Updated July 21, 2024
Now that Biden has decided not to run, Kamala Harris would be the logical replacement.
Let's not repeat 2016 by failing to embrace that America IS ready for a woman in the Oval!
Many American opinions of Kamala seem stuck on her Presidential run in 2019, focusing on her debate performance. To sum it up… ‘she’s too aggressive’.
I can’t tell you how many times I have heard one of the following comments:
· She’s an angry black women
· She’s too aggressive
· What has she done? I can’t name any
· She seems to always start off with “I can imagine what will be, unburdened by what has been”
· She only has the job because Biden, who had promised to choose a Black woman as his running mate, wanted to “check the box”.
As an articulate and assertive woman, I am sick and tired of women like Vice President Harris beeing inappropriately labeled driven by others preconceived notions of how women are expected to behave.
VP Harris has been underrepresented in the news, a common phenomenon for Vice Presidents. John Adams describes the vice presidency “ the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination.” Traditionally earlier vice presidents largely spent their time on their constitutional responsibility, presiding over the Senate and concentrating on legislative matters. Harris while presiding over the Senate broke 32 deadlock votes, more than any other VP before her.
The VP role and visibility has been changing with more recent vice presidents taking more active roles, serving as trusted aids to the president and representing the administration on key domestic and foreign policy issues. Overwhelming concerns over President’s Biden age, has increased scrutiny on what VP Harris has been up to.
USA Today reports “Harris would be the natural successor: She could seamlessly inherit the campaign's massive warchest; her law enforcement background is best suited to prosecute the political case against Republican Donald Trump; polling shows she can win; and having been the nation's first multiracial and woman VP could galvanize a new generation of younger progressives”
Other political pundits are saying:
· Former Prosecutor vs Convicted Felon
· Abortion & Reproductive rights become front & center
· 59 years old vs 78 years old
· Person of Color vs Perceived supporter of white supremists
So let’s see what she has been doing. I have compiled several video links on speeches she has made and direct excepts [copied and pasted] from recent news coverage on her accomplishments, with links to the full article.
I want to highlight the video entitled “Vice President Harris Delivers Remarks at the Munich Security Conference” which was aired live on MSNBC. It was the first time that I heard her give a full address on a foreign affairs topic. I was impressed and pretty sure you will be as well! If you only view one video, this should be the one to watch.
Kamala Harris Videos:
Vice President Kamal Harris Campaigns in Fayetteville North Carolina; C-SPAN; 7.18.24 26 min VP Harris is stumping for President Biden as he recovers from COVID
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in Michigan July 2024; 29 min Skynews.com; Harris sits down with two republican conservatives to discuss reproductive rights
VP Kamala Harris speaks at Alpha Kappa Alpha Convention in Dallas July 10, 2024; WFAA ABC; 18 min
Not what you think she speaks on a variety of issues
The White House; 24 min
Fast forward to 9:49 to get to VP Harris’s speech
VP Kamala Harris speech during Economic Opportunity Tour event in Detroit 5.6.2024; WXYZ-TV Detroit; 17 min
Vice President Harris Gives Remarks in Arizona on Abortion Rights; April 12, 2024; CSPAN 16 min
TEXT ONLY: ‘We are Undaunted’ Kamala Harris Sounds a Note of Optimism in her first speech as Vice President; VP Inaugural Address
Kamala Harris' full speech after historic election win; ABC News; 11 minText of her full speech can also be viewed here
Kamala Harris in the News
Excerpt Directly from the article….
Ms Harris focused on several key initiatives while in the White House and she was instrumental in some of the Biden administration's most touted accomplishments.
She launched a nationwide “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour advocating for women to have the right to make decisions about their body. She highlighted harm caused by abortion bans and called on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v Wade after the Supreme Court's conservative justices overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
Ms Harris set a new record for the most tie-breaking votes cast by a vice president in the history of the Senate. Her vote helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan, which provided COVID relief funding including stimulus payments.
Her tie-breaking vote also confirmed Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
THIS WEEK: What has Kamal Harris done as Vice President? Thera Coleman July 3, 2024
Excerpts Copied Directly from the article….
Abortion rights
Abortion has become a central issue for Democrats following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn federal abortion rights. Harris spent much of the 2022 midterms appealing to voters with promises to prioritize and protect reproductive rights. Since Roe fell, she has "been subtly making herself the voice with a megaphone no one can ignore," said Philip Elliott at Time, adding that Harris has met with lawmakers from at least 18 states to discuss the issue. As Biden announced his 2024 candidacy, Harris gave a fiery speech at a reproductive freedom rally at her alma mater, Howard University. She blasted "extremist so-called leaders" for passing restrictive abortion bans.
This year, Harris continued to put abortion at the forefront of her work. In March 2024, she toured a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota that provides abortion services. The White House said it was the first time in U.S. history that a president or vice president has visited a clinic that provides abortion services. The tour was the sixth stop on her "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" tour, which she started in January to "push for more abortion access in the wake of the overruling of Roe v. Wade," said NBC News.
Immigration and the southern border
Biden tapped Harris in the early months of their term to spearhead efforts to address the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. It took her months to make her first and only visit to the area, and the delay elicited backlash from lawmakers on both sides. Her trip to Guatemala and Mexico was ultimately overshadowed by an interview with Lester Holt of NBC News where she "awkwardly downplayed the urgency" of the visit, The Washington Post said. Since then, Harris has borne the brunt of the criticism from Republicans as the border crisis worsens; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) sent multiple buses of asylum seekers from the border to the VP's home in protest.
After withstanding the intense backlash of her perceived inaction, Harris is still attempting to address the root causes of the immigration problem. Her Central America Forward initiative has "yielded more than $4.2 billion in private sector commitments" to support creating local jobs and other measures to slow the flow of mass migration, CNN said last year. Some experts have lauded Harris' ability to secure the investments "as her most visible action in the region to date but have cautioned about the durability of those investments over the long term," CNN said.
Voting rights
Harris was also at the forefront of the administration's pursuit to codify voting rights protections. She pushed for Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, which would have extended the protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and required federal approval for some local election law changes. The VP "dove into" the "chance to make her mark on a hugely important issue," Eugene Daniels said in Politico. To further that goal, Harris "helped craft political coalitions with civil rights leaders, built outside pressure on Congress, and engaged privately with lawmakers." Ultimately, her work "hit a brick wall" when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and now-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) rejected proposed changes to Senate procedures to stop a Republican filibuster.
POLITICO: Why Kamala Harris is A Better VP Than you Think; By Julia Azari; July 26, 2023
Excerpts Copied Directly from the article….
....she’s been given important and difficult issues to address. Like some other post-Mondale vice presidents — Al Gore for example — she’s been assigned to head up specific policy areas, like abortion and reproductive rights, voting rights and immigration, as well as some other foreign policy assignments. She’s also leading the National Space Council.
In other words, Harris has been identified with a portfolio that’s connected to key Democratic priorities and is also consistent with the descriptive representation expected of her.
CalMatters: The Real Kamala Harris: What her California years reveal; By Ben Christopher; July 16, 2024
"But now that Harris is being considered as the most likely substitute for Biden, more voters seem to be warming to her. A fresh Washington Post poll found that the vast majority of Democratic voters nationwide would be “satisfied” with Harris at the top of the ticket. The same poll found her narrowly beating Trump in a head-to-head election among registered voters."
This article chronicles her years and accomplishments in California
Vox: Kamala Harris and the border: The myth and the facts. By Christian Paz; July 18, 2024
Excerpts Copied Directly from the article….
Republicans have a ready-made case against her: They can say she was President Joe Biden’s “border czar,” in charge of immigration and the border, and she failed.
There’s just one problem. The vice president was never in charge of the border. That job belongs to Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, and to Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services.
Referring to Harris as the “border czar” isn’t new. Right-wing media, anti-immigrant activists, and Republican politicians have been using the label for the vice president for years.
Senior White House officials who briefed reporters before the announcement emphasized at the time that this was a diplomatic assignment: a two-pronged approach to build diplomatic ties with these countries and to oversee investment and implementation of foreign aid to these countries to address infrastructure, grow business, and strengthen civil society.
PRINT & ONLINE
The White House: Kamala Harris; The Vice President; Fighting for the People and Delivering for America
Politico 2020: 55 Things You Need to Know About Kamala Harris; By Catherine Kim & Zack Stanton; August 11, 2020
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