Former CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza on Friday warned about the most harmful attacks former President Donald Trump could launch against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris backed a number of left-wing policies during her 2020 presidential campaign and picked a running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for her 2024 campaign who also has a far-left record on issues like immigration and transgender policy. Cillizza, on his YouTube channel, said Harris choosing Walz over the more moderate Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro leaves her more vulnerable to an “attack on her liberalism.” (RELATED: Harris Once Bragged About Working ‘Behind The Scenes’ To Get Sex Change Surgeries For Trans Inmates)
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“I think it would have been a smart, symbolic message to send, to pick someone like Shapiro, who’s like clearly a moderate and ran as a moderate to say, like the whole like San Francisco liberal thing, ‘Sure, you can say what you want about me, but look, my first and only big decision in this campaign is to pick a guy who’s an avowed moderate,’ right? I do think the most dangerous thing for Harris is this attack on her liberalism,” Cillizza said. ”
“She’s from the coast; she’s from San Francisco. She has a pretty liberal voting record in the Senate, and she took a number of very liberal positions — banning fracking, supporting the Green New Deal, supporting Medicare for All, a mandatory buyback of assault weapons,” he added. “She took a lot of positions in the 2020 campaign that I don’t think people have really sort of known about or detailed.”
The vice president also pushed left-wing legislation during her time in the Senate, including government workforce diversity, environmental justice, eviction pauses and work authorization for certain illegally present migrants. Harris also previously likened Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the Ku Klux Klan and praised the “Defund the Police” movement, but she has reversed some of her stances since launching her 2024 campaign.
“Now, she’s tried to walk those positions back very quickly since she became the nominee, but to me, the argument that the Trump campaign needs to make is this person is too liberal,” Cillizza said. “And Walz … I don’t think he’s terribly liberal — certainly not liberal tonally, but liberal on policy, maybe, in terms of what he’s done in Minnesota. I think putting Shapiro on the ticket, she could have pointed to that and been like, ‘Look, I want to be someone for the whole Democratic Party and the whole country.’”
Former Bill Clinton adviser Mark Penn said on Tuesday that he was “disappointed” with Harris choosing Walz as her running mate because it indicates “the left” would “control” her administration if the American people elect their ticket.
Featured Image Credit:The United States Senate – Office of Senator Kamala Harris
