Why is Al Sharpton batting for Kamala Harris?
It's excruciating to watch the irrelevant strive for publicity by gravitating toward any recording device to make provocative statements. Reverend Al Sharpton certainly belongs to this group of démodé, publicity-seeking individuals. He was a pioneer in his field of racial demagoguery, a man who persistently and unhesitatingly played the race card to enrich himself.
Today, the likes of BLM have cornered the market and made him obsolete. Perhaps in an effort to reclaim relevance, Rev. Al Sharpton detailed his thoughts on Kamala Harris's job responsibilities so far in an exclusive interview for The Root.
As he always does, Sharpton began by taking credit for Biden choosing Kamala as his running mate:
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 a marginal position.
Sharpton continued that he wanted to see Kamala placed in charge of resolving race-based issues.
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. I would like the president to put her in charge of the voting package and criminal justice.
Also, he needs to put Kamala at the forefront of the George Floyd bill that he promised to get through. 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.
He ended by committing to "fight for her [Kamala] to be in a position of power because we want to see her thrive, and I will communicate that to the president within the next thirty days."
On the surface, this may seem another publicity-gaining exercise for Sharpton.
Sharpton speaks to the media following the Chauvin trial verdict.
However, it could also be seen as an affront to Kamala to presume that since she is a woman "of color," she is suited only for race-related issues.
Also, pushing for her to be in a position of power is preposterous. Kamala is the V.P., which makes her the second most powerful human in America. She can use her power to get what she wants. She is not a junior intern who needs a mentor to promote her.
Doesn't Sharpton know that more assignments are assigned only to those employees who are capable, adept, and demonstrably enthusiastic?
How has Kamala fared so far?
Biden tapped Kamala to tackle the migration challenge at the U.S. southern border. She began with her passive-aggressive resistance to the job by taking ages to visit the border, for which she was criticized by both sides.
In her infamous interview with Lester Holt, Kamala struggled to answer a basic question of why she hadn't visited the border. She traveled to the border only when President Trump announced that he would be visiting. Her visits to Guatemala and Mexico yielded nothing.
The continued influx of illegal aliens proves that she failed quite miserably at her assignment.
Following the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, she once again struggled to answer elementary questions, and her poorly timed cackles continued. A BBC correspondent rightly observed that Kamala made America appear "incompetent, uncaring and unreliable."
Kamala recently appeared in a cringe-inducing video on World Space Day with child actors that had her hamming to the hilt, mouthing poorly written lines about "craters on the moon."
To sum it up: Kamala is not just a poor performer, but also an awful communicator who cannot even function as a spokesperson for her government.
The Biden administration is already suffering from myriad crises.
Why on Earth would they assign Kamala more work to worsen their catastrophes?
It has to be remembered that Kamala became the V.P. despite not winning a single state during the primary, which included her home state. She clearly has very little appeal even among her Democrat voters.
The only reason Biden's handlers chose Kamala is that they saw in her someone who was so inept, unlikable, and amateurish that she made Biden appear amiable and brighter and hence unimpeachable.
Recently, there have been reports that Kamala is unhappy not to have all-star portfolios and of being told to fix the border crisis.
Kamala also appears to be putting some distance between herself and Biden, who is suffering from record-low poll numbers. It has also been observed that Biden and Harris had 38 events together in February while just 7 in October.
The question remains: is Sharpton merely seeking publicity, or is there something more afoot?
Whenever any remarks emanate from the likes of Sharpton out of the blue, the question that must always be asked is, why now?
The easy answer is to grab some headlines.
But another possible explanation is that Kamala's handlers see the myriad failures of the Biden administration and are looking to find a way for Kamala to shirk all blame and responsibility.
By asking to see Kamala used more effectively and put on the forefront, Sharpton is also saying she doesn't have much to do in the administration, hence she is not to blame for the various crises.
Sharpton may be laying the foundation for Kamala to claim she was not assigned any top profiles or she was set up to fail because of her race.
It is not beyond the realm of possibility that it will be claimed much later that she wasn't allowed the freedom to handle the border crisis, which is why she failed. Kamala may even make the charge of misogyny.
There have been rumors that plans are being laid by some in the White House to get rid of Kamala. Sharpton's remarks could be seen as a coded threat to Biden — i.e., "If you even think of removing her, I'm just waiting to play the race card and destroy you."
Perhaps Sharpton has been promised something major in the future Harris administration on the condition that he make noise about Kamala?
We will never know. However, in all this political skullduggery and instability, and with myriad never-before-seen crises plaguing the nation, its future seems more uncertain than a kite flying in a cyclone.
Photo credit: YouTube screen grab.
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