Now that it’s official President Joe Biden will not be running for reelection, Democratic politicians and interest groups are lining up behind newly minted presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Harris says she’s in it to win it, and not long after Biden dropped out tweeted the following, “On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country. I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”
According to CNN Harris’ strategy will be a return to the “prosecutor for president” framework of her 2020 presidential campaign, which included her slogan taken from her days standing up in court as a young assistant district attorney: “Kamala Harris, for the people.”
Prior to entering the national stage, Harris cut her teeth in California politics, where she served in various elected and appointed offices, primarily ones that dealt with crime and punishment.
A first term Vice President, Harris’ résumé includes being elected San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, and United States Senator from California.
And that means, the state of public safety in California is a key part of Harris’ professional portfolio and will be front and center in the 2024 presidential election.
Unfortunately for Harris, the state of public safety in California is a dumpster fire.
In Oakland, you practically have to take a number to get carjacked.
In fact, the local ballot in California will center largely around undoing that damage that Harris and her peers inflicted on state residents while she was here.
Let’s start with Harris’ performance in California. In the pages of this newspaper in January of 2019, I wrote:
While serving as District Attorney of San Francisco, Harris refused to pursue the death penalty against 21-year-old gang member David Hill, who was convicted of killing police officer Isaac Espinoza.
This refusal infuriated then California Attorney General and fellow Democrat Bill Lockyer, who remarked, “Those who murder a law enforcement officer need to know — and also the district attorneys should know — that if you make charging decisions based on personal philosophy, not on facts, I will take the case away from you and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”
Democratic U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer also called for the death penalty in the case.
But, thanks to District Attorney Harris, the killer’s life was spared.
Shortly thereafter, Edwin Ramos, an illegal alien gang member from El Salvador, gunned down Anthony Bologna and his two young sons Matthew and Michael in San Francisco. These murders took place three months after Ramos was let out of San Francisco County jail, following two felony convictions. Ramos was protected from deportation because of the city’s sanctuary policy.
Harris, again, passed on the death penalty, and told Politico, “What needs to be looked at is…comprehensive immigration reform — that’s the bottom line…Let’s not react to one specific case, when we are looking at a national problem.”
So a triple murderer is spared, because his prosecutor has ambitions for higher office.
But perhaps the most damage Harris has done to public safety was as California attorney general, where she was responsible for coming up with the official title and summary for ballot measures that residents vote on. Time and time again Harris misled Californians into approving soft-on-crime initiatives that usually get rejected — including props 47 and 57, which reduced drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, and allowed thousands of California inmates’ early parole, including those convicted of so-called “non-violent” crimes like rape of an unconscious person or assault with a deadly weapon.
Where are we now?
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This November, California voters will get to vote on Proposition 36, which would increase penalties for theft and drug trafficking and would partly roll back Proposition 47.
In San Francisco and Oakland, small businesses are being dropped from their insurance policies or seeing their premiums skyrocket due to rampant crime.
And in Los Angeles County, voters will have the opportunity to dump soft-on-crime District Attorney George Gascon, Harris’ appointed successor as DA in San Francisco.
How pathetic: we are one step away from the Mafia not taking protection money.
Given the sad state of affairs here, I would say the idea of President Kamala Harris is laughable, but then I remembered what that would sound like.
John Phillips can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on “The John Phillips Show” on KABC/AM 790.