Vice presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) has always been an odd choice for the No. 2 spot on the Democrat ticket.
During last year’s July primary debate, Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) deconstructed Kamala’s record of prosecutorial abuse, with devastating results. Harris sunk to single digits, where she lingered until finally dropping out in December, narrowing the race to Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Joe Biden.
When the dust settled and the time came for Biden to choose a running mate rather than pick a popular figure he went for an identity politics exacta—a woman of color. A trifecta, of course, would have been a woman of color with popular appeal.
Harris—given Biden’s advanced age—is de facto the top of the ticket. If he had let himself see this, Biden might have altered his calculus, because Harris could not win the presidency—not even close—were she de jure the top of the ticket. It’s a good thing Harris cannot win the presidency. As Gabbard’s takedown showed, Harris is not a good person.
A look at Harris’ style of examination tells us even more.
Examination is the art of questioning a witness. Our legal system is an adversarial one, descended from the medieval form of trial by combat. Over time, trial by combat by hired champions evolved into a contest of advocates.
The American adversarial system of justice revolves around zealous advocates. The clash of advocates in front of a passive judge and jury is intended to force the truth to emerge.
Evidence in a trial includes testimony introduced by examining a witness with questions. Advocates, in examining witnesses, have to think about the persuasive effect of their questioning. Badgering, baiting, abusing, and insensitivity can sway a judge or jury in the wrong direction.
Attorneys also have duties of candor. While attorneys are not required to volunteer information unhelpful to their clients, what they say must be truthful. A trial is supposed to be a clean fight, because the truth will not emerge if advocates engage in subterfuge and legerdemain.
This brings us back to Harris. The public by now is familiar with her examination style—Kamalexamination seems a fitting name for it—from recalling the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing and now watching Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s.
Kamalexamination is officious. Middling intellects like Harris take great pride in being lawyers, adopting an officious style to display what invariably is their only intellectual achievement. Kamalexamination is a martinet’s affectation. It is alienating, as it is intended to oppress nonlawyers with rank.
“Middling intellect” is not a great recommendation for a president, but it is not the most concerning, either. A middling intellect combined with sub-middling ethics, however, is a problem.
Consistent with this, let’s look at other features of Kamalexamination that are consistent with such loose morals. Kamalexamination relies on several methods, or tricks, that reveal a venal cast of mind. I will discuss only four of these, but we can safely suspect, having seen four, there are more in the walls.
First, Harris likes to pause in a way that invites a response. Harris then interrupts the response, asserts overbearing authority, claiming offense at being interrupted. She baits the witness into a moment where she can then demean him.
Second, Harris likes to ask a question as though she knows the embarrassing answer. The witness is immediately confused, and she follows up with, “You are under oath.” This is intended to create the impression that the witness is lying—to undermine the credibility of the witness—without any facts.
Harris did this to Kavanaugh, asking if he had spoken to anyone at a prominent law firm regarding the Mueller investigation. In normal conduct, to discredit a witness you have to show the goods—the evidence that reveals what the witness conceals. Because it was contrived, nothing ever came of Harris’ insinuation. Perfidious Kamalexamination concocts discredit from thin air.
Third, Kamalexamination demands “yes or no” answers. Some questions are entitled to a yes or no answer, such as, “Do you own a house in Brentwood, yes or no?” But compound questions, questions that assume falsehoods, and vague questions cannot be answered yes or no without confusing matters. A witness is entitled to insist on the clarification, reconstruction, or excision of falsehood from the question.
Fourth, Kamalexamination sets up false analogies. Kamalexamination deployed false analogies during her questioning of Barrett. Do you believe that COVID-19 is infectious? Yes. Do you believe smoking causes cancer? Yes. Do you believe “climate change is happening and it’s threatening the air we breathe and the water we drink?” Wait, what? The first two are uncontroverted. The last is vague and controverted. The purpose is to get the examined to appear to deny the truth of something controverted or uncertain by setting it up with a false analogy to incontrovertible matters.
The common feature of each of these techniques of Kamalexamination is they are built on mendacity. One paying attention can see that the liar in these exchanges is Harris.
Undermining your own credibility on questioning is something a good examiner would never do, because it makes you less, not more persuasive. Harris’ seeming lack of awareness of this feature of Kamalexamination reveals a middling intellect. But the dishonesty at the core of Kamalexaminaton betrays a low and dangerous character.
Thanks for clarifying these tactics. I found Harris extremely condescending and now I know why. I had heard the exchange with Barrett and of course Barrett came out the better in this exchange. She is wise to Harris and did not take the bait.
It is easy to see how Harris might have used these tactics to railroad many unassuming innocent people. Being prosecutor and AG are extremely powerful positions and from what little we know of her, she continues to abuse her power.
Peter Schweizer’s Profiles in Corruption gives a good indication of Harris record. Worth a read to get to know many of our Democrat politicians. Harris is dangerous because she is a whore to any idea as long as it gets her ahead.
Well, she is definitely a whore. Willy Brown………..?
I think most of us had already determined Harris’ low character and middling intellect over the course of the past year. Understanding her examination techniques illuminates the darkness of her soul. Mendacity, liberally infused with arrogance. What a combination! Thanks for your insight. The obvious question is what attracts voters to a person of such low quality?
Ben, I would suggest that “middling intellect” is not reserved for Senator Harris, but groomed and caressed by a lying and manipulative media across their base. On her own, as shown in the primary, she is unlikable and uncompelling as a politician. The attraction, I expect, comes from a media narrative aimed at making her something else (just like Joe), being “not Pence” (proxy “not Trump”) and checking the box on a “woman of color” (cuz Joe promised) despite not checking the box on “African-American” and hoping, what clearly Biden and others of his ilk believe is a non-diverse and already captured voting block, doesn’t notice or question. People like stories – even made up ones.
Question: “Do you believe smoking causes cancer?”
Answer: “Yes, that issue has been adjudicated, and the tobacco industry entered into a settlement acknowledging that smoking causes cancer.”
Question: “Do you believe climate change is happening and it’s threatening the air we breathe and the water we drink?
Answer: “That issue has not been adjudicated, and it may be a ripe issue for the Supreme Court in the future, so I cannot give an opinion on this topic. Moreover, this is a public policy question for the Congress to answer.”
Question: “So you do not believe in the science?”
Answer: “In a legal trial, both sides present their opposing evidence, and a determination is made thereafter”.
Question: “So you never read the science reports”?
Answer: “A report written because somebody is funding it and made public is not necessarily a report that that same writer would swear to it under oath under penalty of perjury.”
Question: “Are you suggesting a scientist paid to write a report would by lying”?
Answer: [silence]
In a trial, the science becomes irrelevant.
That is for the opposing expert witnesses to testify on behalf of who is paying them.
It’s worth noting that Sen Harris flunked the California Bar Exam on her first try. Harris has never been much of a bright legal light… Yet there she was, attempting to out-lawyer Judge Amy, who graduated first in her las school class, summa cum laude.
Well she out-lawyer-ed Pence & even though she may have not passed her first bar exam just remember 25% of all those taking it, fail it. Amy Coney Barrett on the other hand is just (literally) someone who will do anything Trump asks, if the only reason she was picked was to fall in line & honour Trumps whims in the US Supreme Court then the Constitution, (Congressional Originalism or not) is not worth the paper it is written on.
And not alone that…but she will be making a mockery of her Catholicism the religion she professes to practice. Maybe she’ll need to resit her Catholic Catechism exam before she takes up her new post. No use being a Catholic on Earth if you don’t fully practice the principles of the scriptures within the pages of the creed, because you’d rather serve your earthly Master who doesn’t seem to practice anything but counting money.
America is in a queer place these days, where division is the order of the day & hate is the drug. Sadly, on the back of this the country is decaying and nobody is winning. This is the first time in my lifetime I witness the debasement before my eyes & America rather than be great, is a sepsis on itself. Daily, the disease gets worse & sadly the germs for it permeate from the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington. As for Trumps partaking friends in the GOP, you all are complicit to his knavery, no ifs, no buts.
My chuckle for the day
re: HARRIS – As you describe ‘out-lawyered Pence’ doesn’t mean she won the debate and only demonstrates the point of this article. The 25% fail statistic means she is in the common lowest quarter of people trying and failing to qualify as a lawyer. Her popularity dropped to 1% by the time she dropped out of presidential race.
re: ACB – That you presume to know her mind and her faith and the function of her religion makes your argument questionable from the outset. That you imply slavery on the people who have a different opinion and accuse them of capitalist dogma is baseless and ignorant. Your words seem to demonstrate “the dogma lives loudly within you”.
Re: USA’s CURRENT STATUS – Statistics, polls and personal testimonies show that the majority of people are better off with the Trump administration. To name just a few achievements, from official, substantiated sources – Trump captained:
< lowered taxes
< record high stock market
< record fast financial recovery
< record high employment for minorities
< increased low income annual by +$3100
< lowest ever income gap between whites and blacks
< record high home ownership for lower income Hispanics
< reduced enterprise approval process from 12 years to 2, saving time and money in construction of much-needed roads, bridges, highways
< historic funding for black colleges
< awarded school choice
< prison reform, enabling early release of people incorrectly or unfairly sentenced under Biden's crime bill
< $28b to farmers to compensate for the tariffs imposed on them by China
< negotiated $1.3b biggest ever sale of grains to China, despite pandemic and political unrest
< withdrew from Paris Climate Accord, saving US huge money … and since then has overseen US having the cleanest air in decades – AND is the leading country in clean air – even better than ANY of the countries signed into the PCA
< withdrew from corrupt WHO, which had demonstrably collaborated with China
< negotiated energy sources, and made US energy independent
< save oil industry in Texas
< lowered petrol prices
< lowered car prices
< improved win-win relationship with Mexico
< radically improved border security, with the wall and more – stopping/catching tons of drugs, guns and human trafficking – thus saving lives on both sides of the border; and saving jobs for US citizens
< initiated Operation Legend, sending federal officers to 9 major cities, resulting in the arrest of 2000+ serious criminals and murder suspects in the first 6 weeks alone (now 4000+)
< enabled capture and disbandment of domestic terror clique MS13
< nominated 4 times for Nobel Peace Prize by international experts in their field – each nom for a different reason
< radically reduced prescription medicine costs
< enacted Veterans Choice for medical services and health treatment with no waiting
< bringing jobs back to US, therefore boosting manufacturing and employment
< bringing steel production back to US
< bringing medicine production back to US
< launched task committees to discover and enact reforms for improved outcomes for: small business owners, teachers, military, skills and training initiatives, seniors, fishing industry, and more
< regular calls with state governors to discuss concerns, strategies, assistance
< repeatedly offering states help to quell rioting
< record fast-track response on pandemic solutions, thus saving millions of lives; even had emergency hospital facilities in place for New York, but Cuomo sent infected people to nursing homes instead – causing the majority % of the overall mortality rate
< record fast recovery of stock market and employment, after initial pandemic management
< recognizes Taiwan as independent from China
< relocated US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – something past presidents had promised but never delivered
< dissolved I-S-I-S
< removed troops from Germany
< withdrew USA from the defunct Iran Nuclear Weapon Deal. Upon later inspection, U.N. found 10x more nuclear material held by Iran, thus proving Trump's claim they had violated the deal
< oversaw the Abraham Accords, initiating peace in the Middle East, with more countries following
< negotiated the America Canada Mexico treaty, with improved provisions for US citizens and businesses
< donating his entire wage to different charities at each quarter
…
< and has endured an invalid impeachment which was founded on a concoction – evidence of which has come to light … and which put the country through unnecessary grief and expense of $40m
< endured 350,000+ lies spun by MSM and co. which, even when disproven and even when MSM printed retractions, the original false articles have not been withdrawn
And, if you want a list of crimes against the people by the Obama team, hold my beer … it's going to take a minute …
Beyond politics, people want safety, the ability to thrive, success in diversity THROUGH freedom and inclusion NOT segregation and aggravation. I have confidence this aligns with many of your own goals. Anyone who can't recognize that Trump is striving for equitable solutions for ALL has not done enough research. Parroting propaganda is reckless and harmful. People are being killed because of it. Please – be responsible. Get informed. Then, with confidence, you can choose what you KNOW to be true.
That Harris is of “low character “ cannot be denied and the low character of her running mate cannot be denied as well. An almost 50 year “career in public service “ marked by lying, plagiarism, and as recently disclosed evidence demonstrates, massive influence peddling for massive amounts of money. Who, in their right mind, would want either of these “low lives” anywhere near the White House?
Sammee.
You wasted your time writing down a lot of “Piffle” but then you must be one of Trump’s cult followers who would believe anything he says. All yous got from him was Covid 19 & I wouldn’t mind he said a few months ago it would disappear & then he walked into it himself.
As for Chief liar that is Trump’s legacy for eternity, not “Commander in Chief”…but…”Liar in Chief”.
As for Mike “Chuckle away” not many are under your “Master” these days!
Harris is the perfect pick. Once they topple Biden she can pretend to be Marie Antoinette and travel the world gracing the peasants with a view of her while all the actual work of the president is handled by Obama and Eric Holder. with an assist by Keith X Ellison.
Why do they say she is black when her mother is East Indian? She looks more Indian to my eyes than black. Is there something Inherently wrong with being Indian or living up to being a combination of both races?
I never understood that aspect with Obama either. It seems genetically you are a fusion of both parent’s chromosomes. How do you choose one over the other? Is it labradoodle more poodle than Labrador?
I suppose when you are a meretricious politician you choose the identity that is most expedient and beneficial to manipulating the masses. However, it seems rather demeaning to one parent to promote one identity over the other.
When America was a better nation, we rode turds like her out of town on a rail
Kamala would be nothing without attaching herself to people who are willing to further her career for obscure motives. If Biden wins the election we will find ourselves with a dangerous president not smart enough to realize her weakness, intellectually and morally. Goodbye freedom and hello communism.
Biden blew it by picking Heals Up Harris. He would have fared much better with Tulsi.