Kamala Harris has a long digital history—what we used to call paper records—that paints her as an uber-liberal.
That’s not surprising, since for most of her career — from prosecutor to state attorney general to senator — she only had to appeal to her left-wing base in royal-blue California.
But as the Democratic nominee, Harris will at some point have to explain or explain away some past positions that won’t play well in a tight national election, with a series of polls showing her tied with Pennsylvania Donald Trump is statistically linked.
In the Trump camp, the former president has called Harris nicknames like “bum” and boasted about mispronounced her name, while some of her biggest liberal hits are surfacing. But what mainstream media blogger Andrew Sullivan calls “amnesia” is that while Harris may even win, “Harris is one of the weakest and most woke Democratic candidates. After the far-left posturing, she cannot credibly appeal to the center.”
Harris claims Biden is fit to remain in office despite more than 80 documented encounters last year
Donald Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images)
So that’s the challenge for the vice president if Harris’ honeymoon is over. If so, she must tell voters why she no longer holds those positions. Maybe it’s because she “evolved.” Maybe it was because she primarily represented San Francisco at the time. Perhaps her experience as vice president changed her perspective. But she couldn’t just let it slip away.
Even sympathetic media eventually overcomes amnesia.
Some examples: After the murder of George Floyd during the BLM riots in the summer of 2020, Harris helped push for a bail fund to keep criminals out of jail.
“They’re not going to relax, and they shouldn’t relax. We shouldn’t relax either,” she said in an interview.
“This idea is outdated and the idea that more police will create more safety is actually wrong and backwards,” Harris said in a separate interview.
During the 2020 campaign, she said: “Private prisons make money off of human incarceration and suffering. One of my top priorities as president will be to begin phasing out detention centers and private prisons.”
During the same campaign, Harris supported Medicare for All — Bernie’s favorite — while acknowledging that it would abolish private health insurance. Joe Biden refuses to go that far.
Harris also pledged to ban fracking, but walked back that pledge through comments from aides.
Historians of nearly every election since 1984 have predicted a Trump-Harris matchup
When the media instantly switched their allegiance from Biden (who of course has four more years to serve!) to Harris (she’s a young, fresh voice!), they quickly assembled a defensive lineup.
Several top news organizations sought to debunk claims that she had been appointed border czar. The most embarrassing case is Axios, which said “the Trump campaign and Republicans have repeatedly labeled Harris a ‘border czar’ — a title she never actually held.”
Only in 2021, Axios said: “Harris, appointed as border czar by Biden…”
(Axios updated its story.)
Indeed, this is just news shorthand, Harris was assigned to study the roots of illegal immigration and work diplomatically with Mexico and Guatemala. But why deny her this unofficial title?
Those who say the vice president is a DEI pick justify this by saying Biden is essentially committed to choosing a black woman.
A guest on Fox Business compared Harris to the Hawke-Tua girls, in a much more subdued tone. (It involves sex. Google it if you need to.)
At the same time, Trump accused Harris of planning a “coup.” (No one is running against her.) He also says that Jews should have their heads checked if they vote for Democrats (Kamala is married to a Jew, of course).
President Biden addresses the nation in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Washington on his decision to abandon his Democratic presidential re-election bid. (Evan Vucci, AP Billiards)
Given Harris’ near-flawless execution in her first week, the former president may temper expectations by calling Harris “stupid as a rock.”
My impression is that Trump is still figuring out how to compete with the 59-year-old Harris. (The Washington Post has a nice TikTok about how Donna Brazile and other allies spent weeks planning Kamala’s candidacy in case Biden dropped out.)
Now contrast that with the media’s treatment of JD Vance, where no old statement is considered too minor to be resurrected.
Harris’ team sought to paint Trump and Vance as weirdos, citing his “bizarre and extreme views” in a statement. The Trump campaign has tried to paint Harris as a weirdo. The whole thing is, well, very strange.
Kamala hits tsunami of positive media, but skeptics say it’s a dangerous choice
Vance’s biggest controversy is his statement in a 2021 interview with Fox that a “childless cat lady” (Harris et al.) has no “direct stake” in society and is miserable in her own life. He expanded this to include media figures without children.
The comments landed him in a spat with Jennifer Aniston, which is not what you want, and earned him a rebuke from the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.
At first, the Ohio senator told Megyn Kelly he was just being sarcastic and that he liked cats.
On Sunday, Fox host Trey Gowdy, a former Republican congressman, told Vance that both George Washington and James Madison were among those who did not have biological children.
“If you look at what the left has done,” Vance said. “They took it completely out of context and, in fact, they lied blatantly about what I said. Trey, I do think that’s true and that’s the core of what I was talking about in those comments three years ago, but that’s going to be something I continue to talk about. The thing about it, is that the left is increasingly explicitly anti-child and anti-family.
Former President Trump shakes hands with Senator J.D. Vance on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Feather Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15, 2024. (Brendan Smirovsky/AFP via Getty Images)
“They’re encouraging young families not to have kids at all because of concerns about climate change. They think people who have kids are somehow selfish, whereas I think being a parent is actually the most selfless thing you can do. , again, does change your perspective.
“So that’s not a criticism. Trey, it was never a criticism of everyone who doesn’t have kids.”
Harris, by the way, has been deeply involved in raising husband Doug Emhoff’s children – a statement from Doug’s ex-wife said.
It was, without a doubt, the most bizarre campaign in American history—and one that’s likely to spark weird perceptions. But given the consensus in the media that Trump is a threat to democracy, there does seem to be a double standard.
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Footnote: As Trump temporarily abandons his debate with Harris — claiming he still isn’t sure who the nominee will be — it’s important to remember one thing.
Trump negotiated the terms with Joe Biden and accepted Biden’s terms. Now he has every right to renegotiate with Harris now that she’s suddenly the new nominee. Fox News launched a debate in September after Trump refused to accept ABC’s bias. I don’t know if there will be any debate, but the former president has every right to make a new deal.
Biden, by the way, insists on an early debate with Trump so he can change his campaign. This is the beginning of the end. Knowing what we know now, how could his team send him there?
