pointed The
List to three notable times when Harris might have lost it.
The first? When debate moderator, Susan Page, asked Harris if she would take a COVID-19
vaccine.
"If the doctors tell us that we should take it, I'll be the first in line to take it,
absolutely. But if Donald Trump tells us we should take it, I'm not taking it."
According to Carr,
"The tell-tale sign of her irritation was a flared nose."
The second? When Harris laughed after Pence alleged that her running mate would make it
a priority to raise taxes.
How can a laugh, you think, be a sign of anger? According to Dr. Carr, in addition to a chuckle,
"She also pressed her tongue against her teeth, revealing that she had unchoice words for
Pence in mind but was making sure she did not verbalize those words."
But the most emotional Harris got during the debate was during discussions about the police
killing of Breonna Taylor. Pence's answer to the question led into a criticism of Harris'
legislative history regarding the police. Carr observed,
"Her nose flared and her voice slightly wavered to reveal she was becoming emotionally charged
and angered. It is likely that she was not only insulted by Pence's comments but that
she felt he lacked the credentials to critique her track record."
"I will not sit here and be lectured by the Vice President on what it means to enforce
the laws of our country."
And yet, despite the insult, and Harris' obvious "sadness" at Breonna Tayler's death, the vice-presidential
candidate sought to "exude strength." She kept her calm.
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