She's Not Laughing Now: We Analyze Kamala Harris' Cackle — As Experts Ask if It Cost Her the Election

During a campaign stop in July, Donald Trump spoke about Kamala Harris and explained why he started calling her "laughing Kamala".

"You ever watch her laugh? She's crazy. You can tell a lot by a laugh. No, she's crazy, she's nuts," he told the crowd in Michigan.

In an interview aired on July 29, Trump answered Fox News host Laura Ingraham's question about whether Harris "is more of an extremist than most Americans today still understand".

"More than Bernie Sanders," he said, comparing the two. "Bernie Sanders is a major lunatic, OK? She's worse than Bernie Sanders. Now, she's trying to come back. She got rid of the laugh, I noticed. I haven't seen the crazy laugh. She's crazy. That laugh? That's a laugh of a crazy person. But I noticed she's not using that laugh anymore. Somebody convinced her, 'Don't, just don't laugh. Don't laugh under any circumstances.'"

"I like her laughter. But sometimes…" Ingraham replied before Trump cut her off.

"Not her laughter", The Apprentice star continued. "She was a bad prosecutor. She was a prosecutor of Black people. She put thousands and thousands of Black people in jail over marijuana. But when it came to big crime — murders and everything else — she was weak. She would love to go after Trump."

The Republican presidential nominee held another rally in Pennsylvania in August, during which he lambasted Harris and declared she would be easier to beat than President Joe Biden.

Trump also called the vice president "radical" and "lunatic", adding, "Have you heard her laugh? That is the laugh of a crazy person."

At the time, he also disclosed how disappointed he was upon seeing her on a TIME cover, claiming, "I'm much better looking than her".

Following Trump's comments, an expert responded to the mockery Harris was receiving.

Oneka LaBennett, associate professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Southern California, said it was "disappointing but not surprising" to see the reactions to Harris exuding happiness.

"She's facing these intersectional forms of racism and misogyny," LaBennett said, per NBC News. "The mocking of her laughter is a coded way of saying, 'This woman has the audacity of being joyful in public. How dare she?'"

Despite the hate, LaBennett said Harris' chuckle is actually a secret weapon, stating: "Typically, in American politics, authenticity is an asset. For people who are interested in her as a candidate, her laugh has emerged as a symbol of her authenticity. It's a way of saying, 'Oh, this is a real person, like everybody else.'"

On X, more experts and Harris' supporters came together to criticize the double standard and discrimination.

"If you attacked Kamala Harris for the way she laughs but you're voting for the guy pretending to perform a s-- act on his microphone live on stage, congratulations, you are an idiot, an a------, and you're in an extremely stupid cult," one said, while another wrote, "Why is Kamala Harris' laugh making right-wingers nervous? Because women's laughter is a sign of women's independence, freedom and audacity. It moves the slash from what the right have been enacting, women/slaughter to #womenslaughter."

Jennifer Taylor-Skinner, creator of the woman-focused political podcast Electorette, also tweeted: "Framing a woman's laughter as problematic, is a gendered insult. Sadly, this is something I've seen happen with VP Harris on both sides of the aisle."

Mark Buell, San Francisco real estate developer and Democratic donor, told The Independent: "[Harris] is very funny. She has a very good sense of humor, and when she enjoys herself, she has a very hearty laugh."

He, however, noted "that laugh became more prominent... so between the two, it would show up sometimes at inappropriate times" when Harris was nervous.

Harris' pal and former California state legislator Mark Leno added: "I don't know that I have any memory of, quote, 'the laugh,' which Republicans have used as a weapon against her since she became VP. But it does speak to her vivaciousness, her energy, her love of life, her passion. And I think it's terrific that it has now been turned around to be an asset."

Meanwhile, Donna Sachet — who first met Harris in 2003 — said "it is the same laugh" she heard decades ago.

"It bubbles up, and sometimes it gets kind of loud," the LGBT+ activist said of Harris' cackle.

Sachet also told The Independent: "Politics – to me, as I was beginning to get involved in it – seemed very dry. Some of the speeches would go on and on. But she often had humor in her speeches, and if you made a joke and she found it funny, she laughed fully, she laughed boisterously. We had fun with it. She would even sometimes cover her mouth and say, 'Oh, I'm being too loud!'"

Harris, however, was hesitant to show her joyful after she first entered politics but her team advised her to be authentic, The New York Times reported.

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