In a wide-ranging interview with longtime radio personality Howard Stern, Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris shared her views on the “fundamental rights” under siege in the United States, including those of LGBTQ+ Americans.

“Thomas said it,” Harris noted, referring to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ admission in the Dobbs decision that LGBTQ+ rights were the next to be rolled back.

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“This is dictator talk.”

“You know, the strength of America includes that we have been committed as Americans” to “the expansion of rights,” Harris told Stern, as the conversation segued from a discussion of reproductive freedom to LGBTQ+ Americans. “It’s part of our spirit.”

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“For the first time,” she said, “we’re seeing a restriction of rights: fundamental rights.” 

“Well, here’s what I worry about,” Stern replied. “You got a guy who says probably you don’t really need to vote if I win. You got a guy who says, hey, we’re not stopping here. You know, gay rights are next.”

“Yeah,” Harris agreed.

“You know it.”

“Thomas said it.”

“I mean, who doesn’t have, you know, here’s the crazy thing to me,” Stern continued. “Who doesn’t have gay people in their life, whether it’s your kid, whether it’s your best friend, whether it’s — the genie is out of the bottle, guys.”

“And to your point, think about it,” Harris said. “You know, so I actually was proud to perform some of the first same-sex marriages as an elected official in 2004. A lot of people have evolved since then,” she added graciously.

“Here’s how I think about it,” she explained. “We actually had laws that were treating people based on their sexual orientation differently. So, if you’re a gay couple, you can’t get married. We were basically saying that you are a second-class citizen under the law, not entitled to the same rights as a couple who are consenting adults in a loving relationship. You, therefore, when one of you is sick, when one, God forbid, passes away, will not have the same legal rights. We’re saying literally you’re a second-class citizen under the law.

“And now you see the court that Donald Trump created, that is openly talking about what else could be at risk. And understand, if Donald Trump were to get another term — most of the legal scholars think that there’s going to be maybe even two more seats that will be up. That means, think about it, not for the next four years, for the next 40 years, for the next four generations of your family, what might be a Supreme Court that is about restricting your rights, versus expanding your rights?”

Harris has made the defense of “fundamental freedoms” central to her campaign.

The hour-plus interview, notable for Harris’ growing comfort with the format, was recorded in the middle of a coordinated media blitz that took the candidate to The View on ABC earlier the same day, after the broadcast of a 60 Minutes interview the night before, and ahead of an appearance with Stephen Colbert later in the evening.

Harris’ candor, humor, and diplomatic skills — a requirement not only for the presidency but a successful encounter with the one-time shock jock — were on full display in answers to a well-researched list of questions from Stern, covering everything from national security and NATO to napping (Harris misses it) and the candidate’s Gen X taste in music (Prince and U2). The nominee also managed to work in an advisory to avoid visiting the Sphere in Las Vegas when you’re high.

The interview was notable, as well, for the reaction it garnered from another Stern guest from another era in both men’s careers: Donald Trump, a frequent caller to the top-rated Howard Stern Show at the peak of New York’s tabloid-crazed culture in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Trump lashed out Wednesday on his Truth Social platform, calling Stern a “BETA MALE” for making “a fool of himself on his low rated radio show when he ‘interviewed’ Lyin’ Kamala Harris, and hit her with so many SOFTBALL questions that even she was embarrassed.”

“I dropped Howard a long time ago,” Trump crowed, “like most others, and have since been credited with very good judgment!”

Stern was unvarnished in his criticism of Trump in the Harris interview, but also a little wistful about their one-time mutually beneficial relationship.

“I’ve known Donald Trump so many years. He was at my wedding. I always had a good time with him, but not as president as the United States.”

“And then he hated me,” Stern added.

Harris summed up the former president’s transactional self-absorption for her host.

“Donald Trump is an unserious man. And the consequences of him being president again are brutally serious.”

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