GOP leaders go into attack mode against Harris

Congressional Republicans sprung into action Tuesday in an attempt to bring Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) down a notch after she was announced as Joe Biden’s running mate on the Democratic ticket.

House GOP leaders characterized Harris as extreme and far to the left of Biden on multiple issues, targeting her time as attorney general of California and seeking to tie her to calls to defund police.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) argued that Harris’s “record would immediately disqualify her to any moderate, steady-handed candidate,” claiming she and Biden are out of step with the general electorate.

“While serving as San Francisco district attorney and California Attorney General, Harris used her office’s prosecutorial powers for political purposes. She led assaults against conservative non-profits, energy companies, and parents, but not violent gang members or criminal illegal aliens. Now, she wants to turn America into San Francisco,” McCarthy asserted in a statement.

“As her policy stances in Washington show, she would take away private health plans, make energy more expensive, and ‘reimagine policing.’ She will not rebuild the economy, confront China, or uphold public safety.”

McCarthy also took a thinly veiled swipe at Biden’s age, saying that Harris will be the “de facto” presidential nominee while pointing to attacks against her when she sought the Democratic nomination herself.

“The pick for the 2020 Democrat Vice Presidential nomination is more consequential than in previous years. This individual represents the future of the Democrat Party and will be their de facto presidential candidate in the fall,” McCarthy said.

“According to Biden’s own assessment during the primary debates, Kamala Harris is uniquely unqualified to fill that role, let alone to lead the country. I couldn’t agree more.”

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the No. 3 GOP lawmaker in the House and highest-ranking woman in Republican leadership, accused Harris of being a “radical liberal” that won’t take a hard stance against crime.

“Kamala Harris is a radical liberal who would raise taxes, take away guns and health insurance, and explode the size and power of the federal government,” she asserted in a statement.

“She wants to recreate America in the image of what’s happening on the streets of Portland and Seattle. We won’t give her the chance.”

Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), another member of House GOP leadership, went after her record as a prosecutor.

“Joe Biden failed his first major test as a Presidential candidate by picking extreme leftist Kamala Harris, who embraces the radical defund police movement, and actually wants to slash funding for our men and women in uniform, as his running mate,” he said in a statement.

“Those extremist views have earned her the ranking as one of the most liberal members of the United States Senate. She has yet to answer the serious accusation of blocking evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row.”

The comments echo the Trump campaign’s own early attacks against the Biden-Harris ticket.

President Trump referred to the California Democrat as his “No. 1 draft pick” but took a swipe at Harris for her failed White House bid and slammed her past criticisms of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation process.

“She was expected to do well. And she ended up right around 2 percent and spent a lot of money. She had a lot of things happening. So I was a little surprised he picked her,” Trump said at a White House press conference following Biden’s announcement.

“I’ve been watching her for a long time. I was a little surprised,” Trump continued. “She was extraordinarily nasty to Judge Kavanaugh. … She was nasty to a level that was just a horrible thing, the way she treated now-Justice Kavanaugh, and I won’t forget that soon. So she did very poorly in the primaries, and now she’s chosen, so let’s see how that all works out.”