Since Vice President Kamala Harris’ coronation as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, much of the media has been laser-focused on her “vibes.” They are frantically working to ensure that Harris is “unburdened by what has been,” to use her own pet phrase, and persuade voters that she is the answer to all our problems.
However, if they bothered to look, it seems Harris’ actual record in office is quite troubling.
If there is one thing the chameleonlike Harris consistently stands for, it’s wielding the government against the Left’s enemies.
Yes, Harris has flip-flopped—er, recalibrated—quite a bit in recent days. But she’s been quite consistent since her time as the California attorney general in using high office to target and intimidate political foes and chill free speech.
In a piece published in The Wall Street Journal last weekend, the Journal’s editorial board criticized Harris for her work in the California Department of Justice to force nonprofit organizations to turn over donor information.
“Harris made headlines a decade ago by threatening to punish nonprofit groups that refused to turn over unredacted donor information,” The Wall Street Journal editors wrote. “She demanded they hand to the state their federal IRS Form 990 Schedule B in the name of discovering ‘self-dealing’ or ‘improper loans.’ The real purpose was to learn the names of conservative donors and chill future political giving—that is, political speech.”
Eventually, that led to those nonprofit groups challenging Harris in court. One case made its way to the Supreme Court, after she moved on to the U.S. Senate and was replaced as California AG by Rob Bonta.
“In Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta in 2021, the high court ruled 6-3 that the [attorney general’s] disclosure demand broke the law. The court pointed out that a lower court had found not ‘a single, concrete instance in which pre-investigation collection of a Schedule B did anything to advance the Attorney General’s investigative, regulatory, or enforcement efforts.’”
Isn’t it interesting that President Joe Biden and Harris have announced plans to “reform”—i.e., decimate—the Supreme Court. It’s almost as if they want to remove any potential checks on their power.
It wasn’t just pro-free market groups such as Americans for Prosperity that Harris targeted. As an editorial in the Washington Examiner noted, she’s worked zealously to target Christians and Christian organizations.
When Harris was in the Senate, she labeled the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, an extremist group. She even demanded one federal court nominee answer for his membership in the Knights of Columbus.
“Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?” Harris accusingly asked Brian Buescher, a federal judge nominee of then-President Donald Trump.
Given that it’s a Catholic organization, one would assume members are pro-life. But I understand that with Biden in the White House, that can be a bit confusing.
Perhaps most telling of all, Harris unleashed California DOJ resources on pro-life journalist David Daleiden, who runs the Center for Medical Progress.
As my colleague Mary Margaret Olohan revealed in a recent report, Harris conducted an elaborate sting on Daleiden after he released videos of Planned Parenthood officials describing how they gruesomely extract and traffic in aborted-baby parts.
Just before the sting, Harris’ office had a meeting with Planned Parenthood officials. Planned Parenthood donated to her campaign while she was attorney general and to her Senate campaign.
Daleiden said in his interview with Olohan that he didn’t think it was a coincidence that there was an escalation of the weaponization of government against pro-lifers once Harris became vice president.
“This is a pattern for her,” he said. “Her weaponization of the powers of her office, on behalf of her powerful special interest sponsors in the abortion industry, to cover up their wrongdoing and persecute the people who want to expose it, that began in California with my case, and I think it’s a pattern that she’s continuing to this day.”
Harris’ record is fully in line with how those on the Left want to transform American institutions and society.
They don’t believe that justice should be blind and that citizens should be treated equally under the law.
No, they think that outlook causes inequality and exploitation. Instead, they believe in various forms of social justice, wherein left-wing philosopher queens dole out punishments and privileges to those they deem undeserving or deserving. Then, we will have equity, so this line of thought goes.
That’s how those on the Left govern when they no longer believe there are limits to their power. They will transform a constitutional republic into a banana republic and call it justice.
Harris has consistently played her part in the fundamental transformation of America. On that, she hasn’t changed.