Although the Democratic National Convention doesn’t begin for another eight days, Vice President Kamala Harris is already her party’s official nominee for president, thanks to a “virtual roll call” vote earlier this month. For at least 15 years, the liberal networks have been cheering for Harris, applauding her as an “inspiring” “trailblazer,” with barely any concern for the far-left policies she would bring with her to the White House.
Back on October 9, 2009, NBC’s Today show carved out airtime for the then-obscure San Francisco district attorney, helping Harris sell a book and raise her national profile. Co-host Meredith Vieira touted Harris as “a career crime fighter,” while Matt Lauer labeled her a “rising political star in California.” Among his fawning questions: “You have been called by some a female Barack Obama....Do you have ambitions for national office?”
Kamala Harris is as left-wing as any national political figure today. An analysis of her Senate votes by the American Conservative Union awarded her a piddling 4.45% lifetime conservative rating. (For comparison, Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders gets a slightly more pro-conservative score of 6.05%.) Yet some journalists have pushed the narrative that Harris, as a prosecutor, wasn’t radical enough.
“[Kamala] Harris had a rapid ascent in California’s legal circles, rising from county prosecutor to San Francisco District Attorney, to California Attorney General, cultivating a moderate political reputation and inviting criticism from some liberals that she was insufficiently progressive on criminal justice issues,” NBC’s Kristin Welker shared back on the August 12, 2020 Today show, the morning after Harris was selected as Biden’s running mate.
Just last month, NBC’s Liz Kreutz repeated the same notion in a profile of Harris for the July 24 Nightly News: “As district attorney, she touted an increase in felony convictions and support policies that outraged some progressives, including criminally prosecuting parents of children who skip school.”
The idea that Harris would be anything other than the most left-wing president in American history is folly. Yet analyzing the liberal media’s coverage, one finds little concern about her radical policies, as reporters glow over her “historic” candidacy and scold her critics as engaged in “racism” and “misogyny.” A quick rundown, from the NewsBusters’ archives:
■ “Your performance last night is certainly what people are talking about this morning. I’m hearing words like, ‘A star is born,’ ‘She is fervent, but deploys her anger precisely like a flashlight.’ Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire are telling CBS News today that you had a strong performance. How do you intend to capitalize on that momentum?”
— Co-host Gayle King to Harris on the June 28, 2019 CBS This Morning, the day after the Democratic debate where she criticized Joe Biden for his decades-earlier opposition to forced bussing to achieve school integration.■ “I thought Kamala Harris gave a fantastic speech. She absolutely nailed it. I think this is one of the finest performances I’ve seen her deliver in terms of a speech. She has tremendous range as a speaker. There are times when she’s incredibly warm and funny and light. She’s talking about spending time with her nieces and her step-kids, being called ‘Mamala,’ cooking dinner.”
— CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson on The Situation Room, August 12, 2020.■ “Every single day, every single night of his life, Donald Trump lives in fear of prosecutors. And today Donald Trump got a new prosecutor on his case, the former District Attorney of San Francisco, the former Attorney General of the state of California, and the current Senator and candidate for Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.”
— Host Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s The Last Word, August 12, 2020.
■ “Each moment in history has its significance, but this is a defining moment in history. This is something that the history books will chronicle, and people will look at this moment to see how to navigate for the future....She’s someone who doesn’t take tea for the fever. She can fight anyone at any moment. She can knock down the hardest or the staunchest person who is against the Biden-Harris ticket....This is a historic time. We cannot compare it to Obama-Biden. We cannot compare it to Clinton-Gore. This moment stands for itself.”
— Urban Radio Networks White House correspondent and CNN analyst April Ryan on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, August 13, 2020.■ “For 23 years, I’ve been at the White House and I’ve seen history, I’ve seen the first black President of the United States of America and I called him ‘Mr. President.’ But if you come there in January, and I get to raise my — please answer my question — if I raise my hand, I get to say ‘Madame Vice President.’ Do you know that sends chills through me? And you look like me! Does that give you chills?...I can’t endorse, but what I say is if I get to say ‘Madame Vice President,’ that’s gonna send chills through me.”
— CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks April Ryan, in an interview with Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris, as streamed on Ryan’s Instagram account, September 21, 2020.■ “I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge that the United States of America just elected its first woman and its first woman of color as vice president. Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants, one from India and one from Jamaica, once again an amazing sign of what this country can be.”
— CNN’s Jake Tapper during live coverage of the election results, November 7, 2020.
■ “Wednesday is also the day we start addressing Kamala Harris as ‘Madam Vice President,’ a change that’s the culmination of all she has worked for....It might seem that Kamala Harris was born for this moment in history.”
— CBS Sunday Morning host Jane Pauley profiling Harris, January 17, 2021.■ “There are so many people who are so proud of Kamala Harris. I love the interview she did yesterday with Jane Pauley on Sunday Morning. At one point she was running for student government and they were saying, ‘Not your time, not your time,’ and she says whenever people tell her no she ‘eats no for breakfast.’ I like that way of thinking, ‘She eats no for breakfast.’”
— CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King, January 18, 2021.
■ Reporter Rachel Scott: “It was at Howard where she ran her first campaign as a freshman in college and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority incorporated….Now she’s inspiring that next generation.”
Student Abigail Hall: “We feel inspired, we feel energized.”
Student Madison Thibeaux: “Just seeing her and being able to feel like I’m being represented in the same way that she’s there and I’m there. I just feel like she’s me, I’m her.”
— ABC’s Good Morning America, January 20, 2021.■ “Every day she’s in office will be historic….I think a lot of people just want to push the pause button just for a second and recognize the fact that she is certainly a trailblazer.”
— NBC’s Sheinelle Jones on Today, January 20, 2021.
■ “‘Knowing that there was a candidate that I resembled so much was so cool in and of itself. I also just felt really lucky that we figured out a way to have fun with her early on and make her a joyful character. There’ve been times where you’re asked to play up someone’s flaws or characteristics that are annoying or frustrating or embarrassing. This one feels like a superhero cape I get to don.’”
— Saturday Night Live’s Maya Rudolph, talking about her role playing Harris on the show, as quoted in a February 22, 2021 cover story in Entertainment Weekly.■ “This [mocking Kamala Harris’s laugh] is based in racism. This is based in misogyny….The right didn’t talk about his [Mike Pence’s] handling of the COVID epidemic….or the AIDS epidemic which I think led to, you know, thousands and thousands of deaths. What they’re talking about is her laugh.….She is prepared, she is seasoned. Abroad she gets wonderful marks across the board, but this is just something that I think happens to women and especially black women.”
— Co-host Sunny Hostin on ABC’s The View, March 11, 2022.
■ “I keep thinking in my head that we all need a mom. I’ve been thinking that we really all need a tremendous hug in the world right now, but in our country, we need you to be Momala of the country.”
— Actress/talk show host Drew Barrymore to Vice President Kamala Harris on the syndicated Drew Barrymore Show, April 29, 2024.■ “We spent three weeks sitting outside the ICU with a death watch for democracy, watching what would happen after that debate if Donald Trump were able to get back in the White House and it was terrifying…Then suddenly a crack open of hope. One little heartbeat of hope. Kamala Harris raising her hand and saying, ‘I’ll take care of this,’ and you saw an explosion of support and energy.”
— Contributor Van Jones on CNN Newsroom, July 23, 2024.
For more examples from our flashback series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.
