Minneapolis unrest shakes up VP shortlist
By MARC CAPUTO and NATASHA KORECKI
POLITICO, 05/31/2020 06:40 AM EDT
Law enforcement credentials once offered an appealing and protective sheen to a handful of the top prospects in contention to be Joe Biden’s potential running mate.
But three of those candidates — Sen. Kamala Harris, Rep. Val Demings and, most notably, Sen. Amy Klobuchar — now find their records under new scrutiny in a presidential race transformed in the wake of national outrage surrounding Monday‘s death of George Floyd under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.
As a Minneapolis-area prosecutor from 1996 to 2006, Klobuchar had already earned the antipathy of social-justice activists for her tough-on-crime record and history of handling police violence. But those issues are now radioactive with the caught-on-camera death of a black man at the hands of the same officer who was once probed in a police-related death while she worked as a local prosecutor.
Progressives — and right-wing trolls — have also hammered Harris, a former Democratic presidential contender, for her résumé as a state attorney general and local prosecutor, going so far as to push a “Kamala is a cop” narrative designed to diminish and disqualify her in the eyes of the left.
At one point during her presidential bid last spring, Harris expressed “regret” for backing a controversial truancy law, only to later lean into her record as a prosecutor.
Demings, who served as Orlando’s first female police chief, oversaw a department that has had a history of criticism for using excessive force.
But it’s Klobuchar’s vice presidential fortunes that may end up as the first political casualty of the Minneapolis unrest.
As she ran for Senate in 2006, Officer Derek Chauvin — caught on video in Floyd’s death Monday — was involved in a different police-related shooting. Klobuchar had left office and was serving in the Senate by the time the case involving Chauvin went to a grand jury, which declined to charge him and five other officers. But that didn’t insulate her from sharp criticism this week.
“There is a direct line of culpability between Klobuchar and this officer who lynched a man,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the group Black Voters Matter. She said it was a vestige of racism to compare the records of Harris or Demings with that of Klobuchar.
[...] House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a top Biden adviser credited with salvaging the former vice president’s presidential bid, acknowledged the significant impact of Floyd’s death on Klobuchar’s vice presidential prospects.
“The timing of this is horrible for her,” he said in an interview with POLITICO. “When you have things pop up like this it can be catastrophic to some. What is happening in Minneapolis — the timing of that is beyond anyone's control — the timing is just there. In this business, some things we control and a lot of things we can’t control.”
Prior to the unrest, Biden and his campaign had been lobbied hard by supporters who want a black woman — like Harris or Demings — while other contingents pushed for a progressive pick like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, or a Midwestern moderate like Klobuchar.
Demings and Harris, who are both black, have better records when it comes to social justice, according to some progressive activists and Democratic insiders who argue that black women have a better understanding of the scourge of police brutality. Their law enforcement credentials, some of those Democrats contend, must be viewed in the historic context in which they served as leaders. [...]
The attorney for Arbery’s family, Benjamin Crump — who also represents the families of Floyd and Taylor — said the collective weight of the three successive killings have raised awareness about white supremacy, police brutality and the need for Biden to pick a black running mate.
“In my circle, in my community, black people keep saying, ‘they take us for granted.’ When are we going to have a woman on the top of the ticket who expresses our life experience?” Crump, who’s based in Tallahassee, said. “We saved his nomination. We think he should show his gratitude and pick a black woman.”
Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network social justice organization and an MSNBC host, said the issue of police brutality and white supremacy will affect Biden’s selection process “in a very significant way” and that it “raises serious questions” that Klobuchar “has to deal with.”
“Kamala has had some questionable cases, but not to the degree of Amy,” Sharpton said. “If I were to list them, I would say Val is the least affected, and Amy is the most challenged by it.” [...]
Demings, a two-term congresswoman who is less well-known than Harris and Klobuchar, started to shape the narrative concerning her views in an op-ed Friday titled, “My fellow brothers and sisters in blue, what the hell are you doing?”
[...]
https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/05/31/joe-biden-vice-president-george-floyd-291063
