News — Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office in a historic ceremony Wednesday, becoming the first woman, first Black American and first South Asian American to hold the office. The daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, Harris was sworn in by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first woman of color to serve on the Supreme Court.

The vice president took the oath dressed in a purple dress and overcoat with her husband and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff by her side.
Harris used two bibles in the ceremony. One belonged to the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black member of the Supreme Court and Harris’ political role model. The other was owned by family friend Regina Shelton, who was like a second mother to Harris. Harris first used this Bible when she took the oath of office as both California attorney general and U.S. senator.

For two decades in public life, Harris has achieved a lot of firsts: the first Black woman to serve as San Francisco’s district attorney, the first woman to be California’s attorney general, first Indian American senator, and now she will be working by Biden’s side.

Here’s what you should know about the prosecutor-turned-senator whose motto comes from her mom: “You may be the first, but make sure you’re not the last.”

Harris was born in Oakland, California on October 20, 1964, to Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher from India, and Donald Harris, an economist from Jamaica. Her parents met at UC Berkley while pursuing graduate degrees and the two were active in the civil rights movement right from their days on campus. When Kamala was born, they often took her along to protests in a stroller.

The eldest of two children, Harris grew up embracing both her Black and South Asian identities, and one time visited India while young, where it is documented that she “was heavily influenced by her grandfather, a high-ranking government official who fought for Indian independence, and grandmother, an activist who traveled the countryside teaching impoverished women about birth control.”

Attending middle school and high school in Montreal, Kamala studied political science and economics (B.A., 1986) at Howard University, and then earned a law degree in 1989 from Hastings College.

She subsequently worked as a deputy district attorney from 1990–98 in Oakland, prosecuting cases of drug trafficking, gang violence, and sexual abuse. Despite her parents not being too comfortable with her career choice, Kamala said she wanted to change the system from the inside, and with that determination, she moved up the ladder, becoming a district attorney in 2004.

At the time, she had made a name for herself in San Francisco, not only through her work as a prosecutor but also through her friendships with the city’s elite and her relationship with former mayor Willie B. They would support her with funding when she campaigned for office to become district attorney in 2004. That same year, she made what has been described as one of her most controversial decisions; Kamala refused to pursue the death penalty against the man who killed San Francisco police officer Isaac Espinoza.

She was heavily criticized for that. And when she ran for California attorney general, many thought she would lose to Steve Cooley, a popular white Republican who served as Los Angeles’ DA. Why? Kamala was a woman of color from liberal San Francisco who opposed the death penalty, but she made it, winning by a margin of less than 1 percent, thus becoming the first woman to hold the post in 2010.

Even though she was criticized during her time as attorney general for not doing enough to cater to police brutality, especially when she refused to investigate the police shootings of two Black men in 2014 and 2015, she did demonstrate political independence while in office.

She clashed with the Obama administration when California was offered $4 billion in a national mortgage settlement over the foreclosure crisis. Fighting for a larger amount, Harris did not sign the deal, and at the end of the day, she was able to secure $20 billion for California homeowners, according to reports.

Getting elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016 also raised her national profile as she went viral for her sharp interrogations of officials and nominees of the Trump administration, including then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the Russia investigation during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing and Brett M. Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

But her most viral moment occurred during her 2020 presidential campaign. During the first Democratic debate, Harris criticized Biden for his position on a federal busing program in the 1970s that benefited minorities, including herself.

Biden looked shocked when Harris told him on the debate stage last July: “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools. And she was bused to school every day,” she said. “And that little girl was me.”

Though Harris’s support increased after that moment, by September 2019 she began falling behind in polling. Her campaign struggled due to internal staff rows and in December, she dropped out of the race.

She, however, continued to have a well-publicized presence, particularly becoming a leading advocate for social justice reform in response to the killing of George Floyd. Her stance silenced critics who had slammed her while she was attorney general over claims she refused to investigate charges of police misconduct though she explained that she was only committed to a fairer criminal justice system.

And amid the protests against police brutality and racial injustice in the United States, it was not surprising that many prominent Black male leaders called on Biden to select a Black woman as his vice presidential running mate to increase his election chances.

Last August, Biden picked Harris, and they will be now working toward an equitable and prosperous future for all Americans. “Black women have always been the backbone of this Democratic Party, and oftentimes not valued for our ability to lead,” said Barbara Lee, the congresswoman from Oakland, Calif., who was a co-chair of Harris’ own presidential bid.

“But I tell you now, Black women are showing that Black women lead, and we’ll never go back to the days where candidates only knew our value in terms of helping them get elected. Now they will see how we govern from the White House.”

What was intended to be a monumental moment for American Vogue to feature the first Black and Asian woman vice president on its cover has sparked so many controversies. Kamala Harris is the cover story and image for Vogue’s February issue. After the photo was shared by the magazine, many disapprove of the image, complaining about the whole ensemble right down to the lighting used on the shoot.

On Sunday, Vogue tweeted a photo of its cover girl, Vice-President-elect Harris in a Black suit, converse standing in front of a green and pink curtain meant to pay tribute to her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. but social media users were not amused in the least bit.

Another photo which has been deemed a more appropriate fit for Harris and her office showed her in a powder blue Michael Kors suit standing in front of a draping gold curtain. Per CBS, this image was vetted and agreed upon for the feature image of the magazine.

“Aides to Harris and Vogue had the understanding that the blue suit/gold background would be the cover photo. Without telling Harris’ team, Vogue changed it to the pink/green photo which the Vice President-elect’s team did not agree to,” the source said.

Harris’ team was expecting the pink and green background photo to appear in the magazine instead of it taking center stage. Her team asked for a new cover but the issue was sent to the printers in mid-December.

26-year-old photographer Tyler Mitchell, who made history as the first Black photographer to shoot for Vogue’s cover when he shot Beyonce for the September 2018 issue, took the photos of Harris which are now under scrutiny.

Mitchell shared the photo of Harris in the powder blue suit on Twitter and Vogue’s team appreciated his works regardless of the backlash. “The team at Vogue loved the images Tyler Mitchell shot and felt the more informal image captured Vice President-elect Harris’s authentic, approachable nature — which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden/Harris administration,” a spokesperson for Vogue told CBS News.

“To respond to the seriousness of this moment in history, and the role she has to play leading our country forward, we’re celebrating both images of her as covers digitally,” they added.

Critics say Harris’ skin appeared rather ‘washed out’.

One Twitter user said, “Kamala Harris is about as light skinned as women of color come and Vogue still fucked up her lighting,” they wrote about the initial photo shared by Vogue.

Others directed their attacks on Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in-chief, stating she “must really not have Black friends and colleagues.”

Wintour herself admitted some time ago that her magazine needed improvement on issues pertaining to Blacks and diversity and took the blame for all the mishaps in that regard.

“What a mess up,” wrote the New York Times contributor Wajahat Ali. “Anna Wintour must really not have Black friends and colleagues. I’ll shoot shots of VP Kamala Harris for free using my Samsung and I’m 100% confident it’ll turn out better than this Vogue cover.”

Kamala Harris has paid tribute to the women who “paved the way” for her to become the first woman vice president-elect in United States history and the first woman of color to make it to the second-highest office.

On Saturday, several media outlets projected that former vice president Joe Biden and his running mate, Harris, won the state of Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, thus earning more than 270 electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election.

For two decades in public life, Harris has achieved a lot of firsts: the first Black woman to serve as San Francisco’s district attorney, the first woman to be California’s attorney general, first Indian American senator, and now she will be working by Biden’s side as the highest-ranking woman ever elected in the American government.

Ahead of Biden’s victory speech Saturday night at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, Harris, wearing an all-white pantsuit, took to the podium to show her gratitude to voters and poll workers in her first speech as vice president-elect.

She also remembered her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, an Indian American Indian biomedical scientist who left a legacy in breast cancer research that helped save lives. “When she came here from India at the age of 19 she maybe didn’t quite imagine this moment,” she said. “But she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible.

“So I am thinking about her and the generations of women – Black women, Asian, white, Latina, natives American women – who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight. Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all, including the Black women who are too often overlooked but so often prove that they are the backbone of our democracy.”

“All the women who have worked to secure and protect the right to vote for over a century – 100 years ago with the 19th amendment, 55 years ago with the voting rights act and now in 2020 with a new generation of women in our country who cast their ballots and continued the fight for their fundamental right to vote and be heard.”

The 56-year-old California senator also commended Biden for having the “audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists” in America and choose a woman running mate. “But while I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” Harris said. “Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.

“To the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message – dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourselves in a way that others may not simply because they’ve never seen it before, but know that we will applaud you every step of the way.”

California Sen. Kamala Harris is now the first woman vice president-elect in United States history and the first person of color to make it to the second-highest office as Joe Biden wins the presidency.

On Saturday, several media outlets projected that former vice president Biden and his running mate, Harris, won the state of Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, thus earning more than 270 electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election.

“This election is about so much more than @JoeBiden or me,” 56-year-old Harris, the daughter of immigrants, said on Twitter shortly after Biden was projected as the winner. “It’s about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s get started.”

For two decades in public life, Harris has achieved a lot of firsts: the first Black woman to serve as San Francisco’s district attorney, the first woman to be California’s attorney general, first Indian American senator, and now she will be working by Biden’s side after he named her for the nomination to the number two spot in August amid cheers from supporters including women activists.

Here’s what you should know about the prosecutor-turned-senator whose motto comes from her mom: “You may be the first, but make sure you’re not the last.”

She worked as a deputy district attorney from 1990–98 in Oakland, prosecuting cases of drug trafficking, gang violence, and sexual abuse. Despite her parents not being too comfortable with her career choice, Kamala said she wanted to change the system from the inside, and with that determination, she moved up the ladder, becoming a district attorney in 2004.

At the time, she had made a name for herself in San Francisco, not only through her work as a prosecutor but also through her friendships with the city’s elite and her relationship with former mayor Willie B. They would support her with funding when she campaigned for office to become district attorney in 2004. That same year, she made what has been described as one of her most controversial decisions; Kamala refused to pursue the death penalty against the man who killed San Francisco police officer Isaac Espinoza.

She was heavily criticized for that. And when she ran for California attorney general, many thought she would lose to Steve Cooley, a popular white Republican who served as Los Angeles’ DA. Why? Kamala was a woman of color from liberal San Francisco who opposed the death penalty, but she made it, winning by a margin of less than 1 percent, thus becoming the first woman to hold the post in 2010.

Even though she was criticized during her time as attorney general for not doing enough to cater to police brutality, especially when she refused to investigate the police shootings of two Black men in 2014 and 2015, she did demonstrate political independence while in office.

She clashed with the Obama administration when California was offered $4 billion in a national mortgage settlement over the foreclosure crisis. Fighting for a larger amount, Harris did not sign the deal, and at the end of the day, she was able to secure $20 billion for California homeowners, according to reports.

Getting elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016 also raised her national profile as she went viral for her sharp interrogations of officials and nominees of the Trump administration, including then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the Russia investigation during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing and Brett M. Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

But her most viral moment occurred during her 2020 presidential campaign. During the first Democratic debate, Harris criticized Biden for his position on a federal busing program in the 1970s that benefited minorities, including herself.

Biden looked shocked when Harris told him on the debate stage last July: “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools. And she was bused to school every day,” she said. “And that little girl was me.”

Though Harris’s support increased after that moment, by September 2019 she began falling behind in polling. Her campaign struggled due to internal staff rows and in December, she dropped out of the race.

She, however, continued to have a well-publicized presence, particularly becoming a leading advocate for social justice reform in response to the killing of George Floyd. Her stance silenced critics who had slammed her while she was attorney general over claims she refused to investigate charges of police misconduct though she explained that she was only committed to a fairer criminal justice system.

And amid the protests against police brutality and racial injustice in the United States, it was not surprising that many prominent Black male leaders called on Biden to select a Black woman as his vice presidential running mate to increase his election chances.

In August, Biden picked Harris, and they will be now working toward an equitable and prosperous future for all Americans. “Black women have always been the backbone of this Democratic Party, and oftentimes not valued for our ability to lead,” said Barbara Lee, the congresswoman from Oakland, Calif., who was a co-chair of Harris’ own presidential bid.

“But I tell you now, Black women are showing that Black women lead, and we’ll never go back to the days where candidates only knew our value in terms of helping them get elected. Now they will see how we govern from the White House.”