VP Kamala Harris comes out swinging
On May 3, after Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the leaked draft majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, Vice President Kamala Harris wasted no time issuing a strong official condemnation. Harris pointed out that in addition to protecting a woman’s right to choose an abortion, Roe “at its root” is also about protecting privacy.
Harris warned that without Roe, every American’s life is at risk. She accused Republican lawmakers across the country of weaponizing the law to “punish women” by removing their legal ability to make decisions about their own bodies. Therefore, she cautioned, it is only a matter of time that this erosion of privacy leads to a government that blocks all of us from making a range of personal decisions. “This is the time to fight for women and for our country with everything we have,” Harris declared.
Fortunately, Harris, the first female Vice President in American history, is a core part of “everything we have.” After President Joe Biden, Harris is the Democratic presidential frontrunner who “is best positioned to take the party’s mantle,” according to a new polling analysis by Politico. It’s no wonder that Harris’ predecessor, an unabashed misogynist with presidential aspirations, is going after her. However, as with most everything Mike Pence does these days, he’s failing.
Speaking in Washington, D.C. this week, Harris pointed out that in 13 states, women would lose access to abortion immediately if Roe gets overturned. She lambasted the Republican leaders behind this egregious assault: “How dare they? How dare they tell a woman what she can do and cannot do with her own body? How dare they?”
Pence, whose sycophantic loyalty to Trump nearly got him killed by an insurrectionist mob at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, “fired back” (as the media describes it) at Harris by pointing to “generations of mothers enduring heartbreaking loss” from abortions since 1973, when Roe was decided. “Madame Vice President, how dare you?”
Pence’s lame attempt at turning the tables on Harris comes from a smug sycophant who felt entitled to repeatedly interrupt her at the 2020 vice presidential debate to a point where Harris had to stop and call him out. “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking!” she asserted. Harris will not be silenced, and neither will we. This is indeed the time to fight with everything we have.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month