One of the most powerful people in the former US administration has spoken to a major real estate conference on the Gold Coast.
Lessons learned from a stand-off with one of Wall Street’s most formidable bankers are among the pearls of wisdom Kamala Harris has shared with realtors gathered in Queensland for a major conference.
It has been four months since the former US vice president left office after losing last year’s election to Donald Trump.
Ms Harris has stayed in the public eye, making headlines in late April for accusing her successor of executing the “wholesale abandonment of America’s highest ideals” in a high profile speech.
She has also kept up public commentary on the news of the day, congratulating Pope Leo XIV on his selection and wishing her ex-boss Joe Biden “a full and speedy recovery” following his prostate cancer diagnosis.
But she took some by surprise when she popped up on the Gold Coast after agreeing to a fireside chat at the Australian Real Estate Conference.
Former US vice president Kamala Harris has spoken at a major real estate conference on the Gold Coast. Picture: NewsWire / Social Focus
Speaking at AREC25, she homed in on the cross-section of politics and real estate, recalling her experience refusing a $4bn deal from major banks to settle dodgy mortgage deals as California’s attorney-general.
Mr Harris’ team had urged her to take the offer as the state was hit hard by a foreclosure crisis in the wake of the property bubble burst in the late naughties.
Ms Harris lost the 2024 US presidential election to Donald Trump. Picture: NewsWire / Social Focus
“I don’t hear no. I eat no for breakfast,” she told the conference.
Instead, she did some digging and concluded the offer was not good enough, prompting ire from the banks, including JP Morgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon.
“He gets on the phone and, in the loudest, strongest voice, says, ‘You are trying to steal from my shareholders,’” Ms Harris said.
“And I, because, of course, I will rise to the moment, said, ‘You are trying to steal from my homeowners in California.’”
In the end, she said she secured a better deal and pointed to preparation as the key in any negotiation.
Ms Harris has shared her experience negotiating with one of Wall Street’s most formidable bankers. Picture: NewsWire / Social Focus
Ms Harris has been reportedly mulling a run for California governor rather than a second bid at the White House.
Incumbent Gavin Newson — a fellow Democrat — has been suffering from popularity problems stemming on the back of criticism over crime rates and disaster management.
She would likely become the Democratic frontrunner in a gubernatorial race, as opposed to one of several serious contenders for Democratic presidential nominee.
Party Activists in California Aren’t Sold on a Harris Run for Governor
Kamala Harris did not appear in person at a California state Democratic convention, leaving delegates to wonder how seriously she is considering running and whether it would be wise.
Kamala Harris’s voice rang out across a convention hall packed with California Democratic activists, and she wore a beaming smile.
But the former vice president was not in the room where 4,000 party delegates had gathered in Anaheim, Calif., to prepare for next year’s elections. Instead, she spoke to them through a three-minute video address that drew tepid applause.
Ever since Ms. Harris returned home to California in January after losing last year’s presidential race, Democrats have wondered whether she would run for governor in 2026. Her entry would shake up the race, and many observers believe she would be the front-runner. But she has made few public appearances and offered little indication of which way she is leaning.
Her absence from the hall in Anaheim this weekend loomed over the state party convention like the pair of large video screens that carried her message. And that left many party activists questioning just how seriously she was considering running.
Some said they weren’t sure they wanted her to enter the race. “I don’t think she should get into the campaign for governor,” said Mark Gracyk, a delegate from San Diego who works for a water utility. “The working class would say, ‘Oh there she is again, she has the support of the elites.’”
Ms. Harris plans to decide by the end of the summer whether to run. She is weighing other possibilities, including another presidential run in 2028 or retiring from electoral politics. A spokeswoman for Ms. Harris did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
With Ms. Harris absent from the convention hall, other candidates for governor tried to make inroads with the delegates, mingling and posing for selfies.
Two potential 2028 presidential contenders were at the convention as well — Ms. Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. Each delivered a thunderous speech that brought the crowd to its feet, cheering and applauding with fervor
As Democrats nationally grapple with how to rebound from last year’s presidential and congressional losses, the possibility of Ms. Harris entering the governor’s race has prompted some trepidation for party members in California.
Sure, she would have the kind of name recognition that would make it difficult for a Republican to break through in a heavily Democratic state. She has experience as California’s attorney general and U.S. senator, and she could be the best hope for electing a female governor in a state that has never had one.
But backing Harris for governor might signal to voters that the party has not learned the lessons of last year’s losses. With Ms. Harris at the top of the national ticket, the party’s support declined among Black voters, Latino voters and men. She beat Donald J. Trump in California, but by a smaller margin than former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had four years earlier.
In her video address on Saturday, Ms. Harris encouraged California Democrats to keep up the fight against President Trump’s agenda, but she did not dwell on state issues.
“I wonder where her priorities are, and where she’s at right now,” Ayo Banjo, a delegate from Santa Cruz, said after Ms. Harris’s speech. “I do support her and think that she’s great, but right now I have more questions than answers.”
While many delegates expressed home-state pride in her race against Mr. Trump, others said they were frustrated that the Democrats had effectively had no presidential primary last year. They said that if Ms. Harris enters the race for governor, they expect a lively competition.
Eight Democrats are already running to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is barred by term limits from running for re-election next year. (Mr. Newsom did not attend the convention, either.) Most of those candidates spent the weekend pitching themselves to labor leaders, environmentalists and other key party constituencies.
“Two years ago, I launched my campaign to serve as governor of California, and I said all along, my first goal is that we have a woman in the governor’s chair in 2026,” Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis said as applause rippled through a meeting of the Democratic women’s caucus. “And my second goal is that it’s me.”
Her remark was a subtle acknowledgment that the race remains fluid. Ms. Kounalakis, a longtime friend and supporter of the former vice president, is expected to drop out of the race if Ms. Harris jumps in.
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If other Democratic candidates were to drop out as well, and donors and elected leaders began to coalesce around Ms. Harris, it could look to voters as though she was once again being anointed as the party’s candidate
Some Democrats have made it clear, though, that they would stay in the race. Antonio Villaraigosa, a former mayor of Los Angeles, recently attacked Ms. Harris and Xavier Becerra, a candidate for governor who was Mr. Biden’s health and human services secretary, for not doing more during Mr. Biden’s term to inform the public about the president’s declining health.
“What did Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra know, when did they know it, and most importantly, why didn’t either of them speak out?” Villaraigosa said in a statement last month.
Ms. Harris will have to consider whether she wants to endure the sparring of a campaign. The Republican candidates in the race have already attacked Ms. Harris, and Mr. Villaraigosa’s move showed that she would face difficult questions from fellow Democrats as well.
“It certainly won’t be another coronation,” said Dan Schnur, a longtime political analyst who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California. “She may or may not become the next governor, but if she decides to try, no one’s going to hand it to her.”
Even so, California is a vast state with expensive media markets, and Ms. Harris would enter the race with the advantage of being the best-known candidate. She has been a formidable fund-raiser in the past, and her longstanding relationships with wealthy donors has been a strength.
Inside the convention hall, those who said they wanted Ms. Harris to run for governor expressed affection for her as a fellow California Democrat who rose through the ranks and broke barriers for women. Some said they had been hoping she would make a surprise appearance at the convention to announce her run.
“As a woman myself, and as a minority myself, I felt like I wanted someone like her representing me,” said Patricia Wenkart, a speech pathologist who lives in Tustin, Calif.
Some delegates who did not want Ms. Harris to run for governor said they worried that she would not connect with working-class voters. Others felt she wasn’t progressive enough, pointing to Ms. Harris’s lack of support for marijuana legalization when she was California’s attorney general, or her support for Israel in its war against Hamas. Still others said that running for governor was beneath her after she served as vice president.
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Californians in general feel more positively than negatively about Ms. Harris. In a recent poll, 50 percent of respondents said they held a favorable view of her, compared with 46 percent who held an unfavorable view. The poll, conducted by the U.C. Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies, found that she was especially well-liked among women voters and among voters in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, crucial turf for Democratic candidates. The poll did not compare her with candidates running for governor.
A mile away in the Downtown Disney district of Anaheim, where visitors crowded into restaurants and milled about wearing Mickey Mouse ears, some Californians saw the governor’s race differently than the party activists did.
Michelle Garcia, who owns a skin care business in Riverside, said she was supporting Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County who is running as a Republican, because she saw him as tough on crime.
Archie Tan, a traffic engineer from Orange, Calif., said he had not paid much attention to the race yet, but was open to voting again for Ms. Harris, whom he supported last year.
Still, he said, the Democrats’ chaos during the presidential race left him with some reservations.
“It just feels like they didn’t have a good game plan,” he said.
Kamala Harris takes swipe at Musk and warns world to ‘remember the 1930s’ at Gold Coast real estate conference
Former US vice-president tells conference ‘I do worry, frankly, about what’s happening right now in the world’
Kamala Harris has criticised Elon Musk, noted “it’s important that we remember the 1930s” and raised concerns about AI when speaking to an audience of 4,500 real estate agents at an industry conference on the Gold Coast.
The former US vice-president, who is visiting Australia for the first time, was the guest of honour at the 2025 Australian Real Estate Conference on Sunday.
She was interviewed for an hour on stage by the real estate industry veteran John McGrath.
Without naming Musk, she cited the Trump administration adviser as an example of a person holding “this misplaced idea that the sign of the strength of a leader is who you beat down”.
“There was someone that is very popular these days, at least in the press, who suggested that it is a sign of the weakness of western civilisations to have empathy,” she said.
“Imagine. No, it’s a sign of strength to have some level of curiosity and concern and care about the wellbeing of others.”
Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, criticised Harris’s Democratic administration and its attitude to immigrants in an interview with the podcaster Joe Rogan released in March.
“The fundamental weakness of western civilisation is empathy, the empathy exploit,” Musk said. “They’re exploiting a bug in western civilisation, which is the empathy response.”
Introduced by McGrath as “one of the most successful women in history” with “her best work ahead of her”, Harris joked: “I am unemployed right now.” She walked on and off the stage to a standing ovation and the strains of Beyoncé’s Halo.
Harris spoke about her upbringing and career. She shared anecdotes from her time as California attorney general negotiating with the JP Morgan Chase chief executive, Jamie Dimon.
She did not mention by name Donald Trump, or JD Vance, or her narrow defeat at November’s US presidential election.
Harris concluded with thinly veiled remarks about the new US administration’s foreign and trade policies.
“I do worry, frankly, about what’s happening right now in the world,” she said.
“I do worry that it is important that we remember history. It’s important that we remember the 1930s. It’s important that we remember that history has taught us that isolation does not equal insulation
“It is important that we understand and remember history, which taught us the interdependence and interconnection between nations.
“History that has taught us the importance of relationships of trust, of the importance of friendships, integrity, honesty.”
She tried to turn personal anecdotes – many taken from her 2019 book – into life lessons for those attending the conference.
Harris said she had often become the first woman in a job – despite discouragement.
“I don’t hear no. I eat no for breakfast. I don’t hear no until maybe the tenth time. I can’t begin to tell you the number of times it has been explicitly or implicitly said to me – it’s not your time. You’re not ready, they’re not ready.
“Don’t you listen. And this is again what I mean about applauding ambition.”
She said Americans distrusted AI because it threatened jobs and risked spreading misinformation.
“It is important to celebrate innovation but, again this may be just the prosecutor in me, one must ask also: are there vulnerable people and are we doing what we can to ensure they’re safe?”
Other speakers at the conference included the British entrepreneur and podcaster Steven Bartlett and the Sydney real estate agent David Walker.
AREC is being held at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. It runs until Monday. Organisers would not disclose how much speakers were paid.
Why Kamala Harris could run for California governor and bypass another White House bid
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Many of Kamala Harris’ supporters and detractors alike think she’d have better odds running for California governor rather than president a third time.
There are several reasons for Harris to make a bid to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom. She would immediately become the early front-runner instead of entering a presidential primary with a dozen or more serious contenders. No other candidate in California could match her résumé of having served as San Francisco district attorney, state attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president.
Beyond being expected to make a decision by the end of summer, Harris said little about her future. She told a crowd in Orange County in April: “I’ll see you out there. I’m not going anywhere.”
Newsom has predicted that Harris would top the field in a contested primary but added, “if she runs.”
To run for governor, “you have to have a burning ‘Why?’ ” Newsom said on the “Next Up with Mark Halperin” podcast.
“And if you can’t enunciate that, the answer is ‘No,’” Newsom added. “Why the hell would you want this job?”
Here are some reasons why she might want it — and why she might not. Her office did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Pro: She can skip a fractious 2028 primary
Harris would have to convince national Democrats that she’s the face of the party’s future, despite losing to President Donald Trump last fall. She’s also tied to former President Joe Biden, whom Democrats are increasingly criticizing as new books drive further discussion about his age and physical and mental readiness during his time in office.
The 2028 presidential contest is expected to attract a large field, likely to include Newsom. Any candidate will have to unify a fractious Democratic Party with low approval ratings and struggling to slow Trump’s agenda in Washington.
Democratic consultant Bill Burton, who was national press secretary for former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, said Harris would enter a presidential primary with a proven fundraising network, strong recognition with voters and the experience of operating in a Trump-fueled media environment.
But the looming question for Democrats is likely to be, “Who is the best person to stand up to the MAGA movement and exhibit a strength that is going to need to be really formidable?” Burton said.
Could Harris make that case? Some think her time has passed.
“She’s had her chance,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement.
“Voters want authentic outsiders who will shake up our broken political system and challenge an economic status quo rigged for billionaires against working people,” Green added. “That’s why Kamala Harris lost, and it’s why Democrats must turn elsewhere for leadership.”
Pro: California governor might be a safer bet
Harris calls herself a proud daughter of California, and after serving as vice president and in the Senate, she doesn’t need to chase another title. That said, California is one of the world’s largest economies by itself, and its governor becomes, by default, a national figure.
She would most likely run as a proven hand with the experience to lead California’s tussles with Trump — the state is known as the epicenter of the so-called Trump resistance — while dealing with its many problems, among them homelessness and a punishing cost of living.
In her San Francisco speech last month, she said the nation was witnessing a “wholesale abandonment” of American ideals under Trump.
The contest to replace Newsom in California is crowded, with leading candidates including former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Biden administration health secretary Xavier Becerra.
It’s expected that at least some of her rival Democrats would bow out rather than compete against her, including Porter, who in 2012 was appointed by then-attorney general Harris to be the state’s independent bank monitor in a multibillion-dollar nationwide mortgage settlement.
Democratic consultant Roger Salazar, who was a delegate in the party’s 2024 presidential convention, said Harris would stand better odds in a race for governor in her home state.
With multiple election wins in California, “there is just more certainty,” Salazar said. “I think she’s got a leg up right now, but this race hasn’t solidified” with the primary more than a year away.
Con: Will voters welcome her back?
How will voters view her? As a favorite daughter of California returning home? Or a two-time presidential also-ran looking for a soft landing?
Republican consultant Kevin Madden, who was a senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, was dubious about her chances in either race. It’s unusual for a candidate to capture the presidency after two losses — Biden was one example.
As for governor, “the California electorate is about as ideal as it gets for Harris, but nothing about her current electoral record indicates that primary or general election candidates should be scared off,” Madden added.
Con: She won’t necessarily run against a Republican in November
Unlike many other states, California doesn’t automatically advance a Democrat and a Republican to the November election.
The state’s open primary system has tormented many candidates — critics call it the “jungle primary.” All candidates appear on a single ballot, regardless of party, and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election.
The system can lead to strategic gambles. Last year’s U.S. Senate race included three prominent Democrats — U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff, Porter and Barbara Lee. Schiff ran TV ads in the primary that spotlighted Republican Steve Garvey, presumably a weaker contender in the general election than either of his Democratic rivals. Garvey ended up advancing to November, where he was soundly defeated by Schiff, who now holds the seat.
But Harris could come out of the June 2, 2026, primary facing a Democrat who ends up criticizing her in much the same way she’d have faced in a 2028 bid.
San Francisco-based Democratic consultant Eric Jaye recalled another Californian who, after losing a presidential race, sought to rebound in his home state: Richard Nixon. After being narrowly defeated in the 1960 election by then-Sen. John F. Kennedy, Nixon lost the 1962 race for California governor. (Of course, Nixon ended up winning the White House six years later.)
While Harris is a favorite with Democrats, a slice of the electorate has deeply negative views of her, Jaye noted. That doesn’t leave her with many voters to gain, and the Democratic primary vote could be divided among multiple candidates.
“I don’t think it’s in any way guaranteed that she would win,” Jaye said. “She’s a highly polarizing figure.”
Con: Does she want to go to Sacramento?
Harris would be coming home to a long list of problems.
The homeless crisis is playing out daily on the streets of Los Angeles and other big cities. Newsom this month said the state is facing a $12 billion deficit and he wants to freeze enrollment in a state-funded health care program for immigrants living in California without legal status. There is a home insurance crisis and a continuing threat from destructive wildfires.
And as the last election made clear, Republicans will attempt to saddle her — fairly or not — with her home state’s reputation for confiscatory taxes, gas prices and utility bills, seven-figure home prices and liberal social policies.
Biden touts ‘close’ relationship with Harris, but ‘not surprised’ by her election loss
On ABC’s “The View,” Biden blamed sexism and racism against his vice president.
Former President Joe Biden, in a wide-ranging interview on ABC’s “The View” on Thursday, said he was not surprised by Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss in the 2024 presidential election, but not because of her qualifications as a candidate — instead, pointing to sexism and racism he said had been leveled against her.
“I wasn’t surprised, not because I didn’t think the vice president was the most qualified person to be president … I wasn’t surprised because they went the route of — the sexist route, the whole route,” Biden said.
He continued: “I’ve never seen quite as successful and consistent campaign, undercutting the notion that a woman couldn’t lead the country — and a woman of mixed race.”
But Biden, separately, said he still thinks he would have beaten Trump if he had stayed in the race.
“Yeah, he still got seven million fewer votes,” Biden said of Trump, noting by how much he beat Trump in the 2020 election popular vote.
His comments come after several months out of the spotlight for the former president as he and Democrats look to sort out his role post-presidency. Last month, Biden emerged from private life to deliver a speech on Trump’s potential impact on Social Security and made an appearance at Harvard University.
Questions persist on the party’s priorities and who may be the best to message and communicate on the Democrats’ behalf — questions that extend to both Biden and Harris.
Biden, for his part, told “The View” that he’s in the midst of self-reflection — and, to that end, writing a book.
“Things are moving along and we’re getting squared away trying to figure out what the most significant and consequential role I can play, consistent with what I’ve done in the past,” he said.
The former president also addressed his relationship with his former running-made-turned-candidate, saying that he and Harris had spoken as recently as Wednesday. Yet, he quickly stopped himself from addressing specifics of their “frequent” conversations, including side-stepping any chatter about Harris’ possible gubernatorial or potential presidential ambitions.
Sources have told ABC News previously that Harris may be mulling a run for governor of California, her home state; others have speculated she could mount a run for president in 2028 — a controversial notion within the Democratic Party.
Many of Harris’ longtime national supporters told ABC News in March that they are lukewarm on her potentially running for president in 2028; others have called for a full break from the Biden-Harris administration and for the party to consider new standard bearers.
But on Harris’ broader political future, Biden said he was hopeful that she stayed involved in some significant way, but stopped short of sharing which route he hopes she takes.
“She’s got a difficult decision to make about what she’s going to do. I hope she stays fully engaged. I think she’s first-rate, but we have a lot of really good candidates as well. So, I’m optimistic. I’m not pessimistic,” Biden said.
Biden’s remarks don’t seem to have mollified progressives who felt he hamstrung Democrats’ chances in 2024. Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green said in a statement after the interview that the former president is in “denial” over both his and Harris’ viability as strong candidates on the 2024 ticket, suggesting that anti-establishment Democrats would fare better to lead the party.
“Joe Biden is in denial about the fact that neither he nor Kamala Harris should have been the 2024 Democratic nominee if we wanted to defeat Donald Trump. In this moment, voters demand authentic anti-establishment figures who will shake up a broken political system and economic status quo rigged for billionaires against working people, and that’s not Biden or Harris.”
Asked on “The View” to respond to claims that he should have dropped out of the race and endorse Harris sooner, Biden said that Harris still had a long period to campaign and that they worked together “in every decision I made.”
Biden also denied reporting that claimed he had advised Harris to suggest that there was no daylight between the two of them — saying that they were partners and worked together.
“The View” co-anchor Sunny Hostin brought up Harris’ comments on “The View” in October, toward the end of her presidential campaign, when asked if she would have done “something differently” from what Biden had done over the last four years. She responded, “there is not a thing that comes to mind,” a moment widely seen as one that hurt her among voters who felt she needed to make a cleaner break from the Biden White House.
“I did not advise her to say that,” Biden said, adding that he thought Harris meant she would not change any of the successes that the Biden-Harris White House had achieved.
“She was part of every success we had. We’d argue like hell, by the way,” Biden added, stressing that the disagreements were all signs of a positive working relationship.
Even though he indicated no tension between himself and Harris, Biden did not answer directly when asked about tension between him and other longtime supporters, including former President Barack Obama, whose administration he served in as vice president.
Asked about what his relationship with Obama is like now, and how he addresses concerns Obama and others reportedly raised over his ability to serve a second term as president, Biden pivoted to why he got out of the race — and did not mention Obama.
“The only reason I got out of the race was because I didn’t want to have a divided Democratic Party … I thought it was better to put the country ahead of my interest, my personal interest,” Biden said.
Biden did say, in his response, that concerns over his age — 81 during the campaign — were valid, but pointed to what he still accomplished at the end of his presidency as evidence against claims he had cognitively declined.
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