Conservatives this week pounced on Vice President Kamala Harris, saying she appeared to slip into a slight French accent while touring a COVID-19 lab in Paris, the New York Post reports.
Harris, who speaks some French after having lived in Quebec, Canada, as a teenager where she went to a French-speaking school, took a tour of the Pasteur Institute on Tuesday, and she praised the work being done by researchers.
''One of the things people in politics and government should really take from the approach of scientists — scientists operate with a hypothesis. I love that,'' she said, in English.
''A hypothesis. It's well-thought-out, it's well-planned, they start out with a hypothesis and then they test it out knowing invariably, you're trying something for the first time, there will be glitches, there will be mistakes,'' Harris added.
''Then everyone gets together, no one gets beat up about it, you analyze it — what went wrong, re-evaluate, update the hypothesis and start again,'' she said, going on to ridicule politicians who insist on sticking with a plan that doesn't work, which is when she may have begun to affect a slight French accent.
''In government, we campaign with 'The Plan,''' she said. ''Uppercase T, uppercase P, 'The Plan'! And then the environment is such we're expected to defend 'The Plan' even when the first time we roll it out there may be some glitches and it's time to re-evaluate and then do it again.''
Conservatives, including political columnist Joe Concha and the press secretary for Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, criticized Harris on Twitter.
''Is she using a FRENCH ACCENT?! I love this episode of Veep,'' said Hawley aide Abigail Marone.
''There really are no words anymore … #AuRevoir,'' Concha said.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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