https://pastebin.com/uQLTLzs0
Kamala Harris: Centrist Willie Brown Disciple
There are two main tacks to take against Kamala Harris: her inconsistent progressive credentials and her ties to corruption. She is unlikely to win progressive support during a primary. If elected President would face severe Mueller-like scrutiny and investigations for her connections to California power broker Willie Brown.
Her progressive credentials are undermined by her record as a two term California Attorney General. Sued to keep the death penalty on the books. Tried to get exonerated Daniel Larsen reincarcerated on a technicality. She tried to block a transgender inmate’s surgery. She opposed a statewide plan to equip police body cameras. She defended the use of a falsified confession on appeal. She opposes legalizing sex work. Her support of familial DNA investigations disproportionately effected African Americans. Opposed civil forfeiture reform. She barred a Sikh man from working as a prison guard because of his religiously mandated beard. Her Mortgage Fraud Strike Force was a dog and pony show that prosecuted 10 cases in 3 years on a $2m budget.
She got a $2,000 campaign contribution from Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, during her 2016 Senate race. She was the only Democratic Senate candidate to get a donation from Mnuchin in 2016.
A member of her staff resigned after being sued for sexual harassment. The nature of the suit seeking $400k makes it implausible that it happened without Harris’ knowledge.
Corruption and ethics. She got her start in politics by dating the Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown (later San Francisco Mayor) who is 30 years her senior and married. He appointed her to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission. Both were highly paid sinecures. Later he leveraged his connections to help her campaign and fundraise for her races.
Willie Brown has a long and bizarre record. In the 1970s he developed a relationship with Jim Jones of the People’s Temple. Temple members were used as campaign workers for the campaign of Mayor Moscone. Surviving members of the temple admit to ballot stuffing and busing in voters. Willie Brown praised Jim Jones during life and defended his connections to Jim Jones after the mass suicide in Guyana of Temple Members.
He has been investigated several times by the FBI for corruption, but they have only convicted his associates and never him personally. In the 1980s an FBI investigation showed he was laundering money through a bagman David Malcolm. Malcolm, a Republican, was rewarded by a senior appointment in the Democratic State Assembly. As Mayor of San Francisco his housing executive Patricia Williams was convicted of bribery and given a 5 year sentence. He faced other allegations of bid rigging and corruption during this time. Numerous lower ranking staff were also convicted of corruption. The next Mayor, Ed Lee, was alleged by the FBI to have learned corrupt tradecraft from Willie Brown.
It was also reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on September 12, 2001 that Willie Brown received an air travel warning prior to the 9/11 attacks.
Progressive Credentials
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/kamala-harris-trump-obama-california-attorney-general
http://archive.fo/d5FTD
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/kamala-harris-epic-fail-california-judge-dismisses-backpage-pimping-case-8892833
http://archive.fo/aPPtz
Mnuchin Donation
https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/harris-was-the-only-democrat-in-2016-to-receive-cash-from-mnuchin
http://archive.fo/6lZbj
https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=steven+mnuchin&order=asc&page=2&sort=D
http://archive.fo/adT9J