Every Democratic voter is 100% on board with Kamala Harris. That’s not a debate, and we’re all going to work like crazy to make sure she’s elected. But it’s a “yes and” conversation – we can focus on multiple things at once. Yes, we’re totally behind the Harris-Walz ticket. And we’re also still dealing with the fallout from how we got here and how a group of elected Democrats and big-money donors decided to organize a coup, a coup which involved publicly knifing Joe Biden in the back and trying to throw Kamala Harris out at the same time. The half-assed plan was “convince President Biden to drop out of the race” and then… something something open mini-primary and a contested Democratic convention in Chicago in August. I still find it notable that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did that Instagram Live, where she was basically like… certain Democrats are going to f–k this up. She really raised the alarm that they were trying to toss VP Harris out too.
Speaking of, Nancy Pelosi is currently on a poorly timed and poorly received book tour. Most of the questions she’s been asked are about her falling out with President Biden after she publicly and privately knifed him in the back and repeatedly advocated for Kamala Harris to be tossed aside. I’m not trying to be melodramatic, but this book tour might represent the last gasp of her career. She’s already belittled the Biden-Harris political machine. Now she’s making it clear that she’s not happy that Biden outmaneuvered her by endorsing VP Harris. Apparently, her beef with Harris goes way back. To the point where I’m now more convinced than ever that Pelosi was doing the most to kneecap the Biden-Harris ticket and ensure that Harris would never be the consensus candidate. Here are some highlights from Pelosi’s interview with the New York Times:
On San Francisco politics: “When it comes to the politics, it’s a network of allegiances, and it’s not easy. It’s competitive, and there are loyalties. And so you have to get through all of that. And look at Kamala. She ran against the incumbent [Terence Hallinan, the San Francisco district attorney]. I was actually for him, because he was for me. And his family, the Hallinan family, was a major Democratic progressive family. And she ran against him. She won. So she had courage to go forward. And then when she ran for state attorney general, it was a very tough race. But she figured out a way. So when people talk about her, I say: “You know what? She’s not only a person of deep faith, which I personally admire in her — and her commitment to public service. She knows what she cares about, and she fights for it. And politically she’s astute, but you don’t realize it.” And then she got to be vice president. And as soon as there was an opportunity — we thought there could be an open opportunity if people wanted to run, and they could have — but she locked it down right away.”
How Kamala Harris coalesced the party so quickly: “None of us had any idea Biden would announce his withdrawal that Sunday. Well, I didn’t have any idea. Most people didn’t. So when he did that, the thought was everybody wanted an open process. Let’s see the bench of the Democrats and let them compete and see what they can attract. But when he endorsed her, then it was, are you with Kamala or not? And she moved quickly — again, a sign of her adroitness, in terms of being politically astute.
Pelosi really wanted an open primary in July/August: “Our goal is to make sure that Donald Trump never sets foot in the White House. Because he’s beyond weird. I won’t go into all the adjectives. When you make a decision about your goal, you have to make every decision in favor of reaching that goal. But the most important part of the decision is the candidate and the campaign. And it didn’t seem as if there was a campaign in place, and it was discouraging to people. So when an opportunity presented itself, people grasped it because it was, well, I’d like to see an open thing. But then when it got in, we’re running with the ball. I always say to them, I have the three M’s, but we have the three No’s — no wasted time, no underutilized resources and no regrets the day after the election. So that decision about the campaign or, per se, the person, was the critical thing. And when that changed, the people who had been discouraged were overwhelmingly [energetic]…It’s beautiful to behold. Volunteers, small-donor contributions, just a whole different thing. Now we have to sustain it.”
Why she publicly knifed Biden on Morning Joe two days after his letter to Democrats, a letter in which he told them he was running & he had the delegates: “Well, I wanted to see a campaign that could win. Because I had made a decision that I stayed in Congress to defeat what’s his name, because I think he is a danger to our country. It’s not like a Bob Dole or a George Bush or something like that, where you have a difference of opinion. It’s patriotism — or autocracy or democracy. It’s a different thing….I didn’t accept the letter as anything but a letter. I mean, there are some people who are unhappy with the letter. Let me say it differently. Some said that some people were unhappy with the letter. I’ll put it in somebody else’s mouth. It didn’t sound like Joe Biden to me. It really didn’t.
“And politically she’s astute, but you don’t realize it.” Pelosi is f–king pissed that Kamala didn’t kiss her ring in San Francisco, and that Kamala never needed the Pelosi machinery in the state. Pelosi underestimated Kamala and thought everyone else would too. “So when he did that, the thought was everybody wanted an open process…” The only people who wanted an “open process” were ratf–kers like Pelosi and George Clooney. The immediate outpouring of support AND MONEY for Harris was proof that actually, no one wanted a fakakta mini-primary this late in the election season, and that the majority of Democrats supported President Biden and HIS vice president. Pelosi is basically making a full confession here of just how thoroughly she tried to ratf–k both Biden and Harris.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.