14-Year-Old Podcaster Knowa De Baraso Interviews Kamala Harris About Trump’s Racist Video, Nicki Minaj, and What’s Next for Her

Screenshot via Knowa De Baraso on X.

Fourteen-year-old podcaster Knowa De Baraso interviewed former Vice President Kamala Harris on the latest episode of his show, Now You Know with Knowa De Baraso, asking her about what she really thought about a controversial video posted by President Donald Trump, her plans for the 2026 midterms and a possible second presidential campaign in 2028, the threat of misinformation, and more.

De Baraso made a name for himself during the 2024 election cycle, including a viral moment when he interviewed MyPillow proprietor and election conspiracist (and current Minnesota gubernatorial candidate) Mike Lindell at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The general consensus from responses to the clips of their interaction was that De Baraso, who was just 12 years old at the time, pretty much schooled the pillowmonger — largely by simply asking him for evidence of his conspiratorial claims about the 2020 election being stolen.

“So your source is, ‘Trust me, bro’?” retorted De Baraso to Lindell at one point. “That’s your source? You haven’t provided any source.”

De Baraso had a far more friendly chat with Harris on this week’s episode of his podcast, meeting up in Macon, Georgia to cover topics ranging from a video that Trump posted and deleted that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, Nicki Minaj’s recent MAGA turn, why she doesn’t want to run for governor of California, her thoughts on combating misinformation, and her plans for the future.

De Baraso began by asking Harris what she had been up to since the “hard-fought election.”

“Oh, a lot,” she replied. “I went back home to California, and I spent time — literally and figuratively — unpacking. And then I wrote a book. And so since the publication of the book, I’ve been on a book tour, traveling around our beautiful country talking with folks, and it’s been really wonderful. And so that brings me to see you again here in Macon, Georgia.”

De Baraso told the former veep that he “loved” her book, 107 Days, saying he had “read it multiple times,” and asked her what chapter was the toughest to write about.

“The most difficult chapter to write was one around election night,” she said, “because of just what it involved. And how it felt and what it meant for the — not only the country, but the world. So that was probably the most difficult writing about that.”

Asked about the growing prevalence of misinformation, Harris said that it was important to remember that “there is a lot
of misinformation that moves quickly, and if we don’t take a minute to actually do our research, then we are going to be influenced by things that aren’t actually facts.”

Harris continued, saying she believed there were “many people who are doing it intentionally, and I think there are others who are doing it unintentionally.”

“One of the dangers of mis- and disinformation, and in particular disinformation, is that it is intended to strike fear in the receiver of that information in a way that it almost blinds when you’re feeling afraid,” she said. “It almost blinds your ability to then be open to what else might be happening.”

Harris’ advice was that whenever information triggered a feeling of “a particular fear,” that was when we should “pause for a minute and look into it and the facts to make sure that we’re well aware of exactly what’s going on, and are we being manipulated.”

She added that she hoped her newly-launched Headquarters platform would be able to help combat misinformation during the midterm election cycle, urging people to “make sure everyone you know is registered to vote,” and hopefully restore the “checks and balances on the president’s power, which right now there are none, and we’re seeing a complete abuse of power.”

Noting that February was Black History Month, De Baraso asked Harris about the video Trump had posted depicting the Obamas as apes, which was widely condemned as racist, even by Republicans.

Harris denounced the video as “disgusting” and said that in Trump, “we have a president who does not understand the importance of Black history, and the importance in celebrating Black history, and the importance of teaching Black history.”

Calling Trump a “very bad example” for American children, Harris said he “has a history of being hostile to these issues and is quite unapologetic in his approach and attitude and even the use of his language and words.”

Regarding Minaj “falling victim of misinformation,” Harris replied that “one of the things about mis- and disinformation” is that “when we disagree with someone, take that into account in understanding that we may just not be working with the same information,” and should then “do what we can to make sure that we are sharing accurate information with as many people as possible, to do what we can to make sure that we are challenging people about what they think the facts are and making sure
we’re on the same page about the fact that two plus two will always equal four.”

De Baraso commented that he had been visiting California “a lot” and loved the state, and asked Harris, “But what made you not want to run for governor of that great state?”

“It’s not my calling,” she replied.

“But it is a great state. And there is a lot at stake,” she continued, with “forty million people,” noting that meant when she was a Senator representing California she “was representing one in eight Americans,” and Californians have “a great deal of influence and potential influence on the way the country goes.”

De Baraso asked what she was “going to do in the future — are we going to run for president in 2028?”

“Oh well, I haven’t decided, but I am focused on 2026,” she said. “I think we have to focus on the thing that’s right in front of us,” because “this election is going to have everything to do with the environment we’ll be in 2028, and hopefully in 2026 we will get to right the ship a bit around, putting in place some checks and balances on the abuse of power by this president.”

Watch above via Now You Know with Knowa De Baraso or on iHeart Media, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

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