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--:-- Georgia Howe: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Following intense pressure from mega donors and party elites, President Joe Biden has officially dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, paving the way for his vice president, Kamala Harris, who's already received enough delegate endorsements to clinch the Democratic nomination. In this episode, we'll take a look at Harris's background, her policy positions and work as VP, and her 2024 campaign strategy. I'm Georgia Howe. It's July 27th, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us to discuss Kamala Harris's record and her ability to win in November is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo. So Amanda, there have been a lot of reports about Democrats being somewhat skeptical about Harris's electability, but nonetheless, the party has fallen in line behind her incredibly quickly. There have been no challengers and no open convention.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Yeah, it's been all but a coronation for Harris. It's really pretty amazing considering that Harris ran for her party's presidential nomination last go around, and she was forced to drop out before receiving even a single vote in the primaries. And then, of course, she was picked by Biden as VP after he vowed to choose a woman for the position. Some progressives are upset about the lack of process here. Even leftist group Black Lives Matter called the swift backing of Harris by party bosses undemocratic and said that the party was acting hypocritical. But still, here we are with Harris as the effective nominee without receiving any votes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right, here we are. So let's jump right in. First, can you tell us a little bit about Harris's background and upbringing?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Yeah, Harris was born in 1964 to pretty successful parents. Her mother, the daughter of an Indian diplomat, was a scientist, a cancer researcher. And her father from Jamaica was an economist who taught at Stanford University, and he was described by the Stanford Daily as a Marxist scholar. The pair met as grad students at University of California, Berkeley. Harris's parents then divorced when she was just seven years old, and she was largely raised by her mother and was brought up Hindu. Harris grew up in Berkeley until she was 12 years old, and then she attended high school in Montreal, Canada.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There was actually a standout moment when she ran for her party's nomination in 2020 when she knocked President Biden for his record on race. She claimed she was one of the little girls who first integrated her segregated school.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Yeah, that's right. There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools. And she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, to be clear, Harris was born after the Civil Rights Act was signed, and California never had segregated schools. Her school in Berkeley was not legally segregated. Instead, some lawmakers argued that it was de facto segregated because of the demographic makeup of the school based on where students lived.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: That's right. After attending high school in Canada, Harris chose to go to Howard University. And this is where she says her political identity really began to take shape. And that political identity is pretty far left.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We start to see that when she gets involved in politics in her home state of California. Right. So I want to talk about how she got started in politics. How did she make that transition?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Well, it was a little controversial. Harris took off in the state with the help of a married man she dated back in 1994 named Willie Brown. Harris was then a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, and she was 29 years old. Brown was 60 years old and the Speaker of the California Assembly and known as the godfather of California politics. Brown was married at the time, but says he was estranged from his wife when he dated Harris.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to a Sacramento Bee reporter, Brown had a succession of girlfriends, and he would frequent parties with his wife on one arm and his girlfriend on the other.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: During their relationship, Brown appointed Harris to two well-paying board positions that her resume at the time probably would not qualify her for, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the Medical Assistance Commission. Brown has also boasted to the press that he helped Harris get elected as San Francisco district attorney in 2004.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Morning Wire spoke to amateur hour author Charlie Spearing about that relationship. At this point, she's a relatively unknown Alameda County prosecutor in California, but her relationship with Willie Brown really puts her on the stage.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Brown takes her to all of the donor parties, introduces her to the makers and shakers of San Francisco. He also gives her a state position on a board that pays her a significant amount of money, right around $400,000 over just a couple years on these boards. Adjust that for inflation. That's almost a million dollars today. It really helped kickstart her career.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Brown also buys her the keys to a brand new BMW. This relationship is very lucrative for Harris. It really sets her up to be in a perfect spot to ultimately run for public office herself with the support of Brown behind the scenes.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, Kamala Harris doesn't like to talk about Willie Brown. She thinks it's very unfair to even mention it. She doesn't even mention her relationship with Willie Brown in her memoirs, but it's definitely a very important part of the story.
--:-- Georgia Howe: After using those connections from Brown, Harris became the San Fran DA. There, she created an environmental crimes unit, a hate crimes unit that focused on LGBTQ plus children and teens in schools. She also officiated one of the city's first same-sex weddings, and she refused to seek the death penalty for a cop killer.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: But one of her most controversial moves is when her office kept illegal immigrant criminals out of jail, instead lining them up for a jobs program called Back on Track.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This was uncovered by Free Beacon editor Peter Hassan. One of the illegals picked for this program actually evaded jail time for a felony drug charge and later went on to steal a woman's purse and run her down in an SUV. The woman fractured her skull and said the perpetrator was laughing as she hit the front windshield.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: From there, Harris ran for attorney general of California in 2010. She narrowly beat out a Republican for that spot and served two terms. Her office famously wrote up a summary for Proposition 47.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This is an extremely controversial law that lessens penalties for a host of crimes, including thefts under $950. Her office named the proposition the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, which critics have said is pretty misleading.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Prop 47 has since been tied to an explosion in crimes, so much so that the extremely liberal governor of California, Gavin Newsom, put forward a ballot measure to effectively roll back the law.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Newsom, however, did withdraw that earlier this month when it became clear that he would not be the Dems pick as party nominee.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Harris also opened an investigation into pro-life journalists at the Center for Medical Progress, and she ordered a raid on the home of one of those journalists, David Daleiden. Their undercover videos showed Planned Parenthood executives talking about selling aborted baby parts, which is illegal.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Her office charged the group with violating state privacy laws after she left for the U.S. Senate.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: However, one place where then A.G. Harris was tough on crime was with marijuana convictions. She oversaw nearly 2 convictions for marijuana violations which came under some scrutiny during her 2020 campaign since Harris famously laughed about smoking marijuana during an appearance on The Breakfast Club a New York City-based radio show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Have you ever smoked? I have. Okay. And I inhale. I did inhale. It was a long time ago. I know you have to go. They say you have to go. I just want to talk. I just broke loose.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Harris then served as junior senator in California from 2017 to 2021. A nonpartisan transparency organization called GovTrack actually rated Harris as the most liberal senator, the number one spot. That means she was ranked as further left wing than Senator Bernie Sanders, who is an open socialist.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As a senator, she sponsored a bill for universal basic income for households making up to $100,000. She also moved to cap rents and utility payments.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: She co-sponsored legislation with Bernie Sanders for taxpayers to fund college tuition for households making up to $125,000. That would cost trillions of dollars. And she co-sponsored legislation for higher income taxes to pay for Medicare for all.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, on the border, Harris suggested ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcements, needed to be abolished and replaced with something different.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: A lot of the signs at the rally you just held were people standing there saying abolish ICE. Is that a position that you agree with?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Listen, I think there's no question that we've got to critically reexamine ICE and its role and the way that it is being administered and the work it is doing. And we need to probably think about starting from scratch.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Well, and we also know a little bit of where Harris stands from her presidential run in 2020. Tell us what her positions were at that time.
--:-- Georgia Howe: She generally staked out left wing positions during her 2020 bid. For one, she called for an outright ban on fracking.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: There's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking. So, yeah, and starting with what we can do on day one around public lands, right? And then there has to be legislation. But yes, and this is something I've taken on in California. I have a history of working on this issue.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Harris supported a single-payer Medicare for All bill that would eliminate private health insurance.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: CNN actually pressed her about that. For people out there who like their insurance, they don't get to keep it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, listen, the idea is that everyone gets access to medical care. And you don't have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Who of us has not had that situation where you've got to wait for approval and the doctor says, well, I don't know if your insurance company is going to cover this? Let's eliminate all of that. Let's move on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And she wanted that to extend to illegal immigrants. The bill also says, quote, every individual who is a resident of the United States is entitled to benefits for health care services under this act. Not every individual who's a citizen, but every individual who's a resident.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So you support giving universal health care, Medicare for all to people who are in this country illegally. Let me just be very clear about this. I am opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education or public health, period.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Harris is also on record praising Australia's strict gun ban and supporting gun confiscation through a mandatory gun buyback program. That would confiscate up to 10 million guns in the U.S.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Gun violence has terrorized and traumatized so many of our communities in this country. And let us be clear, it does not have to be this way, as our friends in Australia have demonstrated.
--:-- Georgia Howe: On crime, Harris said in a campaign memo that she wanted to end, quote, mass incarceration, and she proposed the elimination of cash bail and court-ordered fines.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: And when it comes to illegal immigration Harris is on record saying the U should not treat those who cross the border illegally as criminals. I am in favor of saying that we not going to treat people who are undocumented across the border as criminals. That correct? That is correct.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, speaking of the border, Biden actually tapped Harris as the border czar. That was right after he rolled back a variety of Trump-era policies. And her tenure in that position actually coincided with a massive wave of illegal immigration.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Harris did tell migrants not to come famously, but she never spoke to the Border Patrol chief, and she actually didn't visit the border until June of 2021.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We are going to the border. We've been to the border. So this whole thing about the border, we've been to the border. You haven't been to the border. And I haven't been to Europe. And I don't understand the point that you're making. I'm not discounting the importance of the border.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Under Biden and Harris, border crossings hit an all-time high, averaging around 2 million per year. And that doesn't even include gotaways or the more than 1 million parole migrants. Among those encounters were 362 individuals who were on the terror watch list. The total number of encounters under the Biden-Harris administration is expected to reach 10 million by the end of this fiscal year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, this issue does dovetail closely with the opioid crisis, as most of the fentanyl in this country comes across the border illegally.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, a major issue, if not the major issue in the 2022 cycle was abortion. Where does Harris stand there?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Harris actually supports abortion for any reason up until the point of birth, which is far to the left of even most Democrats.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: She notably went on an abortion tour in battleground states earlier this year, and she toured an abortion clinic.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, it's only been a few days since Harris has effectively secured the nomination. But what have we seen so far concerning her 2024 run?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Well, it's still early days, of course, but a major theme from her early campaigning is generating fear about what a Donald Trump presidency would mean.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In one of her first events, Harris claimed that Trump openly vowed to be a dictator on day one, even though far left fact checking sites have acknowledged that Trump actually said he wouldn't be a dictator during an interview on Fox News.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Harris Center advocates are also warning voters about the perils of Project 2025, which is a conservative plan from the Heritage Foundation. Now, whatever you think of the plan, Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Harris also claimed that Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare. That's despite the fact that he didn't do that in his first term, and he said he won't do it in his second term.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: She also attacked Trump's record on the economy, pointing to the jobs lost during the COVID pandemic.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I think it's fair to expect abortion will also play heavily into her campaign strategy.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: It's also likely that Harris will play up her ethnic heritage to hopefully connect with minority voters. She has also initiated a push to reach Gen Z through social media.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Recently, a singer popular with Gen Z, Charlie XCX, posted that Kamala Harris was brat, and the media ran with that.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: For those who aren't dialed in with Gen Z slang, I'm not. Charlie XCX actually clarified what brat means, and I guess that's kind of a messy party girl. In some circles, that's meant as a compliment, or at least the Harris campaign took it that way.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They quickly rebranded the Harris campaign page on Axe to a brat theme. It's not clear how successful that messaging will be with older voters, though.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Right. Well, I had to look up brat girl summer today, so I think I'm not the target demographic. You and me both.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Amanda, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: You're welcome.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo, and this has been a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: You can find more information on the topics we discussed today at DailyWire.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media.
