As presidential candidate Joe Biden’s list of vice president potentials shrinks, California Sen. Kamala Harris’s name keeps moving to the top, according to multiple reports.
Given the current political climate, it makes sense that Biden would want to bring a black woman on board his campaign. But Harris isn’t the right person for the job. One of the reasons her presidential campaign failed was because she couldn’t reconcile her progressive platform with her past as a criminal justice hardliner. And with the criminal justice system staring down additional reform and law enforcement facing scrutiny, does Biden really want to tie his campaign to someone who was once apart of the problem?
Granted, Biden doesn’t have a stellar record on criminal justice either. His past support for the 1994 crime bill has come under a good deal of criticism recently, and rightfully so. But this is all the more reason to reject Harris. Biden has his own faults to answer for. He doesn’t need to answer for his vice president’s too.
Put aside Harris’s baggage, and her present policies are just as problematic. She’s tried to toe the line on the “defund the police” movement, arguing that activists simply want to reallocate resources elsewhere. But even this description of the movement is unpopular among a majority of the public. More than 60% of participants in a recent poll said that they would oppose defunding their police departments even “if the money is shifted to programs related to mental health, housing, and education.”
Harris’s attempt to cozy up to the Left on this issue will become an electoral problem for Biden. Already, President Trump is using “defund the police” to his advantage. And given recent polling, more U.S. citizens agree with Trump on this issue than those who don’t. If Biden wants to win in November, he’ll need to put distance between himself and this movement, and if Harris can’t do the same, then Biden will need to also put distance between his campaign and hers.
