The Telegraph still employs Camilla Tominey, even if Tominey’s curiously anti-Sussex “royal sources” have dried up in the past year. Tominey moved from royal gossip to right-wing political commentary, and she had a rough few months as she tried (unsuccessfully) to scare people into voting for the Tories in the British election. Now the UK election cycle is over and Labour has power, Tominey is now trying to turn her political savvy (lol) to the American election cycle. Would you believe that Tominey has opinions about Vice President Kamala Harris? Would you believe that those opinions involve the Duchess of Sussex?
There had always been something strangely familiar about Kamala Harris. But I couldn’t quite put my finger on it – until she emerged from Joe Biden’s shadow after the US President announced his resignation on Sunday. The penchant for spouting word salad; the slightly awkward misplaced laughter; the courting of chat show hosts; the celebrity iPhone moments; the loathing of Donald Trump; the unfortunate bullying allegations. And then the penny dropped. Meghan! Kamala Harris reminds me of the Duchess of Sussex.
As she continues to spoon Montecito jam into jars, I wonder what Prince Harry’s wife is thinking right now. It has been suggested that Meghan one day dreamed of being the first mixed race, female President of the United States. Now Harris could beat her to it.
Meghan was once the toast of Oprah Winfrey. Now Harris is the darling of the US chat show scene, having been salivated over by Drew Barrymore. Meghan once actively sought out a relationship with Michelle and Barack Obama, now they are busily endorsing Harris’s presidency. (Was it just me or did that staged phone call between the Obamas and Harris have shades of Meghan telling Harry “Beyonce’s just texted”, just as the Netflix cameras were conveniently rolling?).
And the rhetoric! Both Meghan and Kamala spout this sort of pseudo-spiritual psychobabble that sounds perfectly progressive but doesn’t always make that much sense. The Duchess once declared: “Reflecting on where I came from helps me to appreciate and balance what I have now.” But on reflection, might she have preferred to have come up with Harris’s now-infamous catchphrase: “What can be, unburdened by what has been”. I mean, if you heard Meghan uttering these words at some point during the Sussexes’ 2019 tour of South Africa, you really wouldn’t have batted an eyelid, so accustomed had you become to her sociology-degree speaking style.
Both women have spoken out in support of each other in the past. “Meghan, we are with you,” Harris tweeted when things were getting tough for the royal couple before Megxit. The Duchess, in turn, welcomed Harris’s nomination as vice president a year later. Meghan has not yet publicly endorsed Harris for president. But it can surely only be a matter of time.
I’m not sure a white political commentator would get away with this kind of bitter and snide ad hominem attacks on two mixed race women here in America. Well, someone like Tominey would absolutely try, and she would be widely mocked and ridiculed by the American media and social media. The one thing women like Tominey will always have is the audacity, you know?
It’s interesting that she mentioned VP Harris’s tweet of support for Meghan, because Kamala actually tweeted her support for Meghan several different times over the years. Tominey also failed to mention that Doug Emhoff attended and spoke at the Sussexes’ Mental Health Festival last year. The Biden-Harris administration has been supportive privately and publicly of the Sussexes, as has Hillary Clinton. I guess what I’m saying is that… of course Meghan is probably super-excited that a California girl like Kamala Harris is running for president. Meghan is not fuming that Kamala “beat her to it,” because the whole “Meghan is going to run for president” thing was truly just some British tabloid fiction. Meghan and Kamala are not in competition because they are not in the same place whatsoever. This attempt to denigrate both of them by comparison falls flat because Meghan and Kamala are both awesome in completely different ways.
Photos courtesy of Archewell, Instagram and Cover Images.