In The Know

Harris says she can’t use emojis or group text chats as VP

FILE - Vice President Kamala Harris smiles as she speaks at the National Urban League Annual Conference, on July 22, 2022, in Washington. Harris, who appeared early Tuesday, Oct. 11 on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in a taped appearance, reflected on how her life has changed since she got the job — including a shortage of emojis — and to talk up the need to vote in the midterm elections. It was her first late-night network TV appearance since becoming vice president. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Vice President Harris told late-night host Seth Meyers on Monday that she hasn’t been able to use emojis or group chats since taking on her role.

“Obviously you have to make many sacrifices to hold this office, but is it true you can no longer send emojis?” Myers asked Harris during an interview on NBC’s “Late Night.”

“OK, high class problems,” Harris jokingly responded. “I have not received directly an emoji in a year and a half.”

The interview marked Harris’s network late-night TV debut during her vice presidency. Since taking office, she appeared on one other late-night show, Comedy Central’s “Tha God’s Honest Truth,” with host Charlamagne Tha God last December.

“Our family is very competitive, be it Wordle or other things, and the family group chat is no longer a thing,” Harris told Meyers. 


Harris has previously indicated she’s a regular player of Wordle, The New York Times’s daily five-letter-word guessing game.

She went on to describe how security protocols have shifted how her family wishes each other a happy birthday.

“It was my father-in-law’s birthday, and we were talking to the kids and I thought, OK the kids can do a video for his birthday,” Harris said. “And normally I’d send the family text, but this time we had to do a phone tree.”

Meyers responded by calling Harris’s workaround “very outdated.”

The late-night host also discussed with Harris President Biden’s announcement last week that he would pardon thousands of Americans convicted of simple marijuana possession, as well as GOP governors’ busing and flying of migrants to northern, Democratic-run cities, among other topics.

Harris leveraged the opportunity to encourage viewers to vote in November’s midterm elections, repeatedly attacking Republicans on issues such as abortion and climate change.