Biden's VP Pick Targeted Pro-Lifers, Covered Up Sex Abuse

By David Nussman
Church Militant
August 12, 2020

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/bidens-vp-pick-pro-lifers

Joe Biden's running mate has a history of targeting Catholics and pro-lifers.

Senator Kamala Harris is Biden's vice-presidential candidate, the Biden campaign announced Tuesday.

Previously, Harris ran against Biden in the primaries, until she dropped out of the race Dec. 3.

Harris, much like "fake Catholic" Biden, supports abortion and same-sex "marriage."

When she was California's attorney general (2011–2017), Harris helped prosecute David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), whose undercover videos exposed the abortion industry's practice of selling aborted babies' body parts.

Daleiden has undergone years of legal battle since releasing the undercover videos in 2015.

In May, Daleiden filed suit against Harris and Planned Parenthood, alleging Harris was part of an effort to target CMP for political reasons.

The lawsuit stated, "This complaint seeks justice for a brazen, unprecedented and ongoing conspiracy to selectively use California's video recording laws as a political weapon to silence disfavored speech."

Kristan Hawkins, president of pro-life group Students for Life of America, commented on Harris' nomination, "She wants to force all private insurances and employers to cover abortion and contraception, even over people's moral objections, such as the nuns in the Little Sisters of the Poor, who twice had to fight for their conscience rights before the Supreme Court."

Hawkins also stated, "As a California attorney general who took campaign funds from Planned Parenthood, Sen. Harris arranged for an armed raid on the home of pro-life journalist David Daleiden, who had dared to document the abortion Goliath's illegal trafficking of aborted infants."

In addition to bias against pro-lifers, Sen. Harris has also been accused of bias against faithful Catholics.

She grilled a judicial nominee in December 2018 for his involvement in the Knights of Columbus — a Catholic men's fraternal group.

In questions submitted to Brian Buescher for his judicial nomination, Harris called the Knights of Columbus "an all-male society," slamming the organization for maintaining Catholic teachings on the definition of marriage and the sanctity of human life.

Throughout her political career, Harris has touted her record of prosecuting sex crimes in San Francisco, where she was district attorney (DA) in 2003–2011.

But victims of Catholic clerical sex abuse say Harris neglected to follow through with their abuse allegations, despite an abundance of evidence gathered by the previous DA, Terence Hallinan.

Abuse victim Joey Piscitelli, for example, says Harris "did nothing" as the district attorney of San Francisco after he wrote to her about his molestation at the hands of a local priest.  

Five years later, Piscitelli wrote to Harris, again urging her to assist alleged sexual assault victims by releasing records of their abuse lawsuits that had been compiled by Hallinan.

But Harris again failed to respond. Her refusal to release the records was seen as significant, as Hallinan's team was gathering evidence as part of a wider investigation into clerical sex abuse. His inquiry lapsed when Harris became the new DA.    

In June 2019, the Intercept released a graphic video detailing Harris' dubious record on clerical sex abuse.

In a 2010 letter to then-DA Harris, one abuse victim stated:

Don't you feel a sense of responsibility?

Many members of the press have asked you to release the documents and the names, and you refuse. We all know you are not refusing to list the names and documents because you are protecting children. We all know you can redact the names of the children from the documents. What is vital is that you help to make those names of child sex offenders transparent, because Bp. [Hugh] Niederauer of San Francisco, and Cdl. [William] Levada, certainly are not being transparent.

While Harris is accused of dropping the ball on clerical sex abuse, she has also been accused of being overly rigorous about prosecuting marijuana offenses.

In the Democratic primary debates, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said of Harris, "She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana."

This was referencing an interview Harris had given to a hip-hop radio show, where she seemingly claimed to smoke marijuana in her college years while listening to Tupac and Snoop Dogg — even though Harris graduated college in 1986, years before either of those rappers released any albums.

According to government records, Harris oversaw about 1,900 marijuana convictions in San Francisco — but those defending Harris point out few of those convicted were put in prison.

In an opinion piece, CNN political commentator David Axelrod called Harris "the 'do no harm' candidate, unlikely to thrill or outrage many."

Axelrod, formerly a campaign strategist for President Barack Obama, went on to write, "She may not seem the most comfortable fit as a governing partner, a quality Biden said he was seeking, but Harris was viewed as the safest pick to win in November."