Kamala Harris hit the campaign trail Friday alongside Democratic congressional candidate Richard Pan, and the appearance quickly became the kind of awkward spectacle no campaign wants attached to its message, as reported by The Gateway Pundit.

The former vice president’s stop at Pan’s Sacramento headquarters featured restricted press access and a joke that landed in total silence.

Pan is a doctor and former California state senator who is running in California’s 6th Congressional District in the Sacramento area. He is facing incumbent Representative Kevin Kiley, a Republican who became an Independent.

The event generated controversy before Harris even delivered her memorable line. According to KCRA, Harris and Pan blocked some news organizations from covering their public appearance at Pan’s campaign headquarters.

It's been 72 hours and Governor Newsom still has not condemned Richard Pan banning the New York Times and KCRA from covering his campaign event.

Freedom of the press should not be a partisan issue. https://t.co/ZpOW5qKbeG — Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) October 6, 2026

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KCRA was among the outlets left outside. The report said Harris’ team and Pan’s team later blamed each other for the decision to exclude some journalists, turning the access dispute into a tidy display of political finger-pointing.

“Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic Congressional candidate Richard Pan blocked some news organizations, including KCRA 3, from covering their public appearance in Sacramento on Friday.”

The report continued, “Harris’ team and Pan’s team are blaming each other for the decision to exclude some journalists from covering the event.”

Several other news organizations were permitted to cover Harris’ campaign stop. Those outlets included two local television stations, The Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times, according to the KCRA account included in the source.

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KCRA, however, was neither invited nor approved to cover the appearance. Pan’s campaign confirmed that exclusion, even as the dispute over who ordered the restrictions bounced between the two political teams.

“While several other outlets, including two local TV stations, The Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times, covered Harris’ stop at Pan’s campaign headquarters, KCRA 3 was not invited and not approved to cover the event, Pan’s campaign confirmed.”

The restrictions reportedly extended beyond the local television station. According to KCRA, The New York Times was also excluded from covering the event at Pan’s headquarters.

“A spokesman for Pan’s campaign told KCRA 3 on Friday night the decision to exclude not just KCRA 3 but also The New York Times, was at the direction of Kamala Harris’ team.”

Pan denied banning KCRA and the other outlets from the event. That denial stood against the account attributed to his campaign spokesman, who told KCRA that the direction came from Harris’ team.

The campaign appearance then delivered another rough moment for Harris and Pan. Harris tried to crack a joke while addressing campaign staffers gathered inside the headquarters, but the audience did not respond with laughter.

“Please remember to shower!” Harris told the room while laughing. The staffers remained quiet, leaving Harris waiting for others to join in her amusement.

The source described Harris as laughing maniacally and said she sounded drunk while attempting the joke. Whatever the intended humor, the reaction described in the room was unmistakable because the campaign staffers simply did not laugh.

That silence gave the appearance another embarrassing dimension after the dispute over press access. Harris kept laughing, but the room did not follow, producing a moment that was less campaign enthusiasm and more political cringe.

For Pan, the event was supposed to feature a former vice president as he campaigns for California’s 6th Congressional District. Instead, the appearance became defined by excluded journalists, conflicting accounts from the two teams, and an audience that refused to rescue Harris’ failed joke.

Harris and Pan’s teams offered competing versions of how reporters were kept out, while Pan denied banning the outlets. Inside the headquarters, however, there was no dispute about the staffers’ reaction because Harris’ request to “remember to shower” was met with dead silence.

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