VP Kamala Harris is Under Attack

With the latest attacks on VP Harris, I am re-publishing this article as it captures the environment, the disingenuousness, and the misogyny undergirding the relentless attacks on the successful vice president.

As we celebrate Black History Month, I am recognizing the historicalness of Kamala D. Harris, and the necessity of relentlessly defending her to those who work to harm her reputation.

Vice President Kamala Devi Harris and President Joseph Robinette Biden just completed one of the greatest first years in presidential administration history. The list of accomplishments are enough to carry a full term for most administrations but the dynamic duo of presidential politics surpassed expectations and delivered one victory after another to the benefit of Americans across the political landscape.

They inherited a democracy on the brink of collapse due to Trump’s “Troops” on the ground storming the Capitol, his team of anti-democratic criminals in the White House, and multiple State electoral offices who, with the help of a team of seditionist lawyers and gangsters, illegally conspired to certify false electoral documents.

While 81 million Americans breathlessly waited days to confirm that 81 million votes was in fact more than 72 million votes, the media helped Trump “Almost” overthrow the government formally known as the most stable democracy in the world.

Undaunted, VP Harris took on multiple difficult assignments that prior vice presidents could only dream of… and run away from. Displaying the range that California voters know about and her senate peers on both sides of the aisle praise her for, Harris allowed her political cup to runneth over by leading every key initiative for the President.

She is quite literally the face of the administration.

VP Harris walked the walk of her campaign motto: Working for the People.

Every White House accomplishment reflects the delicate, tough, nuanced, and willing hand of the first Black and Asian Vice President.

And some people absolutely hate her for it.

Harris took on border and immigration, securing billions from businesses to support our southern neighbors and their efforts to stem the flow of migrants. She promoted vaccinations and smart distancing, and is front and center with the administration’s latest Covid safety efforts with the launch of free at-home test kits.

There’s record job growth and record low unemployment and unemployment claims, historical infrastructure bill, the largest reduction in child poverty, historic stock market and GDP, and the elimination of eleven-billion dollar- and counting- in students loans.

It is expected that in every article outlining the administration’s accomplishment there should also include “But there’s still more to do, such as…” and then a list of tasks that remain.

Not here.

Instead, let’s pivot to the heart of this piece: The attacks on Vice President Kamala Devi Harris.

The attacks are coming from all quarters, including from the usual culprits Fox News and Politico, the mediocre many, such as CNN and NY Post, and every Sunday news talk show. The attacks of course include the tired old “Lady of record” the New York Times which must be noted has dusted off their “Hilary must be stopped playbook” and taken out every dusty and ratchet writer, columnist, headline writer, editor, and opinion contributor to try and take on and take down the magnificent VP.

The others are there as well, the declining Washington Post, many hosts on MSNBC, and a whole waste basket of online verified accounts, especially but not exclusively on Twitter.

VP Harris has provided guidance to cabinet members, support to senators and representatives, and traveled the country visiting blue, red, and purple districts while touting one or many administration priority initiatives. And make no mistake about it, where she goes, excitement, energy, and local appreciation follows.

The general population love her. As do kids of all ages and races. Though there’s something wonderful seeing her get on the level of little Black girls whose eyes sparkle with light dampened only by the light of their little smiles as VP Kamala embraces, encourages, hugs, and imparts warmth and love like no other Vice President or President in American history, save for President Obama and First Lady Michelle.

The local coverage and headlines are almost universally positive when she visits, and all the interviews with people she met and interacted with show the overriding admiration for the nation’s first woman second in command, including republicans who do not deny her force of will, tenacity, honestly, and ability to grasp issues and win hearts, minds, and leverage in heretofore unlikely places.

And not just domestically. VP Harris has been well received across the globe, as allies and citizens alike compliment her intelligence, kindness, and deep knowledge of the issues.

But back here in the States, especially with the beltway media, it is all doom and gloom misogyny and misogynoir as they launch hourly and daily attacks at her.

What is most concerning is the constant vitriol, anger, lies, and disinformation that targets VP Harris from usual white men and women on the right, but also from the unusual white men and women on the left. And perhaps most surprising and disappointing of all, VP Harris has come under attack from a small but vocal segment of Black women in media.

We have seen long articles and Twitter threads about the cookware VP Kamala Harris purchased, how she requires a certain type of pen to write with, how she uses wired headsets, how she laughs, and how she suggested, correctly, using Google to find covid testing locations — because the administration worked with Google to set up easy to use search/results.

VP Kamala Harris is taking all the attacks that would normally be directed at the president not because people see her as the president, but because some do not want her to become president.

The attacks are coming from the usual quarters that include the GOP, conservative media men, and men who hate women. These attacks, as awful as they are, were fully expected because in America, hatred of women is our true national pastime and the currency that fuels politics and the fourth estate.

The other attacks though are somewhat surprising on two levels. For one, there are the leftwing attackers who are mostly associated with Bernard Sanders followers and who, though loud and capable of ugly misogyny, as followers of the prince of post office naming, were also as expected as they are ineffectual. Just like Bernard.

Secondly, the side of ranch to Bernard’s hatred entree, is Elizabeth Warren followers who have worked hard to match the vitriol of Bernard’s followers who disdain them as much as Bernard disdains Elizabeth Warren.

The Warren crowd though has one major difference from Bernard’s followers: Warren has an online (only) following of Black women, especially Black women in the media.

Some but not all of the media Black women who consistently criticize VP Kamala Harris and add their voices to those of the GOP and Bernard followers, are the hastily assembled and ineffective “100 Black Women for Warren” who the Senator used to burnish her nonexistent connection to the Black community ahead of the crucial South Carolina primary during the last election. The stunt failed spectacularly and the Senator was soon out of the race.

She and her followers have been angry and attacking ever since, determined to derail the Biden administration in general, and VP Harris specifically for having the audacity of being chosen by Biden over the one-trick pony Elizabeth “with the stroke of a pen, Biden can..” Warren.

Elizabeth Warren, her financial backers, her friendly media, and her 100 Black Women, were not enough to stop the blue wave that Senator Harris rode to the nomination the Oval Office with Joe Biden.

Like trump limply and pathetically telling scattered crowds he “really won the election,” Elizabeth Warren seems to confusingly think that by taking down the Vice President she will be elevated to the role ahead of the 2024 election.

Elizabeth and her media followers do a daily tag-team with frightened GOP operatives by suggesting new names Biden should consider for Vice President in 2024. The underhanded attacks show that the skill needed to be in the Oval Office clearly are no more part of Elizabeth’s DNA than the Native DNA she lied about for all those years.

Selecting Kamala Harris generated so much momentum it fueled the Biden campaign to record-breaking fundraising and to the most votes ever received, topping over eighty-million votes.

Who though are the Black women in media attacking VP Harris?

Some of the names include Tiffany Cross, Jemele Hill, LaTosha Brown, Joy-Ann Reid, and Sunny Hostin.

The group has been quick to criticize VP Harris and disparage her actions, inactions, and results, while giving less attention to her successes, roadblocks, and limitations that are part of governing. Importantly, the group often sides with the GOP and their operatives when criticizing the administration and VP Harris, and often for things over which neither she nor the administration control due to separation of powers.

But logic and awareness of the rules of law, court orders, and knowing how to count Senate votes, seem to go out the window when the individuals can use misinformation to blame VP Harris and generate clicks, views, and engagement.

VP Kamala is a rainmaker and media is in a money-drought after their favorite revenue generator was kicked out of the White House and sent packing back to his roach-infested Florida residence.

But if the group and the media thought they could routinely attack VP Harris with impunity, they were both incredibly misguided because they simply had to know that VP Harris has a large global online group followers who defend her with quickness, receipts, videos, and overwhelming engagement that set the record straight. Their rebuttals are swift and furious and often result in articles being corrected and taken down, posts being deleted, and accounts being locked down with comments turned off, as pundits, columnists, and social media influencers run from the blowback of their inaccurate, hateful, misogynistic posts and articles.

The small but vocal group of Black women who support Warren are outliers and nowhere near the norm for Black voters and Black women voters specifically. Though they have platforms on television and in other media, and they are accomplished in fields that are also difficult for Black women to succeed in, the group seems to believe that their challenges should be recognized and supported by the community while VP Harris’s should not.

There was a recent online kerfuffle that resulted in the hashtag cabocaucus trending after VP Harris supporters took issue with negative tweets and comments directed at VP Harris. The blowback from VP Harris’s followers was swift as they called out the posters for using GOP tactics in their attacks on Harris. The harshest pushback came from Black and brown women and men who felt particularly betrayed by the Black women who were the faces of the new attacks because many had supported those same Black women when they themselves had undergone attacks due to their race, gender, and positions.

This detailed thread on twitter is one example of the exchanges.

We are in an era of needing to stabilize a teetering democracy that is fighting back against tens of millions of republican voters who will give up their rights as long as it means Black and other POC lose their rights. The ongoing January 6th insurrection investigation is widespread and uncovering real and detailed attempts to fundamentally change the type of government the country operates. And the closer the Justice Department gets to leaders of the coup attempt, the more intense the efforts to derail the Biden/Harris administration for 2022 midterms and 2024 general election.

The GOP and its operatives would love nothing more than to bury every investigation, pardon all the criminals, and continue its march backwards in time.

That Black women in the media are aiding and abetting those efforts is reprehensible.

The pandemic can be expected to have more iterations, our very right to vote remains a frustrating reality as the Senate “debates” voting rights, and there are many other priorities the administration seeks to accomplish ahead of the always crucial midterm elections later this year.

Senators Warren and Sanders and their followers are doing their best to damage President Biden by damaging Vice President Kamala Harris along with any asperation she has of running for president in 2024.

The beltway print and television media are doing their best to damage President Biden and VP Kamala Harris so they can help reinstall trump-or-trump-lite and drive their revenues up.

And the small but loud contingent of Black online pundits and cable news talking heads are doing their best to specifically damage VP Harris ahead of 2024 in the silly hope President Biden will ask her to step down in favor of the Senator from Massachusetts.

All fantasies, of course, but ones they all share in a type of communal fever dream brought upon by inhaling too much anti-Black woman hatred, believing their own hype, and by collectively ignoring the simple fact that eighty-one million voters knew what they were doing when they enthusiastically voted for the Biden/Harris ticket.