After a video of Vice President Kamala Harris whipping off her sunglasses and asking reporters on a tarmac, "Whatcha got?" went viral, social media users couldn't help but meme the iconic moment.
Republicans—notably former President Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance—have in recent weeks accused the Harris campaign of refusing to answer questions from journalists.
But Harris quickly proved them wrong, strutting over to reporters on a tarmac before flying off to another rally—and taking off her sunglasses before answering a reporter who asked for her reaction to a recent press conference Trump held at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Harris responded:
"Well, I'm glad that he's finally agreed to a debate on September 10. I'm looking forward to it and hope he shows up ... I'm happy to have that conversation about an additional debate after September 10."
At another moment, she dismissed Trump's other remarks, saying:
"I didn't hear him. I was talking to voters."
She answered other questions of course—countering a narrative that's rather rich from the party that regularly attacks the press as "fake news"—but it was those first few seconds as she strolled up to reporters that really said it all.
You can see the moment and hear her remarks in the video below.
And a flurry of memes popped up almost immediately.
This is only the latest meme Harris has inspired while on the campaign trail.
Last month, after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her to be his successor, a speech made by Harris last year resurfaced in the form of memes, featuring the line:
"You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?"
In May 2023, the vice president delivered remarks at the swearing-in ceremony for commissioners of the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics. During the speech, Harris emphasized the importance of focusing on the younger generation while also being "clear about the needs of their parents and their grandparents and their teachers and their communities."
She continued by stating that “none of us just live in a silo” and shared some wisdom from her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan:
“My mother used to — she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’”
The viral moment even inspired several bars in Washington, D.C. to offer Kamala Harris-themed coconut tree drinks, including a bar and nightclub called Bunker that served $5 “Piña Kamala” coconut shots all night on July 21, the day Biden dropped out.
