Tag Archive: Kamala Harris

What is Elizabeth Warren doing?

Newly combative Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren

On Wednesday night, Elizabeth Warren earned rave reviews for her assertive, combative performance at the Democratic Party presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada. Warren spent most of her time going after Mike Bloomberg, and by many accounts, Warren eviscerated Bloomberg. But the question becomes, to what end? Warren was considered to be in the “left lane” of the nomination contest, and that lane is dominated by Bernie Sanders, yet Warren barely attacked Sanders. Likewise, Warren (and to be fair, her competitors onstage) barely laid a glove on Donald Trump, who, after all, is supposed to be the subject of their competition. So, what is Elizabeth Warren doing, and did it help her candidacy?

Kamala Harris quits presidential race: what went wrong?

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris abandoned her efforts to win the Democratic Party presidential nomination for 2020. In an email to supporters, Harris wrote:

I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.

On paper at least, the highly accomplished Harris should have been one of the favorites to win the Democratic nomination, and, for a time, she was in the top tier, polling at 15 percent. So what went wrong?

Democrats go on offense at CNN “Climate Crisis” town hall

Earth on fire

CNN aired a seven-hour marathon town hall on the “Climate Crisis” yesterday evening. The event featured the top 10 presidential candidates for the Democratic Party nomination, chosen using the Democratic Party’s criteria for its presidential debates.

The first CNN host of the evening, Wolf Blitzer, mentioned Hurricane Dorian in the first sixty seconds of the town hall, and he and the subsequent hosts returned to current reports about the hurricane during the program. Most questions came from the audience, both those in the room and others via satellite from various locations. Many of the questioners were environmental activists, students, or academics, and most such questions were very specific and pointed.

Here are some of the highlights of what each candidate, in order of appearance, had to say:

Trump impeachment process begins to take shape

Sign from July 2, 2017 Impeachment March

One of the biggest political events to take place last week was U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren‘s announcement that, after reading the Mueller Report, she believes that the U.S. House “should initiate impeachment proceedings” against Donald Trump. Here is Warren’s tweet containing this announcement, which Warren reiterated during subsequent tweets and television interviews:

Revenge of the Democratic moderates

Vice-President Joe Biden meets Pope Francis, 2016

If you follow the mainstream media, Fox News or liberal blogs, you might think that all activity on the Democratic side is at the liberal end of the spectrum, with attention placed on new House members like the female minority trio of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilan Omar. You might think such activity and attention also translates directly to the field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. However, the person who currently tops the Democratic presidential polls is Joe Biden, who is considered a moderate and definitely not a fresh face. Although the media would portray this as a Democratic Party “rift,” it’s more like a disconnect. Folks following the latest media shiny objects might have forgotten, for example, that the last time the Democrats nominated an all-out liberal for president was U.S. Senator George McGovern in 1972, and he went down to one of the greatest defeats in presidential election history.

James Comey’s description of Trump akin to a Mafia Don

James Comey’s attitude before Congress today

Today, former FBI Director James Comey gave his anxiously-awaited testimony before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence since Donald Trump fired him in May. Comey’s testimony, including his written statement that was released yesterday, was stunning in several respects, from the circumstances of his firing, to the Mafia-like treatment Comey says  Trump gave him regarding the ongoing investigation of former Trump National Security Advisor (and Trump presidential campaign official) Michael Flynn over Flynn’s contacts with Russian officials. Even people who were hyping Comey’s upcoming testimony in advance were perhaps surprised at some of what Comey said about Trump, including that Trump is lying about several Trump/Russia matters.