It would appear to some that Vice President Kamala Harris has traded up her political mentor – to the one and only Rev Al Sharpton. Dating former mayor, Willie Brown, helped pave her way to the US Senate, but only Al and a few of his friends can propel her into the White House. So, you may see them appearing together around the Swamp and at high-profile gatherings like the National Action Network (NAN) annual conference. This past week, community and political leaders gathered to discuss all things related to the black demographic achieving more milestones.
The theme for the event is Dealing with the Dream Under Threat. Attending besides Harris were Biden Cabinet Secretaries Gina Raimondo, Pete Buttigieg, and Alejandro N. Mayorkas, along with celebrities Earvin “Magic” Johnson and actors Tyler Perry and Kerry Washington.
“I read in the Bible a story of a woman named Esther,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of NAN, while introducing Harris. In brief, Esther was the replacement queen (Esther 2:2-4) for King Xerxes. She was one of the hundreds of young and beautiful young women that a Eunuch groomed for the job. And when Xerxes selected her, she had his ear.
Harris has seemingly charmed the Reverend. He continued the introduction: “Both had the ear of the head of state.” He continued, “She was built for this. She was born for this. She was raised for this.” No one in the audience seemed to catch the irony.
But Harris still took the stage to please the Democratic presidential kingmaker.
Harris’ Campaign Speech
She started with a giggle. Then thanked the leaders and the participants for sharing their vision. And began with, “Rev, I love you.”
Kamala Harris (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Her remarks consisted mainly of the same old soundbites: Democracy is under attack, “hard-won freedoms” are being taken away at an alarming rate, and no one can trust the MAGA folks now known as “extremists.”
“Just look at where we are in this country: Extremists across our country attack the freedom to vote. They ban books. They attack women to make decisions about her own body.” More cases of contrariety, as the last time there was a Republican majority in Congress and one in the Oval Office, 2018, nothing really got done then either.
Harris continued the tirade on conservatives by using folksy words “Don’t trust the okey-doke,” reminding people that freedom does not include erasing history or censorship of books.
Once Harris delivered her opening salvo, she narrowed her focus to gun control and voting rights. Making her case to the faithful, she reminded them that gun violence is an epidemic and not equal in the black community. She reminded us, “Black people are only 13% of America’s population. But more than 60% are homicides by gun violence.”
She is correct: gun violence among black adults and children is too high. But the VP did not delve much deeper and left out the part where the majority of “violent crimes against blacks are committed by other blacks.” And that’s according to a 2018 Department of Justice report. But, again, the numbers do not lie: “70.3% of their offenders [people committing violent crimes against blacks] were black, and 10.6% of their offenders were white.”
But with the next pivot towards “change comes in many ways,” she was on voting rights, a task she was assigned, along with illegal immigration. That subject did not come up at NAN. But ascension to the West Wing entered the conversation: “Because people stood in long lines and voted, Joe Biden and I went to the White House.” Finally, she rattled off more numbers of races won in 2022 and ended with, “When we vote, we win.”
Ending on a Mediocre Note
Harris has gotten better at delivering remarks, and as campaign speeches go, this speech was more of the same message with less babbling. In 25 minutes, she repeated Joe Biden’s talking points, invoked the beloved Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, and did so competently. But when you think about it, perhaps the Esther in this story is Joe Biden, and he finally has his VP’s ear, no matter how he got there.
