Kamala Harris, Back When She Was Not Afraid to Give Interviews
Kamala Harris has claimed that her “values have not changed.” Let’s take a look at that.
Back in 2020 when Harris was a senator, she was interviewed by Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. At the time, the Black Lives Matter/Antifa/George Floyd riots were in full swing. Cities were burning. Biden was the presumptive nominee for President but had not yet picked his running mate. Harris was a leading contender for the slot.
This article will discuss two aspects of that interview that you should remember when Harris debates Trump on September 10.
Harris makes clear that we cannot believe what she says in a debate. Don’t be silly — Debates are just part of the game, and anything goes.
When Harris makes a statement or claim in her debate with Trump, can we assume that it is true or at least that she believes it to be true? I say not, but please consider what she admitted in her 2020 interview with Colbert and decide for yourself.
Colbert set up the discussion by pointing out how Harris had eviscerated Biden during one of the Democrat debates, pointing out how she “landed haymakers on Joe Biden” and that “his teeth were like chicklets all over the stage.”
Given her status as a leading vice-presidential candidate, Colbert then followed up that observation by asking whether after making her personal attacks on Biden, accusing him of racism, Harris had changed her “bedrock principles.”
How did that transition happen? How do you go from being such a passionate opponent on such bedrock principles for you, and now you guys seem to be pals?
Alternating between laughing and shouting, Harris reminded Colbert no less than five times that “It’s a debate!” Just in case Colbert did not get it, she repeated variations of that over and over, with emphasis on “debate” each time.
Harris’ incessant laughing at the very idea of such a naïve question is the giveaway — as long as she is in a “debate” she doesn’t have to stick to the truth. The only conclusion that we can logically draw from her performance is that because “it was a debate,” what she said need not be true. She doesn’t even have to believe it herself, as long it helps her win.
That interpretation is supported not only by her continued laughter as she kept repeating and emphasizing the “debate,” but by Colbert himself when he said, “So you don’t mean it?” Harris response to that was only to repeat herself — three times for emphasis:
It was a debate! The whole reason — Literally it was a debate! It was called a debate!
And if you want a transcript of the full exchange after Colbert’s question about her “bedrock principles,” here it is (with Colbert’s interjections in brackets and italicized):
It was a da-bate! [Colbert: Not everybody landed punches like you did though.] It was a debate! [So, you don’t mean it] It was a debate! The whole reason … literally it was a debate! It was called a debate! [I understand.] … [Unintelligible] travel to the debate. There were journalists there covering the debate, where there would be a debate of differences of opinion and issues, and I am 1000% supportive of Joe Biden and I will again do everything I can to make sure he is elected.
Author’s note: Biden should have taken note of what happened after George McGovern pledged that he was “1000%” behind Thomas Eagleton, only to pull the plug a short time later because of the controversy over Eagleton’s prior treatments for depression. In fairness, Harris didn’t join the coup and pull the plug on Biden until after she was visited by Pelosi, Obama, and others.
Clearly, in a “debate” you are free to say things that you don’t mean or that are not true, or so Harris thinks at least. It is all an insider joke to fool the voters.
Remember that when you watch the Trump-Harris debate on Tuesday.
Riots are a good thing. They are an essential part of our democratic heritage. And they must go on.
We need a little context for this — Everyone will remember the destruction wrought upon our country by Antifa, BLM, and their allies after the death of George Floyd during his arrest. Initially they were heralded as peaceful grass roots uprisings to protest the fiction that black men were being disproportionally killed by police.
But although many of the demonstrations were peaceful (for the most part), many were not. They were violent riots, and by January 6 standards could be regarded as insurrections, at least of local governments. For example, in Minneapolis a police precinct station was besieged, burned and forced to be abandoned. In Seattle, the “protestors” took over a portion of the city, terrorized merchants and residents, and announced that it was now an “autonomous zone” from which local police were excluded. In Portland the rioters attempted to break into and then set fire to the federal courthouse, while it was occupied.
The deaths and destruction caused by the riots was enormous. In calling for congressional hearings, the National Police Association noted that
In 2020, the United States was subjected to 574 violent riots which resulted in injuries to over 2000 police officers, looting of businesses, over 2 billion dollars in damage to property, and over 20 deaths including that of retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn.
In short, the nation was in the throes of a series of organized, nationwide violent and destructive protests and riots.
The perpetrators were murky — Antifa is a shadowy, loosely knit group that defies an accepted description. Some say that it is a terrorist organization, while others claim that it is an ideology shared by anarchists, communists, and a variety of others who often support arson, assault, murder and other violence. But whatever it may be, it clear that Antifa’s adherents were involved in the nationwide riots in 2020, and that they did not shrink from violence and mayhem.
BLM was originally regarded as a somewhat more aggressive 21st Century version of the NAACP. Only when it was disclosed that its founders were Marxists and bragged about, did their star begin to fade.
But despite its Marxist origins, BLM aided the metastasis of riots and demonstrations occurred in hundreds of cities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. As the New York Times reported,
One of the reasons there have been protests in so many places in the United States is the backing of organizations like Black Lives Matter. While the group isn’t necessarily directing each protest, it provides materials, guidance and a framework for new activists.
So, with that background, recall that the country was in a state of turmoil that was unprecedented in scope since at least 1865. You might think that a United States Senator who had ambitions to be chosen as a Vice-Presidential candidate would at least have a measured response to questions about the riots and would express some concern at the level of violence and destruction, even if she agreed with some of their ultimate aims. But you would be wrong.
The Interview — In her 2020 interview with Stephen Colbert, then-Senator Harris discussed the “protests” extensively. A video of that portion of her interview is below.
For some reason, after noting that she had attended protests in Washington, D.C. the most important thing Colbert wanted to know was whether she was masked: “First of all, did you wear a mask.” After Harris assured him that she did, they proceeded to discussing “protests” generally. In the first portion of the video below, Harris spends a great deal of time extolling the virtues of such “protests.” As she often does, she spoke in generalities and platitudes, eschewing any specifics such as even mentioning the word “riot,” or any of the assaults, deaths, arson and other destruction that had already occurred by the time of her interview.
In keeping with her word salads containing no meat, she began with an anecdote about when she attended her first protest. It was when her mother took her to a protest in her stroller when her parents were attending one in the 60’s. “It’s something I have done my entire life.” That set the tone. After that it was one platitude after another. These “protests,” you must understand, reflect a “commonality of spirit.” They are among the “greatest movements that we have seen in recent history in our country but probably since the beginning.” And because this country is rife with “inequities, inequality, and unfairness,” it is necessary “to take to the streets.”
And these protests are the “catalysts for getting there.” Where? Why, to “force the government to be true to the ideal that we say we hold dear.” And while you are taking to the streets, don’t forget to bow down to the Golden Calf of diversity: “This is a movement that is fueled by diversity, the beautiful diversity of who we are coming together as a unified body demanding change and justice for everyone.” And so on ….
Despite her eloquent platitudes, Harris never even hinted at any of the assaults, murders of police officers, burning of small businesses, or of the thousands of other crimes and the millions of dollars of damages that accompanied hundreds of these “protests.”
But in the second half of the clip below (beginning at 3:01) and the final portion (beginning at 5:23), she showed the iron beneath the velvet glove. If things don’t go the way she and the mob want, then the protests and riots will continue — and they should.
First (beginning at 3:01) she emphasized that “it’s critically important” for the protests to continue. Remember, these are “protests” that have maimed and killed people, destroyed countless businesses, and ruined innumerable lives. But for Harris it is “critically important” that they continue. Continuing (at 5:23), Colbert first commented that “there are protests still happening.” Harris made clear that in her view this was a good thing and that, by God, they need to keep happening:
They’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop. And that’s, they’re not, this is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not going to stop. And everyone beware because they’re not going to stop. It is … They’re not going to stop before election day in November and they’re not going to stop after election day. And that should be, and everyone should take notice of that on both levels. They’re not going to let up and they should not.
Consistent with her comments, Harris solicited donations to bail out the “protestors,” including violent offenders with posts on Twitter and on Facebook. Remember that when you hear her spouting her supposedly ‘tough on crime’ braggadocio during the debate.
Here is the video.
So, one takeaway is that Harris has honed vagueness and platitudes to an art form. But when she wants to be, she can be direct and forceful: Everyone must “beware” because the rioters are not going to stop, and Harris is putting us on notice that she believes that they must not stop. There is little reason to “beware,” of course, if the protestors are really peaceful. You must beware when they are not.
Pause and think for a moment about the reaction if President Trump had said of the January 6 protestors, “They’re not going to stop, and they should not stop.” But as we know, he did not and what he did say to the people at the rally to whom he was speaking was, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."
And for his words, President Trump was impeached. For her words, Harris was rewarded with the Vice Presidency and now a run for the Presidency.
Remember these things when you watch Tuesday’s presidential debate. And if Trump wins, then beware the riots and insurrection that will follow.
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