Can you guess Kamala Harris' favorite curse word?
In just about six months on the job, California Sen. Kamala Harris (D) has made a name for herself in the upper chamber. The junior senator was formerly California's attorney general — which she is quick to point out, beginning much of her questioning in Senate hearings with the phrase, "I'm a prosecutor." Her relentless questioning has made Attorney General Jeff Sessions squirm, while earning her some reprimands from Senate colleagues for her lack of deference to witnesses.
"She speaks. She's heard," California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) told The New York Times for its profile of Harris, published Thursday. "She gets to the point," Brown continued. Not only that, but Harris also deploys "a courtroom bluntness" while speaking, the Times revealed:
In the May interview, Ms. Harris savaged the Republican health-care proposals and twice deployed profanities, rousing the home state attendees.
"I was told one should not say" — here she let fly the longest of George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" — "in these kinds of interviews," she said coyly. "So I’m not going to say it."
In private as well, this four-syllable noun is said to be a favorite. [The New York Times]
For those not wont to decipher the Times' tasteful censorship, it appears Harris' favorite curse word is the grandest of them: motherf---er.
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For more on Harris' quick rise among the national Democratic ranks — including what her fellow Californian Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D), a 25-year veteran of the Senate, thinks of her rapid ascent — head to The New York Times.
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Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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