Democratic lawmakers are fiercely defending Vice President Kamala Harris as she takes on former President Donald Trump, despite her record as the ‘most liberal’ senator.
Republicans are attacking the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, and former California senator, as a ‘radical’ San Francisco progressive.
They say she’s even more progressive than self-proclaimed Democratic socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
And millions are fueling attack ads reminding American voters how she backed health care for illegal immigrants, banning fracking and eliminating private health insurance.
However, her former Democratic colleagues are insisting she’s always been a ‘centrist’ and moderate.
‘Her record is very centrist,’ Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told DailyMail.com this week.
After Vice President Kamala Harris’s surprising rise to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, her former colleagues in the Senate, where she served from 2017 – 2021, have been touting her centrist and presidential-like political record. Republicans, meanwhile, have been quick to call her a radical San Francisco progressive who had the furthest left Senate record
‘She’s in favor of fighting climate change. She wants to protect a woman’s right to decide when and whether to have children. She is in favor of cutting prices for groceries and gas. It’s all pretty mainstream,’ Blumenthal said of her record.
When pressed on whether or not she is more liberal than Biden, however, he responded: ‘I don’t use those labels.’
‘I think she’s been an extraordinarily pragmatic leader who has delivered some of the most bipartisan bills we’ve seen come out of the Congress since LBJ,’ said New Jersey Democrat Sen. Cory Booker, who ran against Harris and Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
Harris laughed off GovTrack’s rating of her record as the ‘most liberal’ senator when she was asked about it during a 60 Minutes interview in 2020. She blamed then-VP candidate Mike Pence for bringing it up in their debate at the time.
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin told DailyMail.com he would not consider Harris to be to the left of Biden, but added ‘It depends on the subject.’
As for whether Harris is as ‘extreme’ as Republicans make her out to be, Durbin responded: ‘I mean, we’re running out of descriptors that are supposed to strike fear in the hearts of America.’
‘It isn’t gonna work,’ he continued.
Georgia Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock told Daily Mail, ‘I’ll let the pundits through the punditry,’ but said Republicans have not quite found a way to attack Harris, and calling her extreme and ‘radical’ is not working.
‘I think they are trying to find their sea legs while they figure out how to run a criminal against the prosecutor.’
When asked whether he sees Harris of being more left than the president, Warnock responded: ‘This election is not about right and left, it’s about right and wrong.’
Democrat senators such as Blumenthal and Booker gave Harris’s record glowing reviews, saying she has a moderate record. Booker even compared her record to former President Lyndon B. Johnson – a famous centrist Democrat
Republicans claim that Harris’s record in the Senate is more left of self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders
Veteran Senator Durbin said that he would not generally consider Harris more liberal than Biden, but it depends on the subject
Montana Democrat Sen. John Tester, who is running in a tight race with a Republican challenger in a red-leaning state, said ‘s***, I don’t know,’ when asked whether the president or vice president is more politically extreme.
The Montanan has yet to endorse Harris for president and is thought to be holding out because of the politically treacherous implications backing her could have on his reelection campaign.
‘That’s hard to say,’ Michigan Democrat Sen. Gary Peters, told Daily Mail. ‘They’re they’re both ideally suited. One is to be president and the other is the vice president. So they’ve done an outstanding job.’
Republicans, meanwhile, declared Harris the more liberal of the two White House executives.
‘ Kamala Harris is definitely more liberal,’ Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told DailyMail.com. ‘Just look back at her campaign for president in 2020. She is about as radical as they come.’
Still, she is responsible for the Biden-Harris White House policies too, he said.
‘ Joe Biden just reminds everybody of their, their uncle. So he’s less threatening. His policies, of course, their policies have been the same. They’ve been administration policies.’
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said: ‘When Kamala Harris was in the Senate she was voted or ranked as the most liberal member of the United States Senate.’
‘Her voting record in the Senate is more liberal than Bernie Sanders.’
‘And you say why? Look at some of the things that she’s proposed: eliminating private health insurance in America, yet giving free health care to illegal immigrants.’
The Wyoming Republican called Harris a ‘dangerously liberal’ San Francisco Democrat, adding she is ‘equally as incompetent as Biden’ and ‘equally wears the mantle’ for high inflation and allowing 10 million migrants to cross into the U.S.
‘Well, in the [2020] primaries, she was more left,’ Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham,R-S.C., told DailyMail.com. ‘When she was running for president, she jumped on every liberal horse coming down the trail.’
‘I don’t think Joe signed up for the Medicare for all or the Green New Deal,’ he added.
