Tan Suit: Kamala Harris Channels Her Inner Obama With Wardrobe Choice For DNC’s Opening Night

August 21, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris addresses the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Ill., on August 19, 2024. | Source: Tom Williams / Getty

Vice President Kamala Harris may have looked to the past while making a move to solidify her future.

On Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, the party’s presidential nominee took the stage wearing a tan pantsuit.

Kamala Harris’ tan suit

While Harris’ wardrobe choice might not have initially caught everyone’s eyes — what with the constant celebrating of Biden’s presidency during his last few months in the White House — others knowingly and quickly caught on to her possible allusion to former President Barack Obama, who sparked a faux controversy among Republicans during his presidency for wearing a tan suit.

Kamala goes galaxy mode on the wardrobe, baiting Fox into an entire week of tan suit coverage
pic.twitter.com/6I5A0np64g

— Tim Miller (@Timodc) August 20, 2024

To those connecting the dots, Harris’ message was clear: Obama was the first Black man to be elected president, and he wore a tan suit, and Harris is aiming to be the first Black woman president, and she also wore a tan suit.

The response on social media to Harris wearing a tan suit was swift, with people suggesting that Harris was doing everything from trolling Republicans to subliminally shouting out Obama, or both.

Either way, it’s impossible to ignore that Obama wore his infamous tan suit nearly 10 years ago to the day, something that is probably not a coincidence.

President Barack Obama speaks on August 28, 2014, in the Press Briefing Room of the White House. | Source: WHITE HOUSE POOL (ISP POOL IMAGES) / Getty

Obama’s tan suit

In case you forgot, the year was 2014 and back then, we had a president whose biggest controversy turned out to be of the fashion variety and not political.

When Obama wore that tan suit on Aug. 28 of that year while at a press conference to discuss Ukraine and the Islamic State, right-wing trolls lost their conservative minds. How dare the commander in chief (whose presidency Republicans and racists alike desperately tried in vain to delegitimize) not wear a navy or charcoal gray suit, they wondered aloud while basing Obama’s presidentiality on the color of his clothes.

As soon as Obama took the podium, the conservative Twitterverse had a meltdown over his more summery fashion pick that was shamelessly referred to as “tanghazi,” an unfortunate play on the Libyan city of Benghazi where an American compound was attacked in 2012 by members of Ansar al-Sharia, a militant group of Islamic extremists. During and after Obama’s remarks, there were roughly 6,000 tweets about his choice of suit color within 24 hours, Twitter, now X, exploded with more than 14,000 comments about it, according to Topsy, a social media analytics firm.

There were even numerous spoof Twitter accounts set up as a result of the tan suit, including @BarackTanSuit, @ObamaTanSuit and @Obamas_Tan_Suit.

Then-New York Rep. Peter King — who once complained about “too many mosques,” said Eric Garner wouldn’t have died if he wasn’t so “obese,” and compared NFL players kneeling to “Nazi salutes” — said at the time on CNN that Obama “looked like he was on his way to a party at the Hamptons.” King also happens to be the same person who defended Donald Trump’s idea to buy Greenland.

Fox News’ Lou Dobbs called Obama “un-presidential” because of the tan suit, which he even suggested was being used to send hidden messages to America’s enemies. Dobbs, of course, is the same person who insists Trump isn’t racist.

Trevor Noah summarized the fake outrage and scandal best. Watch below:

Obama’s reaction to the controversy wasn’t to rant out on Twitter or insult people. In fact, he never responded. And why would he?

“The President stands squarely behind the decision he made yesterday to wear his summer suit at yesterday’s news conference,” then-White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest simply told reporters the next day.

President Joe Biden walks to Marine One before departing from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on August 6, 2021. | Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty

Seven years later, also in August, Biden similarly wore a tan suit that didn’t provoke nearly the same amount of fake outrage that Obama’s tan suit did.

However, this time around, there hasn’t been as much to say about Harris’ tan suit — except that she looked great.

This is America.

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, Kamala Harris wearing a tan suit at the DNC’s opening night could be an homage to former President Barack Obama’s similar wardrobe choice years back.
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