Does Kamala Harris' 'anti-Catholic' record pose an issue for the Biden campaign?
RealClearPolitics co-founder Tom Bevan and author Allie Beth Stuckey examine the VP pick's record and discuss the influence of extremists in both parties on 'Fox News @ Night.'
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s choice as his vice presidential running mate — Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.— is the most openly anti-Catholic bigot to be on a national ticket in modern times.
Harris’ record is perfectly clear. She is openly anti-Catholic in confirming federal judges, wanting to prosecute the Little Sisters of the Poor, closing Catholic Hospitals that don’t join her union allies, and favoring taxpayer-paid abortions up until birth (in fact, she has twice voted against bills that would ensure that babies who lived through abortion procedures get medical care).
In many ways, Harris’ bigotry against Catholics is a perfect example of the modern radical left’s ideology of “intolerant tolerance” that I outline in my latest bestselling book, “Trump and the American Future.”
The most explicit example of Harris’ anti-Catholic bigotry was her treatment of now-U.S. District Judge Brian Buescher during his Senate confirmation hearing.
Specifically, Harris questioned Buescher’s membership in the Knights of Columbus — a faith-based charitable organization that feeds the poor, assists in disaster relief around the globe, provides scholarships for struggling students, helps refugees fleeing violence and persecution, and carries out a host of other philanthropic efforts.
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Because the organization is Catholic, its leadership has opposed abortion and gay marriage on religious grounds. Harris needled Buescher on these two issues and insinuated that his membership in the organization (and ultimately his Catholic faith) should bar him from the bench.
Harris was eerily mirroring the bigoted questioning by Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., of now-7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearing in 2017.
As Alexandra DeSanctis wrote for the National Review: “Buescher eventually was confirmed ... but the fact remains that Harris was guilty of reprehensible anti-Catholic bigotry, and there’s no reason to believe her views have changed.”
At the time, The Wall Street Journal raised a key question: “Ms. Harris’s embrace of religious intolerance is especially significant because in two years she could be the next U.S. President. What does it say about today’s Democrats that no one in the party of Al Smith and JFK sees fit to rebuke her?”
Harris is also part of a larger trend of anti-Catholic bigotry raging across the country.
Harris’ unconstitutional religious test for judicial service is just one example. Her anti-Catholic bigotry extended to vigorous support for prosecuting the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns that provides food and shelter to poor senior citizens across the world. Biden and Harris have said they would seek to bring the nuns back to court to force them to cover the cost of insuring contraceptives and abortion drugs to people working in their health care facilities.
The U.S. Supreme Court has already affirmed the Little Sisters’ First Amendment rights, yet the Biden-Harris team wants to relitigate the case.
Furthermore, as attorney general of California, Harris used her office’s power to close a number of Catholic hospitals on behalf of her political ally, the Service Employee International Union.
Six Catholic Daughters of Charity-run hospitals in California were driven to insolvency by onerous union contracts and sparse Medicaid payments. A larger health care system had bid to buy the hospitals and assume its liabilities. However, the SEIU opposed the deal because it wanted an agreement to be able to organize workers in every one of the buyer’s 15 other hospitals as part of the sale of the six Catholic hospitals.
In California, the attorney general has the power to OK or nix acquisitions of nonprofit hospitals. Attorney General Harris was happy to put six hospitals out of business for her union allies.
Harris added a multitude of unprecedented staffing requirements and specific medical service requirements to the sale. Naturally, her malicious meddling killed the sale, leaving thousands of employees out of work and potentially millions of residents without nearby hospitals.
As The Wall Street Journal editorial board warned: “Hospital workers, patients and taxpayers paid a fearsome price for Ms. Harris’s intervention on behalf of the SEIU. As troubling was Ms. Harris’s use of her authority to help a political supporter and punish a business she didn’t like. She was in the vanguard of the new progressive state AGs who use prosecutorial power against opponents. Watch for this in the Harris Administration.”
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Harris is also part of a larger trend of anti-Catholic bigotry raging across the country. This disturbing trend prompted Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., this week to urge Attorney General William Barr to ramp up prosecution efforts against vandalism and other attacks.
As the Catholic News Agency reported: “In recent weeks, several Catholic churches have faced attacks and acts [of] desecration. Last month, church in Ocala, Florida was set aflame while parishioners inside prepared for morning Mass. A California mission founded by St. Junipero Serra was also burned in a fire and is being investigated as an arson case, while several statues of Serra have also been pulled down. A statue of the Virgin Mary was beheaded at a parish in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In Boston, a statue of Mary was set on fire, and in Brooklyn, a statue was tagged with the word 'IDOL' in black spray paint.”
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The consequences of Harris’ openly anti-Catholic bias will be felt as other anti-Catholics draw encouragement from her bigotry to increase the activism and intensity of their assaults on Catholic institutions and Catholic personalities. If left unchecked, it will doubtlessly spread to attacks on other religious people and organizations that don’t hold to radical Democratic ideology.
So, this bigot is the person Biden thinks should be next in line to be president. This says a lot about the strength of his own Catholic background under the pressure of the atheist and anti-religious left.
To read, hear, and watch more of Newt Gingrich’s commentary, visit Gingrich360.com.
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