'He's a sociopath': The three words Donald Trump told Kamala Harris that sent her staff off the rails

Washington D.C.: Vice President Kamala Harris’s phone call to concede the 2024 election to President-elect Donald Trump has stirred up a hornet's nest for a bizarre reason. In 'Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History', author Chris Whipple reveals how strained the conversation truly was — prompting one of Harris’s top aides to privately label Trump a "sociopath".

The call, which took place the day after the election, was arranged at Harris’s Naval Observatory residence by her campaign Chief of Staff Sheila Nix and White House Chief of Staff Lorraine Voles. The setup alone was difficult — Nix dialed Trump on her cell phone but couldn’t merge the call with Harris’s line, forcing Voles to call the vice-president separately. The two aides then physically pressed their phones together before Voles announced, “The vice president is on the line.”

Harris, who had spent months branding Trump a "fascist" and a threat to democracy, maintained a respectful tone, acknowledging her defeat. “I’m calling to concede. It was a fair election. The peaceful transfer of power is important. It’s important to the country,” she said, adding pointedly, “I hope you’re a president for all Americans.”

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Trump’s response, however, stunned her team. Instead of matching her gravity, he was oddly jovial, praising Harris as “a tough cookie” and even complimenting her husband, Doug Emhoff: “What a character! I love that guy.” One aide later recalled thinking, “It’s so manipulative. He’s a sociopath.”

Whipple’s book also explores why Harris lost. Despite running in a “change” election, she struggled to distance herself from President Joe Biden’s unpopular administration. Though Biden’s team — including Chief of Staff Jeff Zients — encouraged her to break away (“Do whatever you have to do to win!”), Harris hesitated. A source close to her explained, “A big piece of who Kamala Harris is, is loyal… You dance with the person who brought you.”