Posted on 08/17/2020 7:15:43 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced Tuesday that Sen. Kamala Harris of California would be his vice presidential running mate.
Fulfilling an earlier campaign promise to have a minority female running mate, the former vice president took to his official Twitter handle to make the announcement.
“I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” tweeted Biden.
Harris had previously been a fierce critic of Biden, taking him to task during a Democratic primary debate over his past opposition to federally mandated busing to desegregate schools.
A former district attorney of San Francisco and later the attorney general of California, Harris’ public career has not been without its controversies, especially as she garnered national attention.
Here are five controversies surrounding Harris. They include some of her decisions as attorney general of California, the questioning of a judicial appointee, and a lawsuit filed by a high-profile pro-life activist.
1. THE WILLIE BROWN AFFAIR
In the early 1990s, a then 29-year-old Harris dated former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, age 60, who had been separated but not divorced from his wife since the 1980s.
In a letter published by the San Francisco Chronicle in January 2019, Brown said that while he was dating Harris, he helped to launch her political career.
This included appointing Harris to the California Medical Assistance Commission and the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, both in 1994, The Washington Examiner reported.
For her part, Harris has distanced herself from Brown, telling SF Weekly in 2003 that the former mayor, who weathered corruption allegations, was an “albatross hanging around my neck.”
“Would it make sense if you are a Martian coming to Earth that the litmus test for public office is where a candidate is in their relationship to Willie Brown?” she told the publication at the time.
“Willie Brown is not going to be around. He's gone — hello people, move on. If there is corruption, it will be prosecuted. It's a no-brainer, but let's please move on.”
2. Handling of Catholic Church sex abuse cases
In June 2019, multiple news outlets reported on allegations that, while district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California, Harris poorly handled Catholic Church sex abuse complaints.
“Harris specialized in prosecuting sex crimes and child exploitation as a young prosecutor just out of law school. She later touted her record on child sexual abuse cases and prosecuting pedophiles,” The Intercept reported at the time.
“But when it came to taking on the Catholic Church, survivors of clergy sexual abuse say that Harris turned a blind eye, refusing to take action against clergy members accused of sexually abusing children when it meant confronting one of the city’s most powerful political institutions.”
Specific allegations argue that Harris did not actively pursue such cases, refused to meet with abuse survivors, and refused to release files regarding clergy abuse to the public.
Some, including attorney Michael Meadows, who has represented victims of clergy abuse, speculated that Harris' inaction was politically motivated.
“There's a potential political risk if you move aggressively against the church,” Meadows told The Associated Press. “I just don't think she was willing to take it.”
In response to the claims, the Harris campaign gave the AP a statement last year touting Harris’ overall history of prosecuting abusers, but did not directly address the issue of clergy sexual abuse.
“Harris has been a staunch advocate on behalf of sexual assault victims, especially child sexual assault victims,” the campaign said at the time. “[Harris] used her position as District Attorney to create the first unit focused on child sexual assault cases in the office's history.”
3. Knights of Columbus opposition
In December 2018, Harris garnered controversy for critically questioning a judicial appointee’s association with the Catholic fraternal group, the Knights of Columbus.
Alongside fellow Democrat Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Harris questioned Brian C. Buescher over his affiliation with the Knights.
“Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose [abortion] when you joined the organization?” Kamala asked Buescher at the time.
“Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality [same-sex marriage] when you joined the organization?”
Kathleen Blomquist, the spokesperson for the Knights of Columbus, denounced the questions from Hirono and Harris as an example of “anti-Catholic bigotry.”
“We were extremely disappointed to see that one’s commitment to Catholic principles through membership in the Knights of Columbus — a charitable organization that adheres to and promotes Catholic teachings — would be viewed as a disqualifier from public service in this day and age,” said Blomquist to the Catholic News Agency at the time.
4. Criminal justice record debate
During a Democratic presidential debate in August 2019, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii took aim at Harris, saying she was “deeply concerned” about Harris’ track record as a prosecutor.
“There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” Gabbard said.
“She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California.”
Harris responded, saying that when she was attorney general of California, she “did the work of significantly reforming the criminal justice system of a state of 40 million people, which became a national model for the work that needs to be done.”
“I am proud of making a decision to not just give fancy speeches or be in a legislative body and give speeches on the floor, but actually doing the work of being in the position to use the power that I had to reform a system that is badly in need of reform,” Harris said.
She then went on to state her support for legalizing marijuana and responded to Gabbard's assertion that she owed an apology to all those she wronged while attorney general.
“I think you can judge people by when they are under fire and it's not about some fancy opinion on a stage but when they're in the position to actually make a decision, what do they do,” Harris said.
5. Pro-life lawsuit
In May, pro-life activist and citizen journalist David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress filed a lawsuit against Harris and others in response to his home being raided after he exposed Planned Parenthood's harvesting of aborted baby body parts for profit.
In response to the CMP’s release of videos showing Planned Parenthood violating the law, then California Attorney General Harris ordered a raid on Daleiden's apartment in 2016 where his laptop, hard drives, and unreleased undercover videos were taken.
Daleiden and CMP accused Harris and the other defendants of “a brazen, unprecedented, and ongoing conspiracy to selectively use California’s video recording laws as a political weapon to silence disfavored speech.”
“Daleiden became the first journalist ever to be criminally prosecuted under California’s recording law … because his investigation revealed and he published ‘shock[ing]’ content that California’s Attorney General and the private party coconspirators wanted to cover up,” the lawsuit states.
“Defendants seek their ‘pound of flesh’ from Mr. Daleiden and to chill other journalists from investigating and reporting on that same content.”
6. Not a natural born citizen.
That’s a loosing argument, at best it’s a poke in her side just to rile her voters.
There are many more issue related topics that can be used against her on her the record.
loose - not tight
lose - not win
Liberal women’s coalition calls Harris untouchable but I’m pretty sure she’s a Brahmin.
Moonlight Fire
I don’t know a lot about it but there is some big scandal there.
her baggage is HUGE!
Consumers of the MSM will never know any of it, believe she is a moderate, and that Trump is picking on her because she is a woman of color.
Just watch.
“There are many more issue related topics that can be used against her on her the record.”
Obviously, adherence to the Constitution is not an issue with you. What is the next mandate to omit?
“Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose [abortion] when you joined the organization?” Kamala asked Buescher at the time.
“Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality [same-sex marriage] when you joined the organization?”
what kinds of questions are these? So then, she’s thinking that this guy must have been unaware of Catholic teaching on marriage, and abortion??? The implication being that of course nobody would knowingly belong to such organizations??? What the heck???
Nobody who is woke would join those organizations.
She doesn’t understand people with consciences because she doesn’t have one.
This is good and valuable information but we must keep one thing firmly in mind: As much as Harris, the America/American-hating Democrat/Left Party and the America/American-hating media think it so, Harris is not running against Trump ... Biden is. ... I have no doubt that Trump knows this and will not play to the Democrat/Left’s wet dream.
And a wrong one.
Biden is the one to focus on.
Lew’s loos lose !!!
How many days/hours since Biden announced his running mate has he ducked media questions and has failed to provide open media access?
Seriously, what is wrong with a candidate for President that has not taken media questions and wide ranging unrehearsed questions at that?
Biden must be in horrible mental shape.
It would be nice if the Constitution said clearly that the child of two immigrant, non-citizen parents born on American soil was not eligible to be President. Unfortunately, it doesn't say that. There is no legal precedent that establishes it, either. caww is right. It's a losing issue.
Exactly--only the opposite. In California there is zero political risk in moving "aggressively" against the teachings of the Catholic Church or its faithful representatives. If you're a Democrat or a fainting-chair Republican, it's required to do so.
However, for Kamalalala, there obviously would be career-ending political risk in moving against homosexual sodomy or its culture. That culture contains homosexuals in the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and in the networks of homosexual Catholic priests found in many dioceses--especially in California. They are unfaithful as Catholics, but as homosexuals, they are crucial to Democratic power. The dissident priests of the "Lavender Mafia" give cover to Left-wing Catholics to support the things the actual Church has denounced as sins for 2,000 years--such as abortion, euthanasia, sodomy, and yes, socialism.
The "Church" of the dissident homosexual mafia--that's one church no California Democrat will dare oppose.
[applause]
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