Kamala Harris.. An unordinary lady in the White House

Kamala Harris.. An unordinary lady in the White House
2021-01-24T19:51:17+00:00

Shafaq News / Kamala Harris's entry into the White House as the new vice-president is more than a traditional protocol event for the transition of power in Washington.

Kamala Harris did not come to her position by chance. Her long political career, down to her battle with her rival, Biden, for the Democratic nomination, her withdrawal, and then Biden's subsequent choice for her to be on his side in his battle to get Donald Trump out of the White House. all aspects that cannot be overlooked when we saw Harris take the oath of office.

It became clear that Biden made the best choice when he chose her – as he pledged months earlier to choose a woman to be vice president - to run with him in the race to oust Trump, and together, they succeeded in November 2020 election.

Kamala Harris achieved what Hillary Clinton could not. Hillary was in the White House as President Bill Clinton's wife, and then fought for the presidency nearly five years ago - based on her experience at the State Department - but failed. Harris will be the first woman to enter the White House in her political position as vice president of the United States.

Harris is also the first brown-skinned woman to hold the post. She is a California native; her mother is a Hindu immigrant from India, while her father is from Jamaica. In the context of longstanding ethnic discrimination, Kamala Harris was raised in a black cultured environment.

That gave her the advantage of being bet on by Biden, who entered the White House before her alongside the first black president in American history. Biden, as expected, attracted the majority of black voters who participated in the last election. Her nomination came just weeks after the crime that shook the American society when black citizen, George Floyd, choked under a white American policeman's knee, sparking outrage in America against Trump and racism.

In addition to her dark skin, her Asian origins also gave her the advantage of grooming immigrants of Asian descent, a large segment of American society, who, like black people, also suffer discrimination and racism.

Biden's bet on Harris succeeded in attracting a large segment of women voters who typically vote more than men - in the last elections, more than 70 million votes belonged to women.

Kamala Harris has all the strength points Biden hoped for, not only her appearance, color, and gender but also her career in American domestic politics. It has enabled her to play this role - with her long struggle through the power and law frameworks - to work against racial discrimination. However, she has been criticized by the more radical progressive movement within the Democratic Party for not doing enough in this context.

In addition to her coming to Washington from California, a Democratic party stronghold, she was the first public prosecutor with brown skin for California and the first South Asian woman to win a Senate seat.

Trump himself accused her of being vile as soon as Biden nominated her. She has done much to criticize the Republican president for his many failures. Especially on domestic issues such as racial discrimination after George Floyd's death and the COVİD-19 pandemic - which has claimed more than 400,000 Americans so far. Two issues that Trump seemed to be handling with disdain and arrogance.

So by winning and taking the oath, Kamala Harris has entered American history, awaiting her many White House tests.

Harris received her degree from Howard University – federally chartered historically black university in Washington D.C. - and studied law at Hastings College at the University of California. She became a prosecutor and served as Attorney General of San Francisco, before being elected prosecutor for California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. She won a seat in the Senate, becoming the second brown-skinned senator in the United States.

Despite her experience dealing with many domestic U.S. issues, Kamala Harris has no similar foreign policy experience - a feature that Biden could make up for. But due to his age, she may often find herself confronted with global media cameras and forced to attend - on his behalf –important international conferences and summits.

If Biden is going to rely on Kamala Harris to take on many tasks and burdens on his behalf, Harris is likely to be under the international attention and media's spotlight.

When Biden nominated her last summer, she tweeted attacking Trump for announcing U.S. foreign policy decisions on Twitter, "We cannot manage our foreign policy through tweets. In military matters, we have to consult with our military leaders or at least communicate with our allies around the world".

She is a supporter of the Iran nuclear deal and believes that Trump's withdrawal is detrimental to U.S. interests and national security and has raised fears of a catastrophic conflict in the Middle East.

When a U.S. aircraft killed the Quds Force commander, Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.) commander, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, Harris took part in a move in the Senate to pass a resolution banning Trump from using Defense Department funds to wage war on Iran, saying Congress should shoulder its constitutional responsibilities to prevent instability in the Middle East.

As for Iraq, there are no prominent positions announced about her. However, she will likely go along with Biden on this issue as he has extensive and deep relations with Iraqi and Kurdish leaders - since he was in charge of the Iraq file during the Obama era.

She supports the U.S. troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of invasion, against the Yemen war, criticizes Trump's exit from the Paris climate accord, rejects the clashes with NATO allies as Trump did, takes a cautious stance on Russia, and censures Trump's aggressive policies with China in the trade war.

On the other hand, she is a supporter of keeping Israel militarily superior to the region's countries. Harris voted in the Senate on a resolution celebrating the 50th anniversary of the "Reunification of Jerusalem". She also voted in favor of a Senate resolution opposing a U.N. Security Council resolution (2334) condemning Israel for its settlement policy in the West Bank. Like most Democrats, she also opposed Israel's plans to implement annexation policy in parts of the West Bank.

"America's support for Israel's security must be adamant. As Iran launches its ballistic missiles and arming Hezbollah, we must stand by Israel. As Hamas controls Gaza and launches rockets on Israel's southern border, we must stand by Israel. As ISIS and the civil war in Syria destabilize the region, displace millions of people, and threaten common security interests, we must support those affected by the violence and terrorism, and we must stand by Israel", Kamala Harris said more than a year ago in one of the pro-Israel AIPAC conferences.

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