Some progressives expressed their frustration and condemnation of Joe Biden’s selection of Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., as his running mate.
Ever since Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee, there has been an ongoing debate on the left as to who he could pick as his vice president that can motivate enough of the base, including supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to support the ticket in November.
On Tuesday, Biden announced that Harris would be his vice president.
Sanders himself extended his support for his Senate colleague and former 2020 rival.
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“Congratulations to @KamalaHarris, who will make history as our next Vice President. She understands what it takes to stand up for working people, fight for health care for all, and take down the most corrupt administration in history. Let’s get to work and win,” the Vermont senator tweeted.
However, several Bernie supporters and other progressive journalists slammed the Biden-Harris ticket.
Briahna Joy Gray, who previously served as Sanders’ national press secretary and has been an outspoken critic of Biden since her former boss withdrew from the race, invoked Harris’ tenure as the California attorney general.
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“We are in the midst of the largest protest movement in American history, the subject of which is excessive policing, and the Democratic Party chose a “top cop” and the author of the Joe Biden crime bill to save us from Trump. The contempt for the base is, wow,” Gray reacted.
Left-leaning journalist Michael Tracey called Biden’s selection a “nightmarishly bad pick in every way.”
“Kamala’s presidential campaign was a total humiliating disaster. One of the worst of all time, considering the amount of unearned hype she received. Did everybody miss that, or what?” Tracey asked.
“Well, there you have it. @JoeBiden gives the middle finger to progressives, #BlackLivesMatter protesters, and black voters under the age of 50,” Status Coup co-founder Jordan Chariton tweeted.
“Crime bill author Joe Biden selects ‘top cop’ Kamala Harris for VP as racial justice and police abolition protests continue across the country,” progressive journalist Walker Bragman wrote.
“Apparently the answer to a movement for black lives is someone who helped perpetuate a lock em up regime while letting the powerful in Silicon Valley and Wall Streeters like Steve Mnuchin loot with impunity. Happy 2020,” The Hill’s Krystal Ball wrote.
“Biden going with the strategically brilliant move of picking somebody for VP who is despised by both the right and the left,” progressive commentator Kyle Kulinski quipped.
“This is when everyone who either said they would never vote for Bernie in the general or argued that he could never win bc he’s a socialist Jew will attack anyone criticizing Harris for strategic or moral reasons as handing the election to Trump,” podcast host Katie Halper tweeted.
The Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur vowed to help the Biden-Harris ticket to defeat Trump in November, but also vowed to lead a primary against “whichever one of them runs in 2024.”
“It’s inconceivable they will govern as progressives & we’re not going to take this for 8 years, Uygur wrote. “For now, they’re infinitely better than Trump.”
Uygur also touted its prediction that the Democratic “establishment” wanted Harris as president all along.
“Two years ago we said on @TheYoungTurks that the establishment wanted @SenKamalaHarris as president. Here we are. She’s batter up,” the progressive host said. “Whether she ran a good campaign, the voters wanted her or not, the establishment in this system almost always gets what they want. The band plays on.”
Harris is the first Black woman on a major political party’s presidential ticket. The Biden campaign said Biden and Harris will deliver remarks together on Wednesday in Wilmington, Del.
“I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021,” Biden said in an email to supporters.
Biden also tweeted: “I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate.”
He added: “Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with [Biden’s son] Beau. I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.”
