Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) stopped by CNN, speaking to host Jake Tapper, among other things, about her new book, The Truths We Hold. Harris is a potential 2020 candidate, so this book dropping prior to some national run is not all that surprising. The work is being criticized though, however, as a platitudinous mess. And if National Public Radio is saying there are issues with it, you know it’s probably a wreck:
There's also some careful elision of facts. For example, Harris talks about her frustration with immigration policy in 2014, when "a big push was coming out of DC to expedite the decision-making process so that they could quickly turn undocumented kids and families back."
Readers who have paid close attention to history might remember that in 2014, the president was Barack Obama. And while in other parts of her book Harris approvingly name-checks Obama — a popular guy whom she might want to deliver a stump speech or two — she forgets to name him here.
Harris is seen as one of the main faces of the Me Too movement, and someone who was part of the blitz against Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee who was besieged by evidence-free or uncorroborated allegations of sexual misconduct. She was a participant and actor in a coordinated political assassination attempt. Yet, like all Democrats, she got scum thrown in her face. One of her top aides resigned of sexual harassment. The wolf was in the hen house. The war on women has always been coming from inside the house. These liberals are perched high on their altar of self-righteousness until reality smashes their faces bloody. The Left has a rape and sexual harassment problem. The sleaze is everywhere. From the boardrooms of CBS (Hi, Les Moonves) to Hollywood and the New York Attorney General’s office. But how dare the Republicans pass legislation to protect unborn children. It’s the Handmaid’s Tale, alternatively called “a show that no one watches,” except that it’s not.
So, what’s the story with Harris’ aide? Well, let’s go back to December of 2018 (via HuffPo):
A senior aide to Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) resigned on Wednesday amid reports that the state paid $400,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him while Harris was the California attorney general.
Harris has denied knowledge of the lawsuit against Larry Wallace, who directed the state Department of Justice’s Division of Law Enforcement during her tenure as attorney general, and continued to work for her after she began her term in the U.S. Senate last year.
Danielle Hartley, former executive assistant to Wallace, accused him of “gender harassment,” including forcing her to perform demeaning tasks like washing his car and crawling under his desk to refill the paper in his printer.
The lawsuit was filed on Dec. 30, 2016, shortly before Harris was sworn in as a senator. The California Department of Justice settled the suit in May 2017 under Harris’ successor, Attorney General Xavier Becerra. So, we have collateral damage. There were casualties inflicted upon Democrats—and they ran for the bunker when the news dropped (via Free Beacon):
California Democrats who have strongly supported the #MeToo movement and excoriated Republicans over their handling of decades-old sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh have been notably mum on the resignation last week of a top aide to Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) after news broke he had been sued for "gender harassment."
Prominent Democrats in the Golden State, along with newly elected Democratic members of the California Congressional delegation, have also remained silent about #MeToo allegations against several other powerful Democrats
Many of them have also declined to take a position on a lawsuit against Rep. Tony Cardenas (D., Calif.), the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus PAC who has been accused of drugging and molesting a 16-year-old girl in 2007.
The silence on the resignation of the Harris aide and Cardenas comes a year after many of the state's political leaders acknowledged a reckoning when it comes to sexual misconduct in and around Sacramento.
In the fall of 2017, nearly 200 women signed a letter demanding more accountability for a culture of rampant sexual harassment in the state's political circles.
The fallout over the state's numerous #MeToo issues has continued ever since and has cost many state lawmakers and politicians, mostly Democrats, their jobs in a state where the party dominates the corridors of power.
Despite the reckoning, longtime Republican political operatives in the state say many Democrats have selective memory when it comes to #MeToo condemnations.
"They say they believe victims but only when there's some political gain for them," one GOP operative argued.
Well, that’s true as well. If there were no double standards, the Democrats wouldn’t have any. So, what does Harris say about her sleazy aide? Well, she takes responsibility, but you know, in an office where there were 5,000 people, anything can happen. Simply put, her office might have been too big for her to notice. Not so sure that’s the right attitude to take. Then again, it’s certainly a better tone than that of Bernie Sanders, whose 2016 campaign has been criticized for being a den of sexism and sexual harassment. His answer for why there wasn’t any accountability is that he was too busy running in 2016. And by running, I mean, losing to Hillary Clinton.
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