If you want to understand Kamala Harris’ favorability numbers being in the toilet, stick around, because you are about to be shown the perfect example of why that reality exists.

The setup here is Harris doing an interview yesterday with a host named Charlamagne Tha God, and toward the end, things really went off the rails for everyone involved. What started the sequence of cringe was Charlamagne asking Harris who the “real president” is in relation to Joe Manchin blocking the “Build Back Better” bill.

That’s when who I’m assuming is Symone Sanders, Harris’ chief spokesperson, interjects and tries to pretend the audio feed was cut as an excuse to end the interview. Things just devolved from there.

Harris aide briefly interjects as @cthagod asks @VP to name the “real president … is it Joe Manchin or Joe Biden?” pic.twitter.com/FRkIyxjRuP

— Katherine Doyle (@katiadoyl) December 18, 2021

Of note is that this is the same show Joe Biden made his infamous “you ain’t black” comment on, but I digress. Eventually, the spectacle of Sanders yelling in the background with part of her head poking into the side of the screen ended. That’s when Harris said “I can hear you” and proceeded to explode, accusing the interviewer of “talking like a Republican” while wagging her finger at the camera.

At first, her anger is channeled into insisting Joe Biden is the real president. I suppose that’s fair enough, but she then launched into an awkward, unprompted defense of herself, yelling at Charlamagne that “I’m vice president, and my name is Kamala Harris.” Her expression hardened as her eyebrows danced wildly. At one point, you can hear her voice crack from the forcefulness of her response.

That’s when the stalling started, a tactic that’s common for Harris in public settings. For a good 30 seconds, words are coming out of her mouth but she doesn’t actually say anything. Finally, she regroups and begins to list off the administration’s policy priorities in a manner that has nothing to do with what she was asked.

What’s so silly about that is that the question she was asked was meant to be friendly. It was a softball over the plate for her to smash into the outfield. All Harris had to do was calmly explain that they are negotiating with Joe Manchin and that they believe they can get their agenda through soon enough. Instead, she latched onto a perceived slight that wasn’t even meant to be a slight, and her ranting and raving about it was just a terrible look. Her skin is so thin that it’s translucent.

But even putting aside how ill-advised Harris’ behavior here was from a public relations point of view, the big takeaway for me is how insecure she is. We’ve known for a while that Harris’ camp and the White House have been feuding, and this interview really served as a window into the effects of that. Her angry, defensive disposition in the face of a friendly interviewer exposes a severe lack of personal confidence.

Laughably, Charlamagne ends the interview by insisting that Harris’ meltdown was a good thing and that he wants to see more of it. That’s bubble talk, though. What she did only plays well with a very narrow segment of the electorate, and if Harris hopes to become more liked by the American people, angry outbursts at basic questions aren’t going to cut it.

Lastly, I realize some will argue that she’s being held to a different standard because she’s a woman. I don’t think that’s true, but even if it is, she still has to operate within the political environment that exists. Beating one’s head against a wall may be an electoral strategy, but it’s not a winning one.