Kamala Harris faces comparisons to Howard Dean after boisterous 2020 campaign launch

In 2004, Democrat and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean showed the world that one embarrassing moment on a hot mic can ruin a bid for the presidency — and it looks like one Democrat 2020 hopeful is following in his footsteps.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) kicked off her 2020 presidential campaign on Sunday with a speech in Oakland, CA, where an unusual laugh from the candidate left many comparing her to Dean.

Bizarre laugh raises eyebrows

Before losing the Democratic nomination to John Kerry in 2004, Howard Dean arguably ended his own campaign with a bizarre laugh that quickly became a nationwide laughingstock. Remember this?…

Fifteen years later, it seems Dean’s laugh is still haunting the Democratic Party. At her Sunday event, Harris let out what The American Mirror characterized as a “cackle.” Take a listen:

Peeling back the curtains

While a moment like this might not make a huge splash just ahead of an election, with nearly two years until Americans cast their ballots for president — and with an ever-growing field of Democrats hoping to challenge President Donald Trump — odd moments like this have an outsized effect and overshadow the real meat of a candidate’s platform. For Harris, that means missing out on a prime opportunity to attack the man in the Oval Office.

“People in power are trying to convince us that the villain in our American story is each other,” Harris said in her speech on Sunday. “But that is not our story. That is not who we are. That is not our America. The United States of America is not about us versus them.”

She went on to declare that she’s “running to be a president of the people, by the people, for all the people.”

“Let’s remember: in this fight, we have the power of the people,” Harris continued. “We can achieve the dreams of our parents and grandparents. We can heal our nation. We can give our children the future they deserve. We can reclaim the American dream for every single person in our country. And we can restore America’s moral leadership on this planet.”

Rocky past

But it isn’t just strange laughs that are overshadowing this anti-Trump message from Harris. As a first-term senator, Harris doesn’t have the benefit of a lengthy CV to cover up mistakes she made early in her career.

It was reported last week that former San Francisco mayor and California State Assembly speaker Willie Brown admitted to influencing Harris’ early career, including by landing her lucrative jobs on state commissions while the two were having an affair in the mid-1990s. Despite the obvious implications, Brown maintains that the appointments were not unethical.

Still, other Democrats have expressed concern over Harris’ wavering track record. As San Francisco district attorney and, later, attorney general of California, Harris was a staunch defender of the death penalty, but now, she argues that the practice is “flawed.”

With many other options on the table — many of whom haven’t been compared to Howard Dean — Harris might just have laughed her White House ambitions away. Farewell.