VP Harris On Video: ‘Yeah, I’m A Radical’

A resurfaced video from 2010 featuring then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris is gaining renewed attention, potentially causing concern among voters.

During a Google-sponsored event in 2010, Harris—previously considered the Senate’s most far-left member—openly described herself as a “radical.”

“I read that at the Republican Convention. He [opponent] called me a radical,” Harris said. “So I guess that’s one difference between us.”

“And, yeah, I am radical,” she affirmed. “I do believe that we need to get radical about what we are doing and take it seriously.”

WATCH:

Harris served as the District Attorney of San Francisco from January 8, 2004, to January 3, 2011. She then transitioned to the U.S. Senate, serving from January 3, 2017, to January 18, 2021. In 2019, she was rated as the most far-left senator, surpassing even Bernie Sanders (I-VT), according to GovTrack’s scorecard.

Now, however, Harris appears to be shifting her stance on several key issues that were significant during her 2020 presidential campaign. Critics argue that this is an attempt to rebrand herself to appeal to a broader voter base as she becomes the likely nominee for the 2024 election.

As reported by The New York Times, Harris previously held strong left-leaning positions on issues such as energy, climate, firearms, and immigration. Her current campaign, however, is attempting to portray her as more moderate, while Republican operatives are unearthing numerous past interviews and video clips to highlight her original positions.

Republican candidate Dave McCormick, challenging Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, has underscored Harris’s controversial stances through a compelling montage. The video features Harris advocating for extreme policies, including open borders and a federal firearm confiscation program termed a “mandatory buyback.”

McCormick’s ad also includes clips of Harris supporting the Green New Deal, banning fracking and offshore drilling, single-payer health insurance, voting rights for violent felons, and a stringent climate policy aimed at reducing red meat consumption.

Republican strategists, such as Brad Todd in Pennsylvania, are leveraging Harris’s far-left record, highlighting her past as the most progressive U.S. Senator before she joined Joe Biden as his running mate after exiting the 2020 Democratic primaries early.

“The archive is deep,” Todd noted, according to the Times. “We will run out of time before we run out of video clips of Kamala Harris saying wacky California liberal things. I’m just not sure that the rest of this campaign includes much besides that.”

The Times elaborated on McCormack's montage details:

She said then that she opposed fracking; would “think about” abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency; called the idea of adding more police officers “wrongheaded thinking”; entertained the idea of allowing felons to vote; supported a “mandatory buyback program” for some guns; and called for the elimination of private health insurance.

Fracking, in particular, is a challenging issue for Harris. Banning it was part of her energy platform in the 2020 primary race. However, fracking remains a crucial component of the economy in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state this year.

Former President Donald Trump, her likely GOP opponent if she secures her party’s nomination, is also capitalizing on her previous left-wing positions.

“She pledged to ban fracking — no fracking, oh, that’s going to do well in Pennsylvania, isn’t it?” Trump remarked at a rally in Minnesota. “Remember, Pennsylvania, I said it. She wants no fracking. She’s on tape. The beautiful thing about modern technology is when you say something, you’re screwed if it’s bad.”