What Hillary Clinton Really Thinks Of Kamala Harris
When Kamala Harris was being vetted as Democratic candidate for president, she schmoozed with Hillary Clinton's donors (via Observer). "Have you heard her speak? It feels very Hillary Like," a 2018 Vanity Fair piece quoted a male, Democratic strategist.
When Harris began to run for the Democratic nomination, she named her sister, Maya Harris, as her campaign manager. Maya Harris was Clinton's former senior advisor. Harris' General Counsel, Marc Elias, was Clinton's former campaign attorney (via Newsday). Could it be, mused a Newsday commentary, that "the most apt description of Democrat Sen. Kamala Harris in the 2020 POTUS race is... Hillary Rodham Clinton?" Now that she's on the ticket as Joe Biden's Vice President, where do she and Hillary Clinton stand?
If Hillary Clinton's race was historic, Harris' might be more so. She's the daughter of immigrants. She is already the first Black woman, first Asian American woman, and the first graduate of a historically Black college or university on a major party's presidential ticket. If her ticket wins, she'll become the United States' first female vice president (via The Atlantic).
And (whether or not the two are the twins the internet thinks they are) Harris has Clinton's unbridled support. On August 11, Clinton tweeted that Harris' nomination was "History in the making." She further observed to the Twitterverse, "She's already proven herself to be an incredible public servant and leader... Please join me in having her back and getting her elected."
Why Clinton hopes that Harris will get 'less sexist, less sensationalist, and less trivializing' treatment
If Clinton's August 11 tweets were telling, her comments on an online news forum just two days later were more so. "I hope," said Clinton (via The New York Times), "especially with Kamala on the ticket, that the coverage of women running for president or vice president will be less sexist, less sensationalist, and less trivializing." Clinton's words hit a little too close to home. While women on both sides of the aisle are running for a record number of congressional races (via NPR and Vox, that doesn't mean things are getting significantly easier for them.
As The New York Times points out, like Clinton, Kamala Harris has already been targeted in conservative media as "immodest," "ambitious," and "unlikeable." Also, President Donald Trump has attacked her as a "bad version of Hillary" (via New York Post).
And analysts across the board doubt that things are going to get much better. Amanda Litman, Hillary Clinton's ex-email director, told The Atlantic that she thinks Harris is going to suffer such racist and sexist attacks that she "wouldn't wish that job on [her] worst enemy." Treva Lindsey, associate professor of women's, gender, and sexuality studies thinks similarly. She told Politico that while Harris' "attire may not receive the scrutiny Secretary Hillary Clinton's did ... her demeanor, her delivery, and her personal life will be under the same microscope as other women who ran for executive office."