By Stacy M. Brown
Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
NNPA Newswire
Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris has never been known to pull-punches.
Harris is viewed by those who know her as someone who’s “as tough as they come.” And, she knows that any bid for president in 2020 against the bombastic Donald Trump will take a bit of rhinoceros skin to deal with.
“It’s a very serious decision,” Harris told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski during an onstage conversation at the Know Your Value conference in San Francisco. “Over the holiday, I will make that decision with my family.”
As she told NNPA Newswire in September during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference, she’s keenly aware of the challenges a barrier-breaking campaign will entail.
“Let’s be honest. It’s going to be ugly,” Harris said. “When you break things, it is painful. And you get cut. And you bleed.”
Harris and her colleague from New Jersey, Sen. Cory Booker have long been seen as a possible Democratic ticket in 2020, though no one has speculated which might run as president.
“This is a critical time,” Booker told NNPA Newswire in September at the conference. “The CBC is the conscience of Congress and we have not yet achieved the American Dream which is increasingly out of reach for many. The Dream is still deferred,” he said.
Harris, who, like Booker, has gone from rising star to serious presidential contender, said there is plenty of work ahead.
“It’s about where we came from and where we’ve got to go,” she told NNPA Newswire. “This is a pivotal moment. I think we all know when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the Dream, it wasn’t about being asleep,” Harris said. “It was about being awake.”
In her interview with MSNBC, Harris expressed frustration over the slow progress of the Secure Elections Act, which she introduced in March, along with co-sponsor Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma.
The bipartisan legislation would give the Department of Homeland Security responsibility for ensuring secure elections and shoring up election infrastructure against cyber-attacks.
“First of all, let’s be clear about the fact Russia did interfere in the [2016] election of the president of the United States,” Harris told Brzezinski.
