Left-wing activist Al Sharpton lamented Vice President Kamala Harris’ assignments given to her by President Joe Biden, saying the United States’ first black vice president isn’t being used to her full potential despite her underwhelming performance and various gaffes since taking office.
“I want to see her be used more effectively, and I think her being in charge of voting was important, but I question her other assignments,” Sharpton said in a Tuesday interview with the far-left website, The Root.
You might remember, when Joe Biden said that he was going to appoint a woman to run with him and appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court, I challenged him and said, “Why don’t you have a Black woman run like Stacey (Abrams) or Kamala?” and I had him on my MSNBC show and confronted him. So in many ways, we were the ones who stood up for her to be in that position and we want her to have a strong position, not marginal positions. I think that he did the right thing giving her voting, but I think he should continue to give her more positions of power.
Sharpton said he would also like to see Biden direct Harris to oversee criminal justice proposals, including the George Floyd bill, which would ban law enforcement from chokeholds and no-knock warrants, along with end qualified immunity for cops.
“She was a prosecutor and a state attorney general, so she knows the criminal justice system and understands both sides. She is also a Black woman in the time of Breonna Taylor and other Black women who have suffered racism, so I think that she should have those assignments and be able to get certain things to Congress,” the longtime activist said.
Sharpton’s comments follow reports revealing that Harris hired two public relations gurus as part of an effort to repair her “long-term planning” outlook.
The Washington Examiner reported:
Harris has hired two veteran communications aides to help finesse messaging and long-term planning after a rocky first nine months in office for the second-in-command. Lorraine Voles, a crisis communications expert, and Adam Frankel, a former Obama speechwriter, worked for Harris during the presidential transition and have extensive experience crafting messages from the White House and the corporate world.
The hires coincided with Harris’ less than stellar polling numbers, which show the vice president below 50 percent in the wake of her inability to slow the flow of migrants from crossing into the U.S. from Mexico — A task given to her by Biden in the spring.
Earlier October, Harris’ team had to do “damage control” due to an incident in which she appeared to nod in agreement and praised a student who accused Israel of committing “ethnic genocide.”
Politico reported:
Harris’ senior staff contacted the influential Democratic Majority for Israel to clean up remarks she made Wednesday at George Mason University where Harris was visiting a classroom of students.
“We were pleased Vice President Harris’s senior staff reached out to us today to confirm what we already knew: Her ‘commitment to Israel’s security is unwavering,’” said Mark Mellman, who is president of the organization.
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