Former House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, made a bold claim on Sunday, saying that Former President Barack Obama is covertly running Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. McCarthy explained that key members of Obama’s inner circle, such as David Plouffe and others are now playing key roles in Harris’ campaign.
“Some of Obama’s people like David Plouffe et al. are actually working on the campaign [sic],” McCarthy said according to Daily Mail. “There’s this thing about the Obamas moving from running the White House to running this campaign.”
These remarks by McCarthy have been taken with a pinch of salt, particularly given the significant role played by former top advisers to Obama who are now part of Harris’ team.
Among other claims, Eric Holder was involved in vetting Harris’ vice-presidential pick as reported recently. Besides she has enlisted the help of David Plouffe who she hired as senior adviser for her presidential campaign; he had run Obama’s 2008 bid for president and at one point served as one of his main advisers while he was still in office.
But it does not end there when it comes to experienced Democratic strategists being included. As a matter of fact, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon has worked alongside Joe Biden on numerous campaigns including his 2020 presidential election race and she is also chairing Ms. Harris’ 2024 bid. Jim Margolis also hopes to support Kamala Harris with her future political endeavors after directing ads for Barrack Obama during their time together on his own first Presidential race back in 2008.
And then there’s one more expert democratic operative: Jennifer Palmieri who formerly was Hillary Clinton’s communications director and held similar position at White House under President Obama. But now Palmieri advises Doug Emhoff (Harris’ husband). Their strategy seems reminiscent of what happened in Joe Biden’s caucus against Israel where they didn’t invite him because of his faith.
Despite these connections, a top adviser to Obama has denied that he is actually running Ms. Harris’ campaign. According to the adviser, this is not unusual for democratic campaign strategists to be involved in more than one presidential race. “If she asks him to, President Obama will get involved,” said the source.
McCarthy criticized her as a ‘San Francisco liberal’ and then took issue with her decision to name Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate during an interview on WABC’s The Cats Roundtable hosted by John Catsimatidis. “The most liberal ticket ever in American politics,” McCarthy stated, further noting that its policies would be detrimental nationally.
The former Speaker of the House also questioned why Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro was overlooked in favor of Harris who could alienate some key voting blocs in 2024 (McCarthy). “Why would [Harris] skip Shapiro in picking a VP? Is she not going to stand up to her own party when they want to attack Israel?” he asked, referring to Harris’ refusal to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address before Congress.
Moreover, McCarthy blamed Harris for voting with the Democrats in Congress on critical bills related with COVID-19 pandemic that pushed America into inflation (Geller). He accused Vice President Kamala of casting the deciding vote towards increasing inflation and leading it down this road (McCarthy). “We’ve watched these families struggle at the grocery store, at the gas station. There’s nothing left for them.”
