Kamala and Gascon – Times Have Changed

In 2020, then Senator Kamala Harris was one of the first big names to endorse George Gascon in his run for Los Angeles County District Attorney.

It was a hearty endorsement – she even called him a “proven leader” in criminal justice reform.  Specifically, this is what she said at the time: 

“As D.A. of San Francisco, George led fights to reform the Three Strikes Law, decrease the state prison population and get people convicted of nonviolent offenses greater opportunities to get their lives back on track,” Harris said in a statement. “As D.A. of L.A. County, I know George Gascón will work every day to keep our communities safe and demand real accountability from our justice system and real justice for every Angeleno.”

Interestingly, even four years ago Harris did not bring up the disastrous Proposition 47, which Gascon helped craft and for which she wrote an astonishingly misleading ballot title for when she was Attorney General.

This time, her endorsement is nowhere to be found. As Gascon is still the same person – with the same ideology –  she supported when he was first elected, why has Harris not jumped on George’s bandwagon?

Now only a few days into her embryonic, highly manipulated, presidential campaign, Harris is already trying (ish) to tack a bit more to the center and she does not want the world to know how closely tied to the “criminal justice reform” movement she got.

Harris, when she ran for president in 2020, unnerved her progressive base by having been part of the law enforcement community. Today, she seems to be trying to walk a very tight road between good cop and bad cop.  Haris wants independents and moderates to ignore California’s descent in a criminal maelstrom in the past few years, hence stories appearing in fawning national outlets that imply that she’s really not a soft-on-crime progressive or a lock ‘em all up hard-nosed prosecutor.

The wiggle room to be able to make that argument at least plausible is that when she was San Francisco’s district attorney (2004-2011) she did actually put people in jail, even for things like marijuana possession.  She did push drug diversion programs, but it cannot be forgotten she ran to the right of incumbent DA Terence Hallinan.  Considering Hallinan’s record, that was not terribly difficult but it gave the public the impression that she would at least take crime seriously.

As state Attorney General, she stayed center-left for the most part, but did leap towards woke at least twice: once was the aforementioned misleading Proposition 47 ballot title and the second was her refusal to defend Proposition 8 (which essentially outlawed gay marriage) in court.  (Note – how is it possible that an attorney general can point blank refuse to defend, let alone enforce, a law passed by the people that they disagree with?  That seems to be rather much more than mere prosecutorial discretion.)

Her and her media minions are also trying to make sure that the public thinks Donald Trump is lying when he says she “donated” to a fund to bail people out of jail during the George Floyd riot in Minnesota. Technically, she didn’t donate cash but she did support the efforts of the Minnesota Freedom Fund – a fund that bailed out, among others, a future murderer – by tweeting “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.”

This of course is a classic “fact checker” manipulation and not based in reality.

It should be noted that when she was a DA and attorney general, she tacked to the left of what is typical for those offices at that time. It is only by viewing her actions through the current “social justice” reform kaleidoscope lens that she appears even remotely “tough on crime.”

In the coming 13 or so weeks, Harris will continue to attempt to walk the fine line she has started herself down, hence the very loud non-endorsement of Gascon.

But Harris is not alone in taking that stance. Four years ago, Gascon was just beginning to receive the massive George Soros, etc. funding and the surprise endorsements from local leaders who had backed then-DA Jackie Lacey, like the cowardly former Mayor Eric Garcetti.

 Gascon’s “supporters” page on his website is, especially compared to four years ago, almost embarrassingly thin.

He’s got a few unions, Planned Parenthood, the Los Angeles Times, the California Working Families Party (think woke heaven,)  and a smattering of other Democratic and/or Progressive groups.

As to individuals, that’s where the main difference lay.  Now, he has 29 endorsers, including three members of Congress, three state senators, a few assembly members and a hodgepodge of local elected officials.  Also, he has a few others, including actor John Legend and Patrice Cullors of Black Lives Matter fame.

In 2020, Gavin and Kamala topped an endorsement list that included Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and dozens of electeds.  Additionally, his other endorsements included, again, John Legend but also a Hollywood woke hitlist – Alyssa Milano, Patricia Arquette, former soccer player Megan Rapinoe – and endorsements from other Soros-funded DA’s like Kimm Foxx of Jussie Smollett fame out of Chicago 

Gascon’s campaign is in trouble – very far down in the polls and very far behind in fund raising compared to his challenger Nathan Hochman,   another reason why Kamala is treating Geroge like a bad odor.

In a tight presidential race, there is nothing on earth that would make Kamala endorse Gascon again, especially as she tries to dance from side to side as to the truth of her record.