(Headline USA) “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said this week that she and her fellow leftists were plotting to see “how far we can push” Vice President Kamala Harris to the Left “once she wins the presidency.”
Harris has one of the most progressive congressional records and was even rated as the the most liberal senator back in 2019. But she has staked out a position much closer to the center after entering the 2024 presidential race, with her campaign frequently claiming she has abandoned many of her past progressive positions.
Asked whether she believes Harris’s pivot was genuine, Omar admitted to the Washington Post that she is not worried about Harris abandoning her far-left bonafides.
“It’s about us organizing and seeing how far we can push her once she wins the presidency,” Omar said.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., agreed, citing President Joe Biden’s own lurch to the left after he entered the White House.
“I do believe and hope and expect that [Harris] understands how important progressives were to the Biden administration’s victories,” Jayapal said. “I hope she sees how valuable that partnership and that work together was.”
The “Squad” members’ comments reflect what seems to be a common understanding on the Left, first voiced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., last month.
“I don’t think she’s abandoning her ideals,” he said in September. “I think she’s trying to be pragmatic and doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election.”
Harris herself has admitted that her “values have not changed” even though her campaign claims her policy positions have.
“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” she told CNN when asked about her many policy flip-flops.
