California paper urges Biden to pick Karen Bass over Kamala Harris for running mate

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Rep. Bass: There are monuments to the people that enslaved my ancestors

Rep. Karen Bass, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, delivers remarks on removing confederate statues.

The biggest newspaper in California’s capital city is urging Joe Biden to choose Rep. Karen Bass of California as his running mate instead of the other Golden State politician who’s being seriously considered – Sen. Kamala Harris.

“If Biden chooses a California VP, he likely won’t pick Karen Bass,” the Sacramento Bee editorial board wrote. “Clearly, however, the community activist whose passion for service led others to draft her into electoral politics is the better choice.”

BASS CRITICIZED FOR PAST PRAISE OF CUBA'S CASTRO

And the newspaper warned that “the Biden campaign should be concerned about things like the secret $400,000 settlement Harris’ office paid to settle 'gender harassment' claims against a top aide named Larry Wallace. The Sacramento Bee uncovered the settlement in 2018. Harris claimed she didn’t know about the scandal in the California attorney general’s office and then fired Wallace, who had received a plum position when she won election to the Senate. Issues like these, along with her wobbly history on criminal justice and policing, are what Trump would target.”

Harris, who unsuccessfully ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and who took aim at the former vice president last year during the first primary debate, for months has been considered one of the leading contenders as the former vice president decides on a running mate.

Bass – a former speaker of the California State Assembly who has served in Congress since 2011 and leads the Congressional Black Caucus – was once considered a longshot in the running mate hunt, but her star has risen in recent weeks.

The newspaper’s editorial page is run by Gil Duran, a former top aide to Harris. Under Duran’s leadership, the editorial has in the past taken a critical view of Harris. And Duran has critiqued Harris in quotes given to other publications, including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.

Biden said on Tuesday that he would make a decision on his running mate by the first week in August.