Social media users are hailing Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer’s husband as their “spirit animal,” following his apparent refusal to shake Vice President Kamala Harris’s hand during his wife’s swearing-in ceremony.
Harris, who by constitutional law presides over the upper chamber and is empowered to cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie, swore in the U.S. senators for the 119th Congress.
However, after her husband Bruce Fischer scowled at Harris over the Bible and rejected her outstretched hand, giving her a curt nod instead, the typically cordial relationship became chilly. As the three of them stood for a group photo, Harris put her hand back down by their sides. Bruce Fischer didn’t grin.
“Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer’s husband is my spirit animal,” X user Johnnymaga wrote. “Guy wanted nothing to do with Kamala.”
Several social media users took the video as Bruce Fischer purposefully ignoring Harris.
“Lol I could watch this over and over! The best,” one viewer wrote.
“Protect this man at all costs!!!” another joked.
A third suggested that President-elect Donald Trump award Bruce Fischer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his refusal, a quip which doubly served to criticize President Joe Biden’s decision to bestow the honor on Liz Cheney.
For her part, Harris is not planning to “go quietly into the night” after she was thumped in the 2024 presidential election.
During a segment on CNN, reporter Isaac Dovere revealed that Harris privately tells backers she is considering running for governor of California in 2026 or president in 2028. Harris also reportedly does not want her “final act” to be certifying Trump’s election victory over her.
“We haven’t seen or heard much from Vice President Kamala Harris since she lost the election last month,” CNN’s Manu Raju told CNN’s viewers. “But the Democratic Party still reeling from Trump’s victory.”
Dovere said that Harris is mulling two options.
“What she’s been saying to people over the last couple of weeks, donors, other supporters that she’s been talking with, As you haven’t seen the last of me, I’m not going quietly into the night. Advisers, people close to her are debating about what that means. They do not want her final official act ever to be essentially certifying Donald Trump’s win over her, especially four years after January 6th. And so they look at this governor’s race in California in 2026, and it seems to them like a layup essentially, that she would probably clear the field or mostly clear the field and she would get to be governor of California,” Dovere said.
“But if she does that, that means that she couldn’t turn around and run for president again in 2028. She’d need to essentially declare right away. And that is what it really comes down to because there are people close to her who say she didn’t get a fair shot this year,” Dovere added.
Dovere continued, “It wasn’t it wasn’t up to what she could have done. And look how well she performed anyway. She should get to go again in 2020. And then there are ones who say, look, with where things are with the Democratic Party at it, she would not have a clear field or a cleared field, rather, in the Democratic primary and could lose the nomination. And to come off of 2024 into that would be really terrible.”
Harris allegedly told associates she was “staying in the fight” and considering a 2028 presidential campaign or a California gubernatorial run in 2026, prompting Democratic strategist Theryn Bond to urge Harris not to run for president again.
