The Shady Side Of Kamala Harris

"Are you a politician or does lying just run in your family?" quipped "Fried Green Tomatoes" author Fannie Flagg. Yes, politics is a shady business. The art of the possible means compromise — sometimes down to your roots. Expecting a virtuous politician is kind of like asking for a hitman without too much blood on their hands. Do you want somebody good or not!?

But will the fourth estate hold a Biden-Harris administration to account? The amount of giggling in Kamala Harris interviews thus far won't win any Pulitzers. But it does speak to her skill playing the political-media two-step, where proximity to power means sources — and big stories that buoy bigger careers. Everybody wins. Except maybe the public. 

Harris does have her critics, though. Many shouted about hypocrisy over Harris' willingness to run alongside Biden after her debate-stage attack on his chummy past with segregationists, despite her somewhat confusing simultaneous declaration, "I do not believe you are a racist." The Los Angeles Times even served some of her own medicine, noting a "tough on crime" past that disproportionately affected African American men. And though she was rated American's most liberal Senator, The New York Times questioned her "progressive prosecutor" bona fides, detailing how she "fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions." They argue, "she's not" who she claims to be. To that end, we're chasing down the shady side of the first female vice president in U.S. history. 

Kamala Harris graduated from University of California's Hastings College of the Law in 1989. The future vice president took her first job as a deputy district attorney in Oakland, California in 1990, serving until 1998.

Education and entry-level jobs are all well and good, but Harris' career may have started in earnest when she met the powerful California politician and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown — who The Nation described as "a notorious womanizer" — in 1994. Harris was 29, Brown 60 and married — but supposedly separated. He was everything in bay-area power politics and the two started a romantic affair. Harris and Brown eventually split, but when she ran for district attorney in 2003, Brown put his weight behind her anyway. Harris won, but "critics — including her opponents — were bemoaning cronyism at City Hall," per Politico.

Once in office, Harris threw her former lover under the bus, calling the allegedly corrupt Brown — he was being investigated by the FBI — an "albatross hanging around [her] neck" to SF Weekly (via Herald-Mail Media). The ambitious young politician declared her benefactor all but dead: "His career is over; I will be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I do not owe him a thing." Politico has thusly branded Harris "ruthless." In 2020, Brown gave Harris some odd advice via his piece for the San Francisco Chronicle: "Say no to [the] vice presidency."

Kamala Harris has been spinning a seemingly apocryphal childhood yarn for years that goes something like this: When she was a toddler in Oakland, California, she was separated from her parents at a march. Young Kamala was found, but fussing, and according to Harris' retelling via Elle, her mother asked her, "'Baby what do you want? What do you need?' And I just looked at her and I said, 'Fweedom.'" Harris told versions of this tale in her 2010 book, "Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer," as well as her 2019 book "The Truths We Hold: An American Journey."

However, observers have pointed out a remarkable similarity to a story that Martin Luther King Jr. told Playboy (via LBC) during the Civil Rights era. "I will never forget a moment in Birmingham when a white policeman accosted a little Negro girl, 7 or 8 years old, who was walking in a demonstration with her mother," King told the magazine in 1965. "'What do you want?' the policeman asked her gruffly, and the little girl looked at him straight in the eye and answered, 'Fee-dom.'"

While the similarities in the stories can't be ignored, online debunking site Snopes remains undecided on wither it's outright plagiarism, citing how "[Harris] claims to have no direct recollection of the moment," but rather, has simply repeated a story told to her by her mother. 

Politicians love to pretend to be cooler than they are. Kamala Harris's democratic successors did it, too. Bill Clinton made his first big splash on the national scene in a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses, blowing out a saxophone solo to "Heartbreak Hotel" on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 1992.

During Harris' run for president in 2019, the then-aspiring POTUS was endorsing legalization of marijuana. When asked if she had ever toked up herself on "The Breakfast Club," she answered: "I did inhale. It was a long time ago ... It was a joint." Harris claimed her experimentation was in college, and when asked who she listened to while high, she responded, "Definitely Snoop. Tupac for sure."

Well, not for sure. Critics quickly caught that Harris graduated Howard University in 1986, five years before either rapper released a debut album, while defenders claimed Harris was just confused by cross-talk, and was actually answering a more general question about artists she likes. Harris' opponent in the Democratic primaries, Tulsi Gabbard, had a different, and perhaps more important grievance with the segment, ripping Harris for "put[ting] over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laugh[ing] about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana."

During Kamala Harris' failed bid for the Democratic nomination in 2019, in which her much-hyped campaign collapsed before the first caucus, she offered up an ambitious "blueprint to overhaul the criminal justice system,” according to Politico. Her sweeping plan called to end federal mandatory minimum prison sentences, do away with both the death penalty and solitary confinement, and for "phasing out for-profit prisons and cash bail."

But Harris' top-of-the-ticket campaign may have imploded, in part, due to her own previous stances on criminal justice. As noted by The Week, Harris "sometimes" embraced her tough-on-crime record, but perhaps in light of the ascendant Black Lives Matter movement, with its "defund the police" refrain, the former top cop, "seemed ashamed of her own tough record as DA and AG, preferring not to talk about it or to talk around her reputation for harshness."

Part of the criminal justice system Harris and activists wanted changed is one that imprisons minorities at a disproportionate rate for minor drug offenses. But as attorney general of California, "Harris oversaw 1,900 convictions for pot offenses," according to Mercury News. She also "fought to keep people in prison even after they were proved innocent," according to Vox, and further defended California's death penalty all while refusing to look into "certain police shootings." This past followed Harris politically; After all, no one put her in prison for dabbling with marijuana.

In 1998, a fight broke out in a parking lot in California's San Fernando Valley. Cops thought they saw a man, Daniel Larsen, ditch a knife under a car. Larsen protested his innocence, but also had two serious prior felonies, and under California's harsh three-strikes policy, was sentenced to 28 years to life.

The Innocence Project eventually took up Larsen's case. Turns out Larsen's trial lawyer bungled it badly; his most egregious error being that he never had the knife processed for fingerprints. Sworn testimony from a retired cop also later showed Larsen never had the knife — another man did, William Hewitt. Hewitt felt so badly someone else was blamed for his crime he sold his motorcycle to pay for Larsen's bail. Larsen's attorney was later disbarred for his incompetence and a judge ordered the state to retry Larsen or let him go.

Harris could've done just that. Instead, her office fought to keep Larsen locked up — on technical grounds — because he hadn't filed his petition quickly enough. Larsen spent two more years in prison, battling Harris' office. Harris' team eventually lost its bid to keep this innocent man behind bars, via appeals court, but that didn't stop her from blocking all financial compensation due to Larsen for the wrongful conviction. In 2019, Larsen, who spent over a decade in prison for a crime he didn't commit, never saw a dime.

Speaking of innocence. Imagine being a poor family struggling with bills and truant kids in the tougher corners of sunny but expensive California. Then imagine Attorney General Kamala Harris tossing you in jail on top of it. That happened. Then she lied about doing it.

"I believe a child going without an education is tantamount to a crime, so I decided I was going to start prosecuting parents for truancy," Harris said in a 2010 speech. She doubled down in 2011 during her inaugural address as California DA, "So, we are putting parents on notice. If you fail in your responsibility to your kids, we are going to work to make sure you face the full force and consequences of the law."

Harris admitted she personally prosecuted 20 families under this policy, according to The Washington Post, but has repeatedly denied anyone went to jail. But that's not exactly true. While no one in San Francisco went inside while Harris was district attorney, she pushed for her anti-truancy policy to go statewide — which it did in 2011. The law called for up to a $2,000 fine and a year in prison for parents of kids who missed more than 10% of school days with no excuse. Dozens of families were charged under this law, and though records aren't thorough, at least seven parents went to jail under Harris' initiative. Her "careful" claims to the contrary were given "two Pinocchios" by The Washington Post.

Maybe glossy fashion magazines aren't what they used to be, but still, being on the cover of Vogue seems cool, right? That didn't stop the KHive from turning a mediocre photoshoot into a new media meltdown.

Harris graced the cover of the magazine's February 2021 edition in a decidedly casual look — black pants, a blazer, and her signature low-top Converse All-Stars. Vogue has faced criticism in recent years for its lack of black artists, so the mag had a black photographer "known for his unstudied aesthetic" shoot the cover, according to The New York Times. The "unflattering" photo might seem fine to the untrained eye, but it caused an "uproar" on social media for being "determinedly unfancy" to a "disrespectful" degree.

But it wasn't just white knights on X, formerly known as Twitter, who hated the work. Even though Harris was wearing her own clothes, "Vogue was seen as acting in bad faith." This simply wasn't what Harris was expecting, reported New York Magazines' Yashar Ali. Another photo, for the digital version, featuring Harris in a powder blue suit, was apparently what team Harris and Vogue editor Anna Wintour had agreed upon. Unfortunately, the pic the VP-elect didn't elect, had already gone to print, and this mystifyingly elitist nontroversy was locked in. Or as one X user put it, "I don't care about this but I'm gonna ask anyway. What is wrong with this picture?"

There is a deviously effective technique in the debate world called the Gish Gallop. It's when you spew so many falsehoods in such rapid succession that your interlocutor is put in the difficult position of either rebutting you endlessly, or actually getting to their own point.

In Kamala Harris' 2020 Vice Presidential debate with Mike Pence, a question came up on the topic of delaying Supreme Court justice nominations until after an election. Democrats favored this at the time, so Harris invented an "unsubstantiated" reasoning, according to Factcheck.org (ie, nonexistent), and ironically attributed it to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln faced a similar nomination close to his own election, claimed Harris, "But Honest Abe said it's not the right thing to do. The American people deserve to make the decision about who will be the next president of the United States." Historians told the outlet that there's speculation to Lincoln's motive, but that probably wasn't it, and "there is no record of him making a quote that squares with the one Harris described."

Harris has had other deviations from the truth, and Politifact keeps a running tally. She claimed to have "sued Exxon Mobil": false. She fabricated a stat that "the majority of women are minimum wage workers": false. She accused the Trump administration of "'raiding money' from military service member pensions to pay for the border wall'": false. She accused then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of saying birth control methods could be considered "'abortion-inducing drugs'": false. The list goes on.

In mere months, Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign raised a record-breaking $1 billion in fundraising. But, weeks after losing the election, Harris' camp was still requesting donations. Campaign officials confirmed to NBC News that the post-election fundraising would go towards funding the Democratic National Committee's "state recounts or curing ballots." The officials also claimed that there was no significant debt from the campaign. However, the additional donation requests led many to question how the initial funds were spent.

The majority of the campaign funds went towards advertising — which totaled a whopping $680 million — and putting on high-profile events. In fact, in November 2024, The Guardian estimated that "a reported $450,000 a day" was spent on advertising onto the Las Vegas Sphere in the swing state of Nevada alone. In the aftermath of the campaign, some have even claimed that a number of staffers went unpaid.

After conceding the election, Harris' campaign was rumored to be $20 million in debt. However, the final count of debts and expenses are still unknown because unpaid invoices — including those for services from vendors and media organizations during the campaign's final stretch — are still being processed. "The $20 million debt thing is real," Matthew Boyle, the Washington bureau chief for Breitbart, alleged (via Newsweek), but the Harris-Walz campaign has yet to respond to these claims.

Celebrities came out in droves to support Kamala Harris. A-Listers like Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Beyoncé, Charli XCX, and Taylor Swift publicly endorsed the VP in her failed bid for president. Now that Harris's campaign is reportedly in debt, many are wondering if the extravagant celeb endorsements had something to do with it. For example, Oprah Winfrey's production company, Harpo Productions, was paid a whopping $1 million for hosting a town-hall in September 2024. But Winfrey wasn't the only one allegedly being paid big bucks.

Leading up to the day of the election, the New York Post reported that Harris hosted seven concerts in swing states, adding up to $20 million. This included huge artists like Jon Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and 2 Chainz performing at rallies all around the country in states such as Georgia and Pennsylvania. What's more, the VP allegedly spent six figures building a set for her appearance on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast.

So, did the celebs help Harris get more votes? While there's no way to precisely measure this impact, ultimately, what matters to a celebrity won't necessarily speak to the interests of the average person, and the outcome of the 2024 election — with all of its celebrity spending — speaks to that.

Kamala Harris made her first campaign appearance with Republican Liz Cheney in October 2024, just a month before the November election. The unlikely pair teamed up in a last ditch effort to reach conservative voters. Cheney — a Republican who has publicly shared her disdain for Donald Trump and daughter of controversial former Vice President Dick Cheney — believed that her fellow Republicans could cast a "Country Over Party" vote for Harris, meaning that it was not too late to part ways with Trump's coalition due to his election denialism and authoritarian rhetoric.

Essentially, the former GOP representative attempted to encourage Republican voters to use their vote for the greater good by voting or Harris. While the media and Democrats loved the idea, the team-up proved to be not so fruitful for Harris' campaign. In the November 2024 election, conservatives backed Trump with even bigger numbers than in 2020, particularly in Ripon, Wisconsin, a place where Liz and Harris focused their efforts. In an election where Harris had a months-long late start — due to President Joe Biden's initial 2024 campaign — spending day after day with Liz seems to have been a waste of precious time.

President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are aligned on many key policies, including social justice, economic recovery, healthcare, climate change, and foreign policy. While this was beneficial for Biden's campaigns, ultimately, the close political connection proved to be an obstacle for Harris. While Harris was able to rally the masses with her social media presence and impressive donations, she failed to separate herself from Biden's shadow.

In fact, after taking over her boss's campaign, Harris hesitated to draw any distinction between herself and Biden, making it more difficult to cast herself as a fresh face to undecided voters. When asked what she would've done differently than Biden during her October 2024 appearance on "The View," the candidate responded, "There is not a thing that comes to mind." Besides adding a Republican to her cabinet, Harris never fully established how she would handle the presidency differently from Biden, and this left a noticeable mark on her campaign.

Weeks after the November 2024 election, many Democrats have come to the disgruntled conclusion that Biden played a role in Harris' loss. If Harris had successfully separated herself from her boss, who knows? Maybe things could've ended differently. But unfortunately, some in the nation had already lost faith in Harris. Republican Congressman from Kentucky, James Comer, summed up his view on the Biden-Harris administration during a hearing for the Committee on Oversight and Accountability in September 2024: "The economy is suffering, the border is broken, and crises continue to erupt worldwide. Everything Biden and Harris has touched has failed."