“Kamala stood up, smiled confidently, and then… nothing. She just stood there, smiling, for what felt like an eternity. The entire class was staring at her, waiting for her to speak. Finally, she said, ‘What is debate, really?’ And that was it. That was her argument.”
Walters says Harris’s debate skills—or lack thereof—were a running joke for years. “We started calling that move ‘The Kamala.’ Anytime a student wasn’t prepared, they’d just stand there and smile, hoping their charisma would carry them through. It worked once or twice, but nobody ever mastered it like Kamala.”
Another professor, Dr. Leonard Clark, who taught Philosophy of Law, recounted Harris’s reliance on her trademark laugh to escape tricky academic situations. “Whenever Kamala was caught off guard in class, she’d laugh. A big, hearty laugh. It was like her secret weapon. I’d ask her to explain Hobbes’s view on the social contract, and she’d just laugh, say something vague about the ‘human condition,’ and then somehow pivot to talking about yoga. It was baffling.”
