Top Dems reportedly sign memo warning media on Kamala Harris criticism: ‘We will be watching you’

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Leaders of the Democrat Party have warned the Washington media to go easy in their treatment of Sen. Kamala Harris, who was chosen earlier this week by presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden to become his running mate.

In a column at the Washington Times, conservative pundit and Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce said that the party will consider any criticism of Harris as “racist and sexist.”

“Oh, they wrap up that threat in a word salad, but that’s the bottom line: There should be second and even third thoughts about any criticism of Mr. Biden’s VP pick,” Bruce wrote.

The conservative columnist and author also noted that “an actual memo” was issued by “an ad hoc” group of DNC operatives to media organizations instructing them how to cover Harris, who has already come under renewed scrutiny by several media outlets over her controversial record as a California prosecutor.

Bruce adds that the mainstream media has long covered for Democratic politicians, dating as far back as the days of John F. Kennedy, in which his affairs were buried. In more recent times, the media ignored Hillary Clinton’s medical issues on the 2016 campaign trail, as well as allegations surrounding her mishandling of classified emails.

But this time around, Bruce notes, “identity politics demands” special treatment for Harris, the first woman of color to be nominated for vice president.

“…[W]ith news now disseminated beyond the broadcast networks and just a few loyal newspapers, Democrats need to reinforce the need for media protection in order to gaslight the public about their real agenda and inherent incompetence,” Bruce wrote.

“Hiding Mr. Biden in a basement has been absurdly accepted by the media. Unable to toss Ms. Harris into a literal basement, they’re now trying to construct a virtual bunker for her,” she added.

And the media is already delivering.

On Friday, The New York Times labeled as “racist” President Donald Trump’s mention of a “conspiracy theory” making the rounds that perhaps Harris, who was born in California, may not be eligible to become vice president or president.

In fact, it’s not a conspiracy at all, just a theory — and one offered by a legal scholar.

Writing in Newsweek, Chapman University law professor and Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute John Eastman notes that questions surrounding Harris’ eligibility have less to do with where she was born and more to do with her parents’ residency status at the time:

The 12th Amendment provides that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.” And Article II of the Constitution specifies that “[n]o person except a natural born citizen…shall be eligible to the office of President.” Her father was (and is) a Jamaican national, her mother was from India, and neither was a naturalized U.S. citizen at the time of Harris’ birth in 1964. That, according to these commentators, makes her not a “natural born citizen”—and therefore ineligible for the office of the president and, hence, ineligible for the office of the vice president.

But there is nothing racial about the argument, as Newsweek’s global editor, Nancy Cooper, made clear in a follow-up note in response to critics of Eastman’s scholarly argument. In fact, she pointed out, Eastman is an accomplished constitutional scholar who has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and clerked previously for Justice Clarence Thomas.

In a separate piece, Times writers Annie Karni and Jeremy Peters claimed President Trump and his campaign are “fixated” on Harris’ “race.”

The Boston Globe, meanwhile, referred to “online” criticisms of Harris a “racist” and “sexist” “attacks.”

NBC News’ Anthea Butler used the same terms in a Thursday piece decrying criticism of Harris — “racist and sexist.”

As for the memo, the writers go on to invoke the name of George Floyd in May.

“Our country — and your newsrooms — have learned a lot since the [death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody] and the subsequent protests for racial equality that his death spurred … We know from public reporting that many of your newsrooms had internal conversations about your coverage, your diversity and your editorial judgments,” it says.

“A woman VP candidate, and possibly a Black or Brown woman candidate, requires the same kind of internal consideration about systemic inequality as you undertook earlier this year,” the memo adds. “We are here to help you with this challenge … We intend to collectively and individually monitor coverage and we will call out those we believe take our country backwards with sexist and/or racist coverage. As we enter another historic moment, we will be watching you.”

Bruce noted:

That’s subtle. Said no one ever.

The women signing onto to this warning include Democratic operatives like Valerie Jarrett — the Obama associate and surrogate for the Biden campaign, multiple individuals associated with Planned Parenthood, Hilary Rosen — a longtime Hillary Clinton operative, and representatives from other Democratic and liberal entities like Emily’s List and NARAL.

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Jon Dougherty

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