Vice President Harris, in her first message to supporters since her November 6 concession speech, is telling them to not let anyone “take your power from you” — but the video quickly prompted questions from social media users wondering about Ms. Harris’s well-being.

“I just have to remind you, don’t you ever let anybody take your power from you,” she said in the video, which was posted by the Democratic Party’s account on X. “You have the same power that you did before November 5. And you have the same purpose that you did, and you have the same ability to engage and inspire. So don’t ever let anybody or any circumstance take your power from you.”

The viral video appeared to shock social media users who had questions about her dejected appearance and whether she was “drunk.”

“Who thought this was a good idea? Who is this for? What is this for?,” a contributing writer for the Atlantic, Tyler Austin Harper, asked. “What is she even saying? Once again, I will reiterate that we are ruled by imbeciles.”

“Why would you release a video in which she’s this drunk,” author Bethany Mandel asked. “No video like this would ever have been released by a politician who is not hated by her staff,” a senior writer at National Review Online, Dan McLaughlin, said. 

“The dial-up modem sound played on an infinite loop is more bearable than 28 seconds of whatever this is,” Congresswoman Virginia Foxx wrote. The video was an excerpt from a longer grassroots call that Ms. Harris participated alongside Governor Walz, who called the election results “incredibly disappointing.” 

“Candidly, it’s a bit scary,” Mr. Walz said of President Trump soon taking office. “But now more than ever, we need the light to shine through.”

The video comes as questions are mounting about the vice president’s political future and her next steps as she prepares to leave office. She is favored as the early leader for the 2028 Democratic nomination, recent polling from Morning Consult indicates, with 43 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents saying they would support her.

Ms. Harris fared better than other hypothetical contenders, such as Governor Newsom, who garnered only 8 percent support. The polling also indicated that a majority of Democratic voters — 62 percent — think Ms. Harris should play a “major role” in the party’s future. 

“She still has a long career ahead of her,” one Democratic strategist, Kate Maeder, recently told the Hill. “She’s young for politics in this country, and I think that folks are really excited to see what she does next, because she’s built such a powerful following around her, and I think that that will carry through after the election.”

Yet following the 2024 presidential election, Ms. Harris’s own campaign leadership has admitted that internal polling never had her in the clear lead against Trump — even when public polling indicated she was — and that the race was always razor-thin. “We didn’t get the breaks we needed on Election Day,” a senior advisor to the Harris campaign, David Plouffe, said on the “Pod Save America” podcast. “I think it surprised people because there were these public polls that came out in late September, early October, showing us with leads that we never saw.”