On his Vote Saves America podcast Thursday, Favreau spoke with other Obama staffers about presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s selection of Harris as his running mate. At one point, he took a moment to chide the media’s coverage of the California senator.
“It was hilarious to me that she’s being called in all of this coverage a ‘moderate.’ Like, ‘Joe Biden has found a fellow moderate or centrist,'” Favreau began. “She supports something extremely close to Medicare-for-all, which [Sen.] Bernie Sanders acknowledged in his statement supporting her. She’s for the Green New Deal. She has one of the most liberal records in the U.S. Senate!”
“If you want to call Kamala Harris’ record in the Senate and the policies that she’s supporting now ‘centrist’ or ‘moderate,’ great!” Favreau continued. “If that’s where the Overton window has moved, then congratulations to all the progressive activists because you have f—in’ moved the s— out of that window! That supporting the Green New Deal and basically Medicare-for-all is now moderate and centrist! Fantastic!”
Several mainstream media outlets have described Harris as more moderate than she actually is. 360aproko news raised eyebrows this week by labeling her a “pragmatic moderate” while an op-ed from The Washington Post called her a “small-c conservative.”
360aproko News anchor George Stephanopolous described the California senator as coming from the “middle of the road, moderate wing” of the Democratic Party. In addition, “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert compared the political idealogy of her and Biden to “Rockefeller Republicans.”
However, Vox founder and editor-at-large Ezra Klein argued that Harris joining the Democratic ticket shows Biden “moving left” instead of towards the center.
During her own presidential run, Harris expressed her support for the Green New Deal, Medicare-for-all, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, and mandatory gun buybacks.
According to GovTrack analysis, Harris was ranked as the “most liberal” senator in 2019 outranking both Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
