Vice President Kamala Harris returned to her home state on Wednesday night to campaign with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), as he faces a recall election that is less than a week away. Local NBC news outlet KCRA reported she was over an hour late.
WATCH LIVE: Vice President Harris campaigns for California Gov. Gavin Newsom ahead of the state's recall election. https://t.co/ssIHaXJ4Cx
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 8, 2021
The vice president emphasized it was "really important" that she return to California to campaign for Newsom, and the "courage" the governor had in the early days of the pandemic who "made the hard decisions in a moment of crisis that was unpredictable."
Harris also promoted Newsom's concern with working people when it comes to worker's compensation and paid family leave.
She also told the crowd that not only was the recall about California but also "about a whole lot more," with Harris warning that "they're thinking if they can get this done in California, they can go around the country and do this," also going on to say a short time later that "they think they can do this anywhere."
Harris repeatedly brought it back to a national issue, including how the recall election was "a statement about who we are as a nation."
She claimed that those behind the recall effort were doing so because of Newsom's stance on abortion, worker's rights, healthcare, and immigration, saying "these are the issues at play." Harris also criticized the recall effort as going after Newsom "because of his vision, it is because of the agenda, it is because who he fights for."
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The vice president never did mention though how Newsom has been criticized for his handling of the pandemic, or many of the other reasons mentioned in the list from RecallGavin2020.com. Of all the reasons listed on the site, and there are over 60 of them, none of them have to do with the issue of abortion, which Harris mentioned throughout her remarks.
As Leah reported, even Newsom himself acknowledged there will be policy decisions he'll regret if he is recalled, citing an interview published earlier this month with The Atlantic.
While Harris had been previously scheduled to campaign for Newsom, she canceled that event in light of the terrorist attack at the Kabul airport which killed 13 U.S. service members.
Yet the situation in Afghanistan has far from improved. Many California students and their families are still trapped in Afghanistan, as was highlighted in a statement tweeted out by CAGOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson.
“One thing @VP & @GavinNewsom have in common is that they have utterly failed those they were elected to serve, & voters won’t forget it. On Sept 14, Californians will vote to recall Gavin Newsom, set new priorities & fix out broken state.” CAGOP Chairwoman @millanpatterson pic.twitter.com/f7Dz6Jrr91
— CAGOP (@CAGOP) September 8, 2021
As Houston Keene reported for Fox News, the RNC has taken out digital ads, many of them appearing on billboard trucks, to slam Harris for her decision to campaign.
Arnold Schwarzenegger shared his thoughts about the recall during a CNN podcast, Total Recall: California’s Political Circus. Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California in 2003 as the only person to successfully win a recall there.
He said the situation for Newsom is "very dangerous" for Newsom, noting how "there's millions of people out there that are dissatisfied, dissatisfied with the way the corona was handled, dissatisfied with the fires."
President Joe Biden is expected to campaign for the governor early next week.
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