In fairness, she was specifically asked here to explain the conflict “in layman’s terms.”

Turns out her image of a layman is a five-year-old with a serious learning disability.

Americans have lived under the shadow of nuclear annihilation by Russia for almost 75 years. Does she think the average joe needs to be told that there’s a big country out there “called Russia”?

OH… MY… GOD

Q: “What’s going on in Ukraine?”

Kamala: “Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine so basically that’s wrong.”
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— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 1, 2022

“So, basically, that’s wrong,” she mused with Churchillian bravado. “As I’ve said before: Harris’ answers to substantive questions always sound like she’s doing a book report on a book she hasn’t read,” said a Twitter pal in response to this clip, but I don’t think that’s right. There are cases when Harris clearly hasn’t read the book she’s being asked to report on…

Oh.
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— Lawrence Jones III (@LawrenceBJones3) January 13, 2022

…but the Ukraine clip sounds more like Harris doing a book report on a book she thinks her audience hasn’t read. Either that or she thinks her audience hasn’t read any books, ever, such that Russia has to be clearly defined as a nation up front so that they can follow along.

I commend her for her restraint in not feeling obliged to also define what a “country” is and how two countries next to each other share something called a “border.”

How’s this for a translation of her answer that doesn’t treat the listener like they’ve been lobotomized? “Ukraine used to be part of the Soviet Union but has since become a European ally of the U.S. Russia’s ruler, Vladimir Putin, has never truly accepted Ukraine’s independence and is trying to conquer it to make it part of Russia.”

Simple yet accurate, and without assuming that everyone listening to it has no more than a first-grade education.

Her answer did get better after the initial cringe, as you’ll see below. And believe it or not, the clip above isn’t the most awkward interview given by an American political figure today. If you want to cringe — hard — read this short but brutal exchange between the Tennessee Star and Trump-backed carpetbagger Morgan Ortagus, who was raised in Florida but is running for a House seat in Tennessee because, well, it’s open and she wants to be in Congress. The Star chose to test her on how much she knows about Tennessee history and culture. Not much, it turns out. Sample Q&A: “What county is Chapel Hill in?” “I don’t know.” “Marshall County. It’s in your district.” Hoo boy.