Kamala Harris kicked off her Presidential campaign in Oakland over the weekend. "I am so proud to be a daughter of Oakland, California." In her campaign speech she talked about her law career, the great recession, wall street, the banking industry. And even talked about transnational gangs, and their sophistication.
"Transnational gangs who traffic in drugs and guns and human beings. And I saw their sophistication, their persistence and their ruthlessness. "However, within the next breath exclaimed, "And folks, on the subject of transnational gangs, let’s be perfectly clear: the President's medieval vanity project is not going to stop them." Yet during her tirade on the current administration, she offered no solution, but rather a diatribe of what she believed to be wrong with the current administration. A full transcript of her speech can be obtained here:
Some living in Oakland may know of Harris and her work as district attorney. Her early years how she got her start in politics. However the rest of the country is oblivious as to how she has manipulated the system garner political favor.
Her early career is laden in controversy over her dating a married man for a nepotistic position in government. Willie Brown, then California Assembly speaker admitted to dating Harris. As the San Francisco Chronicle writes, "Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what?"
In her speech in Oakland over and over again, she called out "Let us speak Truth," however when questioning then Judge Kavanagh, she made an assumption completely laced with inaccuracies. As the Washington Examiner reported, " This is the very sort of unprofessional behavior that lousy prosecutors who put self-advancement ahead of truthget away with routinely. In short, the former California official who " repeatedly attempted to keep an innocent man locked up in prison and attempted to defend a falsified confession," in addition to defending her subordinate prosecutors' lies on the witness stand, isn't going to have qualms about claiming that a conversation took place without really knowing whether it did. Just throw it all against the wall and see what sticks."
Harris lack of knowledge on the Constitution, is troubling. Article VI clause 3 clearly states, "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." However, as Senator her and Maize Hirono of Hawaii attempted to apply a religious test to a judicial nominee who was a member of the Knights of Columbus. A Catholic organization.
In her speech, she said, " Too many black and brown Americans are locked up. From mass incarceration to cash bail to policing, our criminal justice system needs drastic repair. Let’s speak that truth." However, as the Washington examiner pointed out, "Harris is fond of over-criminalization." She championed a law that that lets prosecutors charge parents with misdemeanors if their children are chronically truant."
“We are putting parents on notice,” she said in her inaugural speech as attorney general. “If you fail in your responsibility to your kids, we are going to work to make sure you face the full force and consequences of the law.” Resulting in two mothers going to jail for their children's truancy.
Harris reminded everyone the "War on Drugs is a failure", however as district attorney, she has done very little about it. In her speech she blamed the pharmaceutical companies for the opoid crisis. " Big pharmaceutical companies have unleashed an opioid crisis from the California coast to the mountains of West Virginia. And people once and for all we have got to call drug addiction for what it is: a national public health emergency. And we don't need another War on Drugs."
If history has taught American's anything, it should be that before casting a vote, instead of listening to the harshly worded rhetoric of the candidate running, perhaps Americans need to identify their candidate political posturing and the policies they have defended or stood against.