Jeremy White and Carla Marinucci at Politico:
Vice President Kamala Harris cast California’s recall election as part of a national struggle for progressive policies while rallying voters in the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has long framed the recall as a clash between California’s forward-looking vision and resurgent Trumpism. Harris put the White House’s stamp on that argument as she returned to her political home turf for a campaign rally alongside Newsom and most of California’s statewide Democratic officials.
In a speech of contrasts, Harris assailed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for defending an abortion ban that doesn't create allowances for rape or incest by saying he would “eliminate all rapists” by aggressively prosecuting them. Harris said “that is not who we want in our leaders" and argued Newsom’s foes sought to reverse his policies on abortion rights, aid to undocumented immigrants and voting.
“It is because of his vision, it is because of the agenda, it is because of who he fights for,” Harris said. “California, let us send a message to the world that these are the things we stand for, these are the things we fight for, and we will not give up.”
That exhortation echoed Newsom’s campaign rhetoric. The Democratic governor predicted again Wednesday that a Republican governor would undermine California’s pandemic progress by unraveling vaccination mandates, and he warned that Republican frontrunner Larry Elder “celebrates what just happened to women in Texas and is celebrating the prospect of overturning Roe v. Wade.”
The Big Lie, California ed.:
Trump, on Newsmax, claims the recall election in California is "probably rigged" (as if Democrats can't win elections there fair and square) pic.twitter.com/gPbSq0XHGN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 8, 2021
