Joe Biden has become known around the world as a gaffe machine thanks to his embarrasing public flubs.
However, Kamala Harris seems to be keen to prove that Biden is not the only person in this administration ready to publicly embarrass themselves on a regular basis.
Harris has been filmed in Paris affecting a bad French accent in the presence of actual French people.
The vice presidentstopped for a visit to a biomedical research facility during her diplomatic trip to France.
The VP’s approval ratings are very low and it is safe to assume that cartoonish foreign accents will not be helping.
Harris speaks with fake French accent in France
Harris spoke with an exaggeratedly slow and affected fake French accent, as if she was not only humiliating herself but also implying that her listeners needed her to speak slowly to understand what she was saying.
Given that she was speaking to scientists in a biomedical research lab, many of whom can likely speak fine English, this is another embarrassment for the vice president.
Politicians sometimes instinctively attempt to pander by adopting elements of a regional accent. This isn’t too uncommon south of the Mason Dixon Line.
Abroad, it is both an embarrassing gaffe and a potential diplomatic insult. Harris is in France to repair the strained relations between that country and the United States.
Regardless of how it was meant, the vice president’s affected accent sounds insulting and it sounds insulting in a country which is notoriously prickly about perceived slights.
The Biden administration is currently obligated to improve relations with the French after doing serious damage to relations in September.
Kamala "Cringe" Harris visits a group of French scientists and speaks to them as if they're toddlers, lamenting that people expect their elected officials to keep their promises. pic.twitter.com/93eoZEip4R
— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) November 10, 2021
An embarrassment and an insult
The United States replaced France in a lucrative deal to sell submarines to Australia. France was not informed that it would be cut out of the deal before it happened.
French President Emmanuel Macron rightly argued that this is not appropriate treatment for a country which is meant to be a close ally.
The Biden administration has attempted to apologize but most of their attempts thus far have not been much more successful than Harris in her attempt to speak with a French accent.
The perception Macron seems to hold of the White House is that it is arrogant by default and is not especially interested in treating allies respectfully and in good faith.
Most allied nations might feel that they are unable to voice their anger in a situation like this. France is perfectly willing to put Biden on the defensive and show that the United States cannot afford to antagonize it.
Harris doing a mock French accent in Paris is laughable for us but for the people and government of France it might deservedly be taken as a real insult.
