VP Harris is about to be the official Democratic nominee for President of the United States. Some of ya’ll are fired up. Others are hesitant. Then there are those who are already acting up, and down right horrible in their vile, racist and misogynistic attacks.
But the choice to some voters is clear. It’s super simple. On one side you have a former President running for a third time, who is a 34-time convicted felon. Full stop. He has 34 felonies.
On the other side, formalities aside, Vice President Kamala Harris is a former prosecutor who is about to go head to head with said felon.
This is about to the choice. Felon or prosecutor. But does her record as a prosecutor allow her to stand on business or does it hurt her chances to become the first woman who is ethnically Black and South Asian, elected to the most powerful office in the world?
One thing is clear Vice President Kamala Harris is in a unique position to “prosecute her case” that she is better for America than the guy awaiting sentencing in New York State. Maybe she will pull from her days as an assistant district attorney in San Francisco and employ her slogan “Kamala Harris, for the people.” Believe it or not, many people are pro law and order.
But hold up … Before we just say, law and order this, prosecutor over felon that, let’s look at a snapshot of just who Vice President Harris is as a former officer of the court.
Ya’ll ready?
During her storied career from attorney to prosecutor to DA to Attorney General of California to US Senator , Harris solidified her reputation as a figure who was tough-on-crime.
At the 2016 Democratic convention, she referred to herself as California’s “top cop.” With the state of trust or lack there of in various communities across America, that didn’t have the positive affect she may have hoped but many were impressed – the law and order crowd.
Here’s what Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who endorsed Harris pretty fast, following Biden’s decision, stated:
“As a former prosecutor, Vice President Harris has a lot of experience holding convicted felons accountable. She was fighting on behalf of abused women. She was in the trenches against giant banks. She was out in the middle of multiple fights every day as a prosecutor and then attorney general in California.”
Some say she has locked up a lot of people who look like her. That’s true. Many of which who broke laws. Even for charges that she now opposes like marijuana.
Harris’s views on weed have since evolved. Get this, she initially opposed a 2010 California ballot initiative to legalize weed. But she later advocated for ending the war on drugs and legalizing marijuana. A ha.
Fast forward to 2019, she declared, “It is past time to end the failed war on drugs, and it begins with legalizing marijuana.” The Biden administration has since begun the process of rescheduling marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. In March, at a White House event, Harris reiterated, “Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.”
Harris’ views on criminal justice reform didn’t end with weed. She entered the U.S. Senate in 2017, relatively a short time ago and quickly became a strong advocate for change. Just with the tragic story of George Floyd’s death in 2020, Harris has consistently worked to reduce recidivism, support post-prison rehabilitation, and improve civil rights for children in the juvenile justice system. All sounds good, right? Good leaders are able to adapt their views. Harris is showing that she can and has done just that.
But consistent and not flip flopping is also a good leadership quality. Just take a look at her 2019 presidential campaign. Harris for a federal moratorium on the death penalty, reflecting her long-standing opposition. This stance caused controversy during her tenure as a San Francisco prosecutor when she refused to seek the death penalty for a suspect accused of killing a police officer. This position did not haunt her. Despite opposition from law enforcement, she won the attorney general race in 2010 and later appealed a federal judge’s ruling that declared California’s death penalty unconstitutional, arguing it was legally unsound and compromised defendant protections.
So she can adapt and remain consistent on her views, evident from her record as a prosecutor. Can this experience allow her to prosecute Donald Trump as a bad choice for America?
Campaign strategists point to previous campaign ads that highlight her prosecutorial achievements:
“She prosecuted sex predators. He is one. She shut down for-profit colleges that swindled Americans. He was a for-profit college – literally,” the narrator states, showing footage of Harris and then Trump. “He’s owned by the big banks. She’s the attorney general who beat the biggest banks in America and forced them to pay homeowners $18 billion.”
Harris’s prosecutorial background provides a stark contrast to Trump, framing her as a candidate committed to justice and accountability.
What does Trump stand for?
Sound simple. The prosecutor or the felon. Guess we’ll find out after she’s officially nominated and then we’ll really get to it in November.
The post VP Kamala Harris, the Former Prosecutor Poised to Take on Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election first appeared on The Source.
The post VP Kamala Harris, the Former Prosecutor Poised to Take on Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election appeared first on The Source.