Harris the 'safe pick,' but may not excite African American base: Tom Bevan
Tom Bevan, RealClearPolitics, provides insight to Joe Biden's pick for Vice President
With presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s selection of freshman California senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, he’s chosen a divisive Washington politician known for sharp-elbowed partisanship. During her tenure in the U.S. Senate, Harris has become a puppet of the radical left for the sole purpose of gaining more power. Just like with Biden, with Harris it’s whatever the mob wants, the mob gets.
Indeed, Harris is a strong supporter of the job-killing Green New Deal debacle inspired by socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as well as socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” lie, which would throw untold millions of Americans off of their trusted private health insurance.
Biden’s choice of Harris is a curious one in that she spent the better part of 2019 trying to convince the American people with many memorable vicious attacks about why Biden shouldn’t be president.
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While Biden’s choice is a historical one — Harris is the first African American vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket in our nation’s history, male or female — the California legislator is a terrible pick for Biden who’s desperately trying to convince voters in middle America that he has their interests in mind. Picking another liberal politician to round out the ticket reinforces the notion that Democrats are nothing more than a party made up of out of touch coastal elitists.
For Biden this pick is fraught with peril. He’s sending the signal that he wants socialist San Francisco values to be the prevailing mindset in his administration. There’s no better way to alienate the forgotten men and women of the Rust Belt than by choosing someone who served as District Attorney of San Francisco for seven years as your running mate.
About a year ago, Biden harshly criticized Harris at a presidential debate regarding her tenure as district attorney by stating, “She had a police department when she was there that in fact was abusing people’s rights.” The mainstream media must ask Biden if he still believes what he said just one year ago.
After serving as D.A. in Nancy Pelosi’s liberal bastion, Harris was elected Attorney General of California in 2010. During her tenure, Harris gained a reputation for leading a heavy-handed department that has received noteworthy criticism.
For someone trying to make voters forget about their indispensable leadership in making the infamous 1994 crime bill a reality, Biden’s choice of Harris makes absolutely no sense. Because of this serious vulnerability among left-wingers, Harris has spent her tenure in Washington trying to reinvent herself as a doctrinaire liberal who is more palatable to out of touch Democrat interest groups. She’s been very successful in this endeavor, as govtrack.us rated Harris the most liberal senator in 2019. This is no easy achievement when serving in a caucus with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Harris touts her experience having run the second-largest justice department in the country as a central piece of her resume that qualifies her to serve on a national ticket. However, it’s important to analyze her record. On Harris’ watch, overzealous prosecutors ran amok by falsifying evidence and appearing to view the presumption of innocence as a nuisance.
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One op-ed in The New York Times described Harris’ record in stark terms: “All this is a shame because the state’s top prosecutor has the power and the imperative to seek justice. In cases of tainted convictions, that means conceding error and overturning them. Rather than fulfilling that obligation, Ms. Harris turned legal technicalities into weapons so she could cement injustices.”
Hardly the criminal justice reformer she now claims to be, Harris’ office argued in court that the early release of too many non-violent offenders would drastically decrease the prison labor pool available in California. This is a position that President Xi of China might find reasonable.
Due to Biden’s record-setting age for a presidential nominee and what critics have referred to as potential cognitive issues, his choice for vice president is much more consequential than usual. Biden in essence is anointing someone who could be president in the very near future. In this context, the American people have to decide not just if they are comfortable with Harris as vice president, but also as their commander-in-chief.
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Additionally, Harris makes an odd choice for Biden given that she was thoroughly rejected by Democratic primary voters in her own run for the presidency. Harris’ campaign can be described as nothing short of a failure because of her complete inability to connect with people. Look no further than polling conducted in the fall of 2019 showing Harris running a distant fourth place even in her home state of California.
The October 2019 headline “Harris’s struggles nationally play out in her home state” describes her shortcomings as a national vote-getter perfectly. Harris’ decision to exit the race rather than face humiliation at the ballot box illustrates just how poorly she fared on the national stage.
Coincidentally, Harris’ most well-known moment of the primary season was her ad hominem attack on Biden in the first primary debate over his opposition to busing and admiration for segregationist senators. Accepting the invitation to join Biden on the national Democrat ticket makes it clear there’s no principle Harris isn’t willing to sacrifice in her quest for power.
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Biden’s judgment must be further called into question for elevating someone who’s done nothing more than manage the decay of her home state. Harris has shown no leadership to stop the rioting, lawlessness, sanctuary cities and drug epidemic that have turned life in the once great state of California into a living hell for many of its residents. Voters across the country should take note of the mass exodus from the high taxes and crime in the Golden State that has been occurring on Harris’ watch.
When comparing the Biden-Harris ticket to the Trump-Pence team, the stark contrast is abundantly clear. President Trump and Vice President Pence will fight for security and prosperity for every American and always put America first. Biden and Harris on the other hand will stand with Communist China, against law and order, in support of open borders, and will always stand arm and arm with the mob. Make no mistake about it, if elected, this weak Democratic duo will aid and abet the radical socialists and anarchists at every turn. Americans must reject Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their dangerous ideology.