Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown praised his ex-lover Kamala Harris during conversations with reporters on Sunday, touting her youth and “outstanding” track record as evidence of her capability to serve as president of the United States.
Brown, known for his political influence on the California political scene, spoke to reporters outside the historic John’s Grill in San Francisco, where he said that he had learned with the rest of the world about President Joe Biden’s decision to step down as the Democratic nominee and endorse Harris, “35, 40 minutes, maybe an hour ago,” according to The San Francisco Standard.
He also pushed the Democrats who had been supporting Biden to support Harris: “I hope all those Democrats who’ve been pushing Biden to quit will now show up and ring doorbells with me.”
“In all the jobs she’s had … she’s always been outstanding,” he told the publication.
Though Brown was legally married at the time, he and Harris openly had an affair between 1994 and 1995 when she was 29 years old and he was 60 years old, according to Reuters. Brown and his now ex-wife had reportedly been separated for several years, though still legally married, and Harris was an Alameda County assistant district attorney at the time.
The affair ended in 1995, but not until after then-state House Speaker Brown appointed Harris to the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board (a job paying $97,088 a year, according to the Los Angeles Times) and the Medical Assistance Commission (a job paying $72,000 a year, according to the LA Times).
“This news [of the breakup] came as a shock to many, including those who found Kamala Harris attractive, intelligent and charming,” the San Francisco Gate reported in 1995. “As a mutual friend once observed, ‘Willie has finally graduated from girls to a woman.’ Also flabbergasted: the brain-trusters who found Kamala the perfect antidote to whatever playboy tendencies still reside in the mayor-elect’s jaunty persona.”
Brown would serve as mayor of San Francisco from 1996 to 2004, and Harris would become the district attorney of California in 2003.
Politico reports that “as mayor of San Francisco in 2003, Brown was supportive of her district attorney campaign although they were no longer dating.”
When Harris announced her presidential campaign, Brown wrote an op-ed titled: “Sure I dated Kamala Harris. So what?”
Vox wrote of the op-ed at the time: “Interpreted charitably, Brown’s op-ed seems aimed at confronting critiques that Harris could face about their relationship, something she sought to distance herself from when she ran for San Francisco district attorney in 2003. Interpreted more cynically, it comes off as an attempt to give himself some credit for just how successful she’s become.”
Brown and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal.
