It’s currently a contest between Kamala Harris, Susan Rice, Tammy Duckworth and Elizabeth Warren.
Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Ryan Lizza created a stir in Politico on Monday when he reported that former Senator Christopher Dodd, who is vetting potential vice-presidential candidates for Joe Biden, is unimpressed with Kamala Harris. In particular, Dodd allegedly doesn’t like how Harris responded when asked about her decision to go after Biden on the busing issue in the first Democratic debate.
This set off a furious response from supporters of Harris, including her online KHIVE fanbase. It was probably counterproductive, unless you think sending a mob to trash Chris Dodd is going to impress Biden. Of course, some figured the appearance of this article indicated that it was a lost cause in any case, but some interpreted the Dodd story as a desperate attempt to derail a nearly completed process that will put Harris on the ticket.
I don’t know where Harris currently stands, but Politico is back today with a story from Nahal Toosi on Susan Rice. Considering how many sources friendly to Rice cooperated on the article, it’s a pretty clear lobbying effort. The Rice camp is probably pleased with the result, as the piece reads like an advertisement. Taken together, the Lizza and Toosi articles are turning Politico into an enemy of the Harris camp.
Yet, their coverage of Karen Bass has been more critical. Quint Forgey focused on something the California congresswoman said at the time of Fidel Castro’s death:
In an interview on MSNBC, the five-term House lawmaker and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus addressed her decision to describe Castro as “Comandante en Jefe” in a statement she issued marking his death in 2016.The Spanish phrase, which translates in English to commander in chief, has been criticized as unduly deferential to the communist strongman who presided over various human rights abuses.“I have talked to my colleagues in the House about that, and it’s certainly something that I would not say again,” Bass said. “I have always supported the Cuban people, and the relationship that Barack Obama and Biden had in their administration in terms of opening up relations.”
Of course, Bass was only asked about this comment in response to a Politico article from Marc Caputo “detailing outrage among Florida Democrats over former Vice President Joe Biden’s vetting of Bass to become his running mate.”
The Florida Democratic Party has spent two years fighting a renewed GOP effort to brand it as socialists, and the state and national parties are spending big this year in Miami to defend two congressional seats and win two crucial state Senate contests in districts with sizable Cuban-American populations. All four lawmakers condemned Bass’ Castro remarks.“The comments are troubling. It shows a lack of understanding about what the Castro regime was about. So I have to learn more about her position and perspective on Fidel Castro,” said Miami state Rep. Javier Fernandez, whose bid for an open state Senate seat could bring Democrats closer than ever to flipping control of the chamber.
So, somehow a contest that pits three talented, well-credentialed and ambitious black women against each other, is playing out by proxy in the pages of Politico. Yet, Elizabeth Warren is still in the running. Last week, the Associated Press weighed in with an examination of how she became “an unlikely confidant and adviser to Biden.” On June 15, she helped Biden raise $6 million in a single event.
Two weeks ago, Natasha Korecki of Politico announced “Tammy Duckworth bursts into VP contention” and “The Purple Heart recipient has captured the imagination of donors and the Biden team.” There’s been a little less buzz about her in the last few days, but she’s probably with the others on the finalists’ list.
There’s been some discussion of governors Gina Raimondo and Michelle Lujan Grisham, as well as Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Florida representatives Val Demings, but they certainly haven’t been as successful at self-promotion as the others. Maybe that’s a plus in Biden’s mind, but it seems like their hopes have faded.
July 31, 2020
Kamala Harris planting negative stories to knock out her potential rivals?
Kamala #HeelsUpHarris ascends to the top of the Biden VP list: What could go wrong?
Kamala Harris Defends Controversial Truancy Initiative In Newly Resurfaced Video
YOU CAN’T SEPARATE THE DEMOCRAT PARTY FROM THEIR PLUNDERING BANKSTERS!
More stiffing the little guy from haughty Kamala Harris
“One, Biden has cut ties with President Obama and no longer expects to get that prized, coveted endorsement from him. He's been sucking up for months for it, and all signs point instead to Obama tilting toward Kamala Harris. The fact that Obama failed to endorse Biden at this point, after all those years of faithful service, was quite a slap in the face for loyal old Joe, who stood at Obama's side no matter what he did.”
Harris claims she “achieved landmark results” by “fighting the Wall Street banks” and winning a large settlement following the Great Recession. In fact, her office refused to prosecute blatant foreclosure fraud being carried out by OneWest Bank, run by then CEO Stephen Mnuchin, now Trump’s secretary of the treasury.
The problem with Harris instead is her tendency to say what is popular in front of progressive audiences while defaulting to the political status quo when it comes time to make tough decisions. It would have taken real courage to stand up to the Obama administration in 2012 when it was pushing states hard to sweep the robosigning scandal — which involved flagrant document fraud on an industrial scale — under the rug. But Harris was the top law enforcement official in the largest state in the country. She certainly could have gotten far better terms than she did. RYAN COOPER
July 31, 2020
So it’s Senator Kamala Harris? Want to bet?
Former Vice President Joe Biden seems to have announced Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate. There was an inquisitive photographer's shot of his notes suggesting just that. But there's also some question about whether she's really qualified. The media has already seeded the ground with quotes from some of the dumbest lawyers in America to state she is a “natural born citizen” under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, and is therefore, eligible to be vice president or president.
Is that really true?
Kamala Harris’ mother was Shyamala Gopalan, born in British India (present-day Chennai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu). Ms. Gopalan never became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Donald Harris, Senator Harris’ father, is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Jamaica. There are no provisions in the U.S. Constitution that qualifies a child born of a foreign national as a natural-born citizen and Senator Harris is not eligible to hold the office of the vice president.
It's possible the Trump campaign will not allow this nomination to go forward without a court challenge. There will be a full court press by the media to claim Senator Harris is eligible to the office of the vice president. The media and the Democrats will call President Trump every name in the book to get him to back off his call for legal action.
The media did a bang-up job keeping Barack Obama, a child born of a foreign national, out of the courts and into the White House. The Democrat Party believes they can do it again.
Let’s review the primaries of the 2008 election. Hillary Clinton and John McCain couldn’t afford politically to take Obama with his questionable eligibility to court. A court win would have been the classic pyrrhic victory. Whichever candidate had “standing” at the time of the lawsuit would have won the argument (the law and the facts were not on Obama’s side) and disqualified Obama to be eligible to be president, but they would have lost the election (war). A U.S. Supreme Court decision (either Clinton vs Obama, or McCain vs Obama) would have been viewed as a racist attack on a black man and the African-American community would have responded by throwing their support to the other candidate (an Obama replacement) or not voting at all.
Virtually everything written on the topic of “natural born citizen” since the Founding documents were drafted and signed, falls into one of three categories:
(1) As Alexander Hamilton explained, the “natural born citizen” requirement was expressly placed into the Constitution to ward off “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils” by “raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union.”
Some doubters questioned the supremacy of U.S. law over the laws of other nations, that being born abroad meant that person was a citizen or subject of that country. However, the Naturalization Act of 1790 reaffirmed a person born abroad of American citizens is also a “natural born citizen.”
(2) The vast preponderance of law review articles focused on the “natural born citizen” requirement. Authors challenged the Framers’ logic, decision, and promulgation (and subsequent Naturalization Laws) that foreign-born children of American citizens are inherently natural-born citizens. One paper which is referenced extensively by other law school students and researchers has been Who Can Be President of the United States: the Unresolved Enigma. Gordon’s article was written at a time when Governor George Romney ran for president. George Romney was born to American citizens in a “Mormon colony” in Colonia Dublán in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico.
Gordon argued that Romney should not be considered eligible to run for president. He tried to revive the legal concept of jus soli (Latin: right of the soil), commonly referred to as birthright citizenship, as the right of a person born in the territory of a state to nationality or citizenship. Gordon and other legal scholars rejected Romney’s claim of Constitutional presidential eligibility as a “natural born citizen” based on jus sanguinis (Latin: right of blood), the principle of nationality law by which citizenship is not determined by place of birth but by having one or both parents who are citizens of the state.
(3) The remaining percentage of law review articles which focused on the question of “natural born citizen” took a different tack entirely. They challenged the Framers’ logic, that the “natural born citizen” clause was discriminatory, that it embodied “…striking unfairness and dangerous ambiguity.”
In What Is the Constitution’s Worst Provision? Robert C. Post argued that the Clause is highly objectionable because it unmistakably and clearly prohibits naturalized citizens from becoming president. And in Unnatural Born Citizens and Acting Presidents, James C. Ho argued that “No matter who wins the White House this November [2000], I and millions of other Americans like me once again will have suffered a certain measure of exclusion from the selection process. We have the right to vote, to be sure. But we cannot serve as president.”
Article after article, it is hard to come to any other conclusion what these legal scholars had in mind and it wasn’t that the U.S. Constitution was “ambiguous,” the favorite trope of the left, but that Democrat lawyers tried to disqualify Republican presidential candidates (Governor Romney wasn’t the only one) on the basis that they were born abroad, that they were not “native-born” and thus should not have been qualified as a “natural born citizen.”
In every article the authors argued the “natural born citizen” clause should mean something other than a person born of American citizens; that potential presidential candidates should either be born in the United States (native born) or not have been born in the United States (a naturalized citizen). Alexander Hamilton asserted that a person’s birthplace is immaterial. If they are born to American parents, then they can be born abroad, on the sea, in the air, and maybe one day, in space.
When it pleased them, leftist lawyers wished to exclude candidates they did not like on the basis of where they were born or that the Constitution is discriminatory. Alexander Hamilton’s concern wasn’t where a potential candidate for president was born but rather how he would govern the new United States. The allegiance of a child of a foreign national could rest with another country over the interests of America.
In her 1988 article in the Yale Law Journal, The Natural-Born Citizen Clause and Presidential Eligibility: An Approach for Resolving Two Hundred Years of Uncertainty, Jill Pryor wrote, “It is well settled that ‘native-born’ citizens, those born in the United States, qualify as natural born. It is also clear that persons born abroad of alien parents, who later become citizens by naturalization, do not. But whether a person born abroad of American parents, or of one American and one alien parent qualifies as natural born has never been resolved.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) brought to the floor Senate Resolution S.Res.511 and “resolved” and reaffirmed Senator John McCain (R)—born in Panama of American citizens—was a natural born citizen.
There are no circumstances in U.S. law that qualifies a person born of a foreign national to be considered a “natural born citizen” of the United States. Senator Harris’ mother was born in British India and never became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Senator Harris is unambiguously ineligible to be vice president of the United States.
In lieu of a court challenge and media malfeasance, I submit the Senate could consider a Senate Resolution to affirm Senator Harris’ constitutional eligibility for the office of the vice president.
Mark writes thrillers and an occasional children’s book, and is a long-time contributor to American Thinker.
Kamala Harris planting negative stories to knock out her potential rivals?
Kamala Harris, who was resoundingly rejected by voters before the primaries based on her phoniness, is now running a stealth campaign to be Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's vice president. Here's the Atlantic Monthly's June 30 take on it:
In public, Harris has repeatedly insisted that she's not talking about or thinking about her prospects of being picked. But judging from my conversations with people around Harris, she and her team use her prospects to book events and television hits that aim to show she's neither overeager nor overambitious. She and her team are avoiding situations that could create stumbles. They're hoping that her résumé, her background, and the force of her personality propel her. They're picking specific moments for her to grab attention on the Senate floor or send a calibrated tweet. They're tuning out political reporters who are stuck on their couches, looking to drum up content during the pandemic. They're trying to ease concerns in Biden's orbit that if she's picked and they win, she'll start running for president the morning after the inauguration. They want her on the ticket, and positioned to be the Democratic nominee in 2024.
It's been in the news quite a bit that she wants the job bad even though she's effectively been saying "Who, me?"
She's been showing up at every press opportunity to smile and look occupied with legislation — popular uncontroversial measures, such as making Juneteenth a holiday. She's also been out there denouncing cops and blaming Trump. In addition, she's had what looks like some heavy-duty plastic surgery in a bid to look better on camera. Nothing to see here, move along, la di da...
But behind the phony smiles and demurs, she's campaigning like crazy to undercut her potential black-woman rivals, planting negative stories about them in the press about them to keep Biden from picking them. Call it a campaign to one.
Curiously enough, negative stories about Harris's potential rivals for the VP slot have been popping up of late in mainstream media outlets. Imagine that.
Those potential Democrat rivals include Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Rep. Val Demings, and Rep. Karen Bass, all black women who could also take that coveted vice presidential slot.
In recent weeks, all three have had negative stories published about them—almost certainly the result of opposition research fed to reporters by a rival.
Within a span of two days earlier this month, Vox and Politico published similar stories criticizing Demings's record as Orlando police chief. Harris has been criticized in similar fashion for pursuing "tough on crime" policies as California attorney general back when the Democratic Party still believed in crime prevention — although neither story mentions Harris's record.
Around the same time, ABC News published a story highlighting Bottoms's ties to "controversial figure" Kasim Reed, the former Atlanta mayor who left office in disgrace amid a federal corruption investigation that resulted in prison time for a number of his senior staffers. Harris herself is no stranger to controversial figures. Her political career emerged as she was in a relationship with former San Francisco mayor (and Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year) Willie Brown, who was also the subject of a federal corruption investigation — but once again, Harris's similar background went unmentioned.
Following reports that Biden was considering Bass because of her relative lack of interest in using the VP gig as a platform to launch a presidential campaign in 2024, Politico came through with an article about how the congresswoman once described Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as "comandante en jefe" (commander in chief). "Florida Democrats recoil at Karen Bass VP float," the headline read.
It sounds like she's got the hooks in at JournoList, which wouldn't be surprising at all, given her closeness to the old Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama political machine. The stories are coming out with perfect timing, and they're echo-chambering each other to magnify the "narrative."
It's a reverberation of her record as a dirty trickster prosecutor, the kind who could plant evidence on the innocent and defend phony made up questions to convict someone in a death penalty case, which is what she did. Planting evidence is "her M.O.," as Glenn Reynolds noted at Instapundit.
And like her plastic surgery, it's really pretty obvious.
Bad stories about rivals in Vox — really? Vox? The Vox, founded by Ezra Klein, who, coincidence of coincidences, also founded JournoList in a bid to make journalists the Obama machine's echo chamber? Sure enough, Vox.
And planting evidence isn't her only M.O., either — she's quite skilled at manipulating different kinds of media. Remember this CNN/CBS shopping excursion with the girls on the bus?
Remember all her fake Twitter followers, put there by her own minions, to make Harris look more influential than she really is?
Remember her suspiciously timed legislation which came about just before the Jussie Smollett racist-attack hoax?
She's an operator, so too bad about the rivals, she's out use the press to knock them out.
Because with dotard Joe in the presidential chair, it's pretty obvious Harris is going to have some pretty impressive catbird-seat level power. She'll be the heir apparent, perfectly positioned, for when Joe makes his exit, either during, or shortly after he takes power. He's a placeholder after all, and she knows it. She knows the plan, which is why this represents a golden opportunity for her. What better than to have the real power in the White House, well positioned for 2024?
So there she goes, padding like a duck underwater, trying to pretend to be all uninterested, when the reality shows she's willing to jump into any bed and manipulate any 27-year-old who knows nothing, to bite and claw her way to the top. Harris has no limits, and voters should beware if dodderig old Biden's fool enough to pick Harris as his running mate. She'll get him, too.
BLOG EDITOR: STEVE MNUCHIN IS KNOWN AS THE ‘FORECLOSURE KING’.
Harris’s office never pursued the matter.
In her 2016 senate bid, Harris was the only Democratic candidate for Senate to whom Mnuchin donated money. He was joined by at least one other OneWest investor, billionaire George Soros.
AS ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CALIFORNIA KAMALA HARRIS ANNOUNCED THAT NEARLY HALF OF ALL MURDERS IN MEXIFORNIA ARE NOW BY MEX GANGS. THAT DIDN’T END HER AMNESTY.
KAMALA ALSO HAS SERVED DIANNE FEINSTEIN’S CRIMINAL BANKSTER PAYMASTER WELLS FARGO, THE VERY BANKSTERS THAT CAUSED THE MORTGAGE MELTDOWN AND WALKED OFF WITH BILLIONS IN NO STRINGS BAILOUTS SO THEY COULD BUY THEIR COMPETITORS. KAMALA HARRIS MADE SURE NO WELLS FARGO EXEC OR OTHERWISE WENT TO PRISON FOR THEIR ECONOMIC CRIMES. WELLS FARGO HAS BEEN VERY GENEROUS TO KAMALA HARRIS AS SHE HAS AND WILL SERVE HER PAYMASTERS AS WELL AS DIANNE FEINSTEIN AND THE OBAMA-BIDEN BANKSTERS REGIME DID.
Wasn’t Kamala Harris the one who put tons of blacks into jail for excessive sentences when she was a prosecutor in California?
Harris sees that, which is why she's jumping at the chance. Ever since her days as Willie Brown's mistress, sleeping her way to the top in politics, she's known a good opportunity when she's seen one.
LIKE OBAMA – BIDEN, KAMALA HARRIS WILL SERVE THE BANKSTER CLASS AND THE DEMOCRAT PARTY’S RICH
Her rise, however, was propelled in and by a very different milieu. In this less explored piece of her past, Harris used as a launching pad the tightly knit world of San Francisco high society, navigating early on this rarefied world of influence and opulence, charming and partying with movers and shakers — ably cultivating relationships with VIPs who would become friends and also backers and donors of every one of her political campaigns, tapping into deep pockets and becoming a popular figure in a small world dominated by a handful of powerful families.
Kamala #HeelsUpHarris ascends to the top of the Biden VP list: What could go wrong?
The trends on Twitter are in and Kamala Harris has risen to the top of Joe Biden's heap for vice presidential picks.
Kamala Harris is trending today. Is it because people remember she laughed about locking up poor parents for their children's truancy? Or is it because she tried to cancel Joe Biden a few months ago based on his segregationist ties..? #VA10https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-truancy-initiative_n_5c50b08ee4b0f43e410bcbc4 …
Kamala Harris Defends Controversial Truancy Initiative In Newly Resurfaced Video
Some random responses, none good:
Weird that "I'm white and I want Kamala Harris for VP" is trending. Never seen millions of white people want a cop in power before.
So wait, Joe Biden put together a crime bill that specifically targeted Black male citizens and Kamala Harris made sure those same people did extra time in jail? And now they want to run together on the Democratic ticket for POTUS?
If Black Lives Matter THIS will never happen!
If Black Lives Matter THIS will never happen!
Wasn’t Kamala Harris the one who put tons of blacks into jail for excessive sentences when she was a prosecutor in California?
Shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone until she gets the Vice Presidential nomination.
Shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone until she gets the Vice Presidential nomination.
congratulations to kamala harris, the establishment's choice who dropped out before the primaries even began, for becoming the next president. they always find a wayhttps://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1273809696168841221 …
please do not fall for @KamalaHarris she speaks with a forked tongue https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1272519084362563584 …
She's black, and she's female, which is Biden's criterion for picking a vice president. And unless he wants to go Norbit with Stacey Abrams, Harris might just be all he's got, given how he's boxed himself in.
Given how Biden is showing greater signs of senility than ever, they might as well even declare her the real president if, heaven forbid, Biden should win.
Harris sees that, which is why she's jumping at the chance. Ever since her days as Willie Brown's mistress, sleeping her way to the top in politics, she's known a good opportunity when she's seen one.
Harris, recall, is the one who tried to pander to black voters and guilt-minded whites to the effect that she, in all her Berkeley, California and Canadian upbringing, had suffered through her upbringing in the midst of some kind of Klan country. Her yearbook photos from her high school showed otherwise.
Being half east Indian, she's not typically black, though she'd have you think she was. Here's how she acquired that "credential":
Kamala Harris wanted to go to a black school. That’s what black folks called Howard University in the early 1980s when Harris was a teenager considering her future.
Harris, she would say later, was seeking an experience wholly different from what she had long known. She’d attended majority-white schools her entire life — from elementary school in Berkeley, Calif., to high school in Montreal. Her parents’ professional lives and their personal story were bound up in majority-white institutions. Her father, an economist from Jamaica, was teaching at Stanford University. Her mother, a cancer researcher from India, had done her graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley, where the couple had met and fallen in love. And Harris’s younger sister would eventually enroll at Stanford.
Her rise, however, was propelled in and by a very different milieu. In this less explored piece of her past, Harris used as a launching pad the tightly knit world of San Francisco high society, navigating early on this rarefied world of influence and opulence, charming and partying with movers and shakers — ably cultivating relationships with VIPs who would become friends and also backers and donors of every one of her political campaigns, tapping into deep pockets and becoming a popular figure in a small world dominated by a handful of powerful families. This stratum of San Francisco remains a profoundly important part of her network — including not just powerful Democratic donors but an ambassador appointed by President Donald Trump who ran in the same circles.
Harris, now 54, often has talked about the importance of having "a seat at the table," of being an insider instead of an outsider. And she learned that skill in this crowded, incestuous, famously challenging political proving ground, where she worked to score spots at the some of the city's most sought-after tables. In the mid- to late '90s and into the aughts, the correspondents who kept tabs on the comings and goings of the area's A-listers noted where Harris was and what she was doing and who she was with. As she advanced professionally, jumping from Alameda County to posts in the offices of the district and city attorneys across the Bay, she was a trustee, too, of the museum of modern art and active in causes concerning AIDS and the prevention of domestic abuse, and out and about at fashion shows and cocktail parties and galas and get-togethers at the most modish boutiques. She was, in the breezy, buzzy parlance of these kinds of columns, one of the "Pretty Thangs." She was a "rising star." She was "rather perfect." And she mingled with "spiffy and powerful friends" who were her contemporaries as well as their even more influential mothers and fathers. All this was fun, but it wasn't unserious. It was seeing and being seen with a purpose, society activity with political utility.
After that, she became "cop Kamala" as the lefties say, or a pretty dirty prosecutor, both in San Francisco and as California's attorney general. She always put the needs of the Democratic establishment above the people she said she was "helping." Here's something from an item I wrote about earlier:
So here's a new one, from California watcher Susan Crabtree at RealClearPolitics, reporting Harris's soapboxing at the second presidential debate:
"So in my background as attorney general of California, I took on the big banks who preyed on the homeowners, many of whom lost their homes and will never be able to buy another," Harris said in late July during the second round of Democratic debates in Detroit.
In fact, she and several other state attorneys general were instrumental in negotiating a $25 billion national settlement with five of the top U.S. mortgage lenders to provide debt relief and other financial services to struggling homeowners. But in 2012, just months after Harris secured those funds along with the other state AGs, then-California Gov. Jerry Brown diverted $331 million from California's portion of the settlement to pay off state budget shortfalls incurred before the housing crisis.
Although Harris initially spoke out against Brown's diversion of the funds, she remained silent on a subsequent court battle that began in 2014 — even after she left the attorney general's office and for the last year and a half while serving as senator and during her presidential bid this year.
She shook down some banks in the name of 'the people' and then went and used the money for something else. No wonder she's always been popular with the Democratic one-party blue-state establishment. I have a full blog on that here.
And being part of that establishment, she protected that establishment - such as a sex harrasser, Larry Wallace, who happened to be a top aide during her stint as California attorney general, and whose transgressions forced the state to shell out more than a million dollars in compensation to his victims while he was on the job.
Harris claimed she didn't know a thing about it. Establishment, see, protects its own. So much for #MeToo.
Here's another corrupt little manuever - she managed to obtain a Los Angeles Police Department Praetorian guard that followed her wherever she went across the state. Police for me, but not for thee. Not her first corruption rodeo.
How exactly is that kind of establishment record - sucking up to the rich, protecting Democratic operatives, using all matter of executive privilege, etc., going to win over Bernie Sanders supporters? If Joe Biden picks Harris, he can write them off, these are their hot-button issues.
Worse still is her record as a criminal prosecutor, the Tulsi Gabbard takedowns described - the very takedowns that sank Harris's presidential bid before she even got to the primaries. In Tulsi's words:
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.
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, and she fought to keep a cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.
In an era of protests against police brutality in one-party blue cities, particularly from Black Lives Matter supporters, putting Harris on the ticket with Biden makes about as much sense as Republicans putting Mitt Romney at the top of the 2012 ticket in an age when Americans wanted to get rid of Obamacare. Romney, recall, launched his own version of the government takeover prior to President Obama's legacy program.
As a Republican, perhaps this is all good opposition research fodder for President Trump or Vice President Pence to hurl thunderbolts at in the upcoming presidential election. Maybe we should snicker.
But it just goes to show how hard up the Democrats are for untainted candidates who can manage some kind of connection to normal people. If Kamala Harris is the best Joe Biden has got, it's not happening.
YOU CAN’T SEPARATE THE DEMOCRAT PARTY FROM THEIR PLUNDERING BANKSTERS!
More stiffing the little guy from haughty Kamala Harris
This characterization, from Thomas Lifson last month, pretty well sums her up every time a Kamala Harris story comes to light:
Kamala Harris is scary in her pathological ambition, moral flexibility, comfort with deception, and sheer ruthlessness.
So here's a new one, from California watcher Susan Crabtree atRealClearPolitics, reporting Harris's soapboxing at the second presidential debate:
“So in my background as attorney general of California, I took on the big banks who preyed on the homeowners, many of whom lost their homes and will never be able to buy another,” Harris said in late July during the second round of Democratic debates in Detroit.
In fact, she and several other state attorneys general were instrumental in negotiating a $25 billion national settlement with five of the top U.S. mortgage lenders to provide debt relief and other financial services to struggling homeowners. But in 2012, just months after Harris secured those funds along with the other state AGs, then-California Gov. Jerry Brown diverted $331 million from California’s portion of the settlement to pay off state budget shortfalls incurred before the housing crisis.
Although Harris initially spoke out against Brown’s diversion of the funds, she remained silent on a subsequent court battle that began in 2014 – even after she left the attorney general’s office and for the last year and a half while serving as senator and during her presidential bid this year.
Which is pretty outrageous. Harris shook down some banks in the name of "the people" and then like a crooked lawyer, didn't give the "winnings" to the clients. Whoever got wronged in this mortgage-lending mess didn't see a penny of the won cash. It all just went to other Democrat priorities within the one-party state.
Sound like the kind of lawyer you'd want to have if you got stiffed in some bank deal? Whatever this is, it's not the doing of the consumer advocate she's now painting herself to be.
Any more than she's the prison-rights advocate she claims to be - she threw thousands of them in jail for petty offenses during her time as State Attorney General, kept people in jail beyond their sentences in order to retain them to fight fires, and refused to disavow false testimony from prosecutorial misconduct that would have freed prisoners. She's never been about the little guy.
The mortgage-payout story shows two distasteful things about Harris.
One, she plays the old California political machine game (it probably happens in other crooked one-party states, too) of amassing a vast pot of money for one purpose, a virtue-signaling purpose, a purpose that press releases can be released on, and political campaign speeches can be made ... and then spending the same pile of cash on something thing else, something far less salable to the voters, something that will cover up spending mismanagement or fatten pensions. In California, this game is gotten away with all the time. Gas tax is approved by voters to improve roads ... and ends up bankrolling bureaucrat and administrative hiring sprees. Federal stimulus money is shoveled into the state for shovel-ready bridges and road improvements --- and goes to cover municipal budget holes brought on by mismanagement. Voters approve bond measures in the name of hiring teachers and getting more school supplies for kids in education -- and it goes to educrat pensions and union siphon-offs. Harris is comfortable operating that way in taking on the big banks, shaking them down -- and just letting the money head elsewhere.
Two, she's still the teacher's pet of Democrats, the sidling, sucking-up, get-along-to-go-along, slept-her-way-to-the-top errand girl the more powerful Democrats like. Crabtree reports that Harris first protested the diversion of the funds, and then went silent. Why would she do that? Obviouly, she heard from more powerful Democrats, the kind who could make or break her career. An Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-style boat-rocker she was not. The money was won, the cash was collected, the whole thing went to the government instead of the little guys, and she went along.
Which pretty well tells us what kind of leader she would be if heaven forbid she should win the presidency. In winning the money and then allowing it to be diverted, she failed the little guys she now says she was serving. And with that, she shows she's never been about serving the people, she's about obeying the greater interests of the Democratic political machine. No wonder she's so popular in those circles - she's been kowtowing to these rich and powerful since the dawn of her career. For voters, the real message, as she vows to take over their health care, hand out reparations to black people, and offer free stuff for votes is clear: That the cash she promises isn't going to get anywhere near the little guys. Not even the illegal immigrants she's promising free health care for can believe her.
“One, Biden has cut ties with President Obama and no longer expects to get that prized, coveted endorsement from him. He's been sucking up for months for it, and all signs point instead to Obama tilting toward Kamala Harris. The fact that Obama failed to endorse Biden at this point, after all those years of faithful service, was quite a slap in the face for loyal old Joe, who stood at Obama's side no matter what he did.”
In reality, as David Dayen detailed at The Intercept, the settlement was at bottom yet another bank giveaway — on top of the TARP bailout and Tim Geithner's backdoor subsidy of banks through a fake homeowner assistance program. As Dayen writes, "more families lost their homes as a result of transactions facilitated by the national mortgage settlement than those who got a sustainable loan modification to save them." Nearly half of the dollar value of Harris' settlement was for debt that could not be legally recovered in the first place. She also declined to prosecute OneWest, run by now-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from 2009-2015, after her own prosecutors said they discovered over a thousand violations of foreclosure law committed by the bank. (OneWest donated $6,500 to Harris' attorney general campaign in 2011, and Mnuchin himself donated $2,000 to her Senate campaign in 2016.)
The problem with Harris instead is her tendency to say what is popular in front of progressive audiences while defaulting to the political status quo when it comes time to make tough decisions. It would have taken real courage to stand up to the Obama administration in 2012 when it was pushing states hard to sweep the robosigning scandal — which involved flagrant document fraud on an industrial scale — under the rug. But Harris was the top law enforcement official in the largest state in the country. She certainly could have gotten far better terms than she did. RYAN COOPER
Rumored Biden VP pick Karen Bass rows back on controversial remarks where she praised the Church of Scientology in 2010 and sympathized with Cubans over death of Fidel Castro
- Rep. Karen Bass, 66, is having to explain her past comments where she was seen praising the Church of Scientology and Fidel Castro
- Video has emerged of her speaking at a Church of Scientology opening in 2010
- Organization has been accused of acting like a cult and has faced a number of allegations from former members of abuse, human trafficking and intimidation
- Saturday, Bass released a statement clarifying that she prays at a Baptist church
- In regards to Cuba, Bass traveled to the country in 1973 with an organization called the Venceremos Brigade and went to see Castro speak
- In 2016, when Castro died, she referred to him as 'commandante en jefe' (commander-in-chief) saying his passing was a 'great loss to the people of Cuba.'
- Bass, 66, entered Congress in 2010 and is chair of Congressional Black Caucus
Rep. Karen Bass, a possible top-tier contender to be Joe Biden's running mate has clarified remarks she made in 2010 where she was heard praising the Church of Scientology.
On Friday, video emerged of an event from 2010 at which the California Democrat spoke at a ceremony for a renovated Scientology church in Los Angeles.
During her remarks, while calling for humans to treat one another with respect and fight oppression, she also spoke highly of the Church's controversial founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
Rep. Karen Bass, 66, is having to explain her past comments where she was seen praising the Church of Scientology and Fidel Castro She is pictured here at a Scientology event in 2010
The organization has been accused of acting like a cult and has faced a number of allegations from former members of abuse, human trafficking and intimidation. The 2010 event is pictured
Bass praised the Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard at an event in 2010. Hubbard is pictured in 1991
'The Church of Scientology, I know, has made a difference, because your creed is a universal creed and one that speaks to all people everywhere,' Bass said in front of an audience of 6,000 people.
'That is why the words are exciting of your Founder L. Ron Hubbard, in the creed of the Church of Scientology: That all people of whatever race, color or creed are created with equal rights.'
On Saturday, Bass sought to clarify the remarks and said she was trying to find an 'area of agreement' with the church, which has faced a number of allegations from former members of abuse, human trafficking and intimidation.
'Back in 2010, I attended the event knowing I was going to address a group of people with beliefs very different than my own, and spoke briefly about things I think most of us agree with, and on those things — respect for different views, equality, and fighting oppression — my views have not changed,' Bass stated in a tweet. 'Since then, published first-hand accounts in books, interviews and documentaries have exposed this group.'
Joe Biden is nearing the announcement of his vice presidential choice as the top contenders and their advocates are making final appeals
On Saturday, Bass released a statement clarifying that she prays at a Baptist church in LA
Bass, 66, entered Congress in 2010 and is chair of Congressional Black Caucus
Bass did not state what her current views of the church are but mentioned that 'everyone is now aware' of the allegations against it.
The Congressional Black Caucus chair also stated that she's not a Scientologist, underscoring that she worships at a Baptist church in south Los Angeles.
Bass's record is now coming under scrutiny as she appeared to be rising to the top of Joe Biden's possible picks for vice president.
On Friday, the Trump campaign made her a target noting that worked in Cuba during the 1970s alongside a group that aligned itself with Fidel Castro's government, the Venceremos Brigade.
The group was a joint venture between the regime and left-wing U.S. groups that organized trips for Americans to build homes in the country.
In regards to Cuba, Bass traveled to the country in 1973 with an organization called the Venceremos Brigade and went to see Castro speak. She tweeted a photo of the trip in 2016
When Castro died in 2016, she referred to him as 'commandante en jefe' (commander in chief), and said his passing was a 'great loss to the people of Cuba.'
Bass has been back to Cuba several times and when she returned in 2016 tweeted a a picture from her 1973 visit.
'She was always pro-Castro & later mourned his death,' Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh tweeted Saturday. 'Whether Biden picks her or not, he's written off Cuban-American voters just by considering her.'
On a call organized by the Trump campaign, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) laid into Bass for 'showing a stunning amount of interest in the Cuban Revolution,' according to the Palm Beach Post.
Raising speculation: Karen Bass was seen walking alongside Joe Biden after they both paid respects - with Biden's wife Jill - to John Lewis as the Civil Rights icon and Democratic congressman lay in state in the Capitol this week
Could it be Karen Bass? The chair of the Congressional Black Caucus is now being seen as a frontrunner in Joe Biden's search for a running mate
'She will be the highest ranking Castro sympathizer in the United States government,' Rubio said of Bass should she be selected to be Biden's running mate.
'If I had to make that statement over again, I wouldn't use those words,' she said in an article in The Atlantic this week adding she hadn't fully realized how Cuba and Castro were seen in Florida, as opposed to California.
Biden has said he will announce his pick for VP later this month.
Others on the shortlist possibly include Senator Kamala Harris, D-Calif., former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., and Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Warning from Florida Democrats: Bass could alienate Cuban voters because of a 2016 statement she made when Castro died saying: 'The passing of Comandante en Jefe is a great loss to the people of Cuba.'
WHO'S ON BIDEN'S VP SHORTLIST
KAMALA HARRIS, 55. CALIFORNIA SENATOR
Following widespread protests over racial injustice and police brutality, pressure increased on Biden to choose a woman of color. Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian parents, fits the bill.
Harris is widely viewed as a favorite to run alongside Biden. She is a battle-tested former presidential candidate and ex-prosecutor who has shown an ability to go on the attack - a valued asset for a running mate. A first-term senator from California, she has already been heavily vetted by the media and rival campaigns.
Harris endorsed Biden after dropping out of the race. But her criticism of him during a Democratic primary debate about his opposition to school busing rankled some people close to Biden, who worry about her ambition and loyalty.
Family life: Married to Douglas Emhoff, with two adult stepchildren.
SUSAN RICE, 55. FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
Rice served as President Barack Obama's national security adviser during his second term, where she worked hand in hand on foreign policy matters with Biden, who was Obama's vice president.
Prior to that, Rice served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Obama and has advised several other Democratic presidential candidates on national security.
A Black woman, Rice could help drive the African-American vote, the Democratic Party´s most loyal constituency. But she has never run for public office, which means she would be untested on the campaign trail. Her involvement in the controversy over the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, could revive that incident as a campaign issue.
Family life: Married to former ABC News executive Ian Cameron with son and a daughter; son John is a Trump supporter
VAL DEMINGS, 63. FLORIDA CONGRESSWOMAN
Biden has said Demings, an African-American congresswoman from the election battleground state of Florida, is on the shortlist for running mate.
The former Orlando police chief served as one of the managers of the House of Representatives' impeachment proceedings against Republican President Donald Trump but has a lower profile among voters nationally.
Demings' background in law enforcement and her relatively unvetted past as police chief could be viewed as risk factors to a Biden campaign that wants to appeal to progressive voters.
Family life: Married to Jerry Demings, current mayor of Orange County, Florida, with three adult children
KAREN BASS, 66. CALIFORNIA CONGRESSWOMAN
A late addition to Biden's shortlist, Bass, a congresswoman from Southern California and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, would add a progressive voice to the ticket.
Bass has an extensive background in police reform efforts and has spearheaded the legislative response in the House to the killing of George Floyd by police in May. But at 66, she may not offer the prospect of generational transition that Biden wants to show.
Family life: Lost her daughter and son-in-law in 2006 car crash; has four adult stepchildren from her former marriage
TAMMY DUCKWORTH, 52. ILLINOIS SENATOR
Duckworth has a compelling personal story and would help bolster the campaign's national security credentials.
The senator from Illinois is a combat veteran who lost her legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004. She went on to become the first woman with a disability and the first Thai-American elected to Congress. Duckworth, however, has not been on the forefront of civil justice issues like Harris, Bass and others on Biden's list.
Family life: Married to Bryan Bowlsbey, also a veteran, with two daughters, Abigail, five and Maile, two, the first child born to a sitting female senator
KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS, 50. ATLANTA MAYOR
Bottoms is the first-term mayor of a city that has been riven by protests over Floyd's death and the shooting of another Black man, Rayshard Brooks, by Atlanta police in June. Atlanta also has been a hot spot in the coronavirus pandemic, putting Bottoms on the front lines of the country's two largest challenges of the moment.
While Bottoms was an early supporter of Biden, her lack of experience on the federal level may doom her chances. Biden, who would be the oldest U.S. president, has insisted his No. 2 be ready to assume the presidency at any time.
Married to Home Depot executive Derek Bottoms, with four adopted children
ELIZABETH WARREN, 71. MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR
Warren,has spoken with Biden regularly since dropping out of the Democratic nominating race and endorsing him. The senator from Massachusetts is seen by Biden advisers as a bridge between the former vice president and people skeptical of his commitment to progressive policy priorities.
The selection of Warren, however, could fuel allegations by the Trump campaign that Biden favors an overly leftist agenda, while potentially alienating moderate voters in battleground states that Biden is cultivating.
Family life: Married to Harvard professor Bruce Mann, with two adult children from her first marriage and three grandchildren
MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, 60. NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR
Lujan Grishambecame the first Latina Democratic governor of a state in 2018, after serving six years in Congress.
Biden's campaign has been pushed by allies to consider a running mate who could boost his support among Latino voters, potentially the largest minority voting bloc in the November election.
Family life: Husband Gregory Girsham died of a brain aneurysm in 2004. She has two daughters
GRETCHEN WHITMER, 48. MICHIGAN GOVERNOR
Whitmer raised her profile as the governor of a battleground state hit hard by the coronavirus.
But she came under fire earlier this year from some Michigan residents for a stay-at-home order that they viewed as too onerous.
Family life: Has two children from her first marriage and three stepchildren from her second marriage to Marc Mallory, a dentist
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