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FLASHBACK: VP Harris pushed for illegal immigrant to practice law in California over Obama admin’s objections

FLASHBACK: VP Harris pushed for illegal immigrant to practice law in California over Obama admin’s objections

FLASHBACK: VP Kamala Harris, while serving as California’s attorney general, sided with an illegal immigrant’s bid to acquire a license to practice law in a move that was opposed by the Obama administration.  Harris, who is expected to be making a visit to the southern border this week, supported in a 2012 Supreme Court brief the desire for 35-year-old illegal immigrant Sergio Garcia to be granted a law degree by the State Bar of California, arguing that the government could not block him from doing so.  “No law or policy prevents this court from admitting Garcia to the State Bar,” Harris’ office wrote in the brief. “In fact, admitting Garcia to the Bar would be consistent with state and federal policy that encourages immigrants, both documented and undocumented, to contribute to society.” Harris’ stance on the issue put her at odds with then-president Barack Obama, whose Department of Justice opposed the move and said it would violate 1996 federal immigration law, San Jose Mercury News reported. VIDEO RESURFACES OF HARRIS CHANTING ‘DOWN WITH DEPORTATION’ AT 2018 PARADE WITH DISGRACED ACTOR “In the view of the United States, (federal law) prohibits this court from issuing a law license to an unlawfully present alien,” government lawyers wrote at the time. The state bar, civil rights groups and Latino lawmakers in the state all came out in support of Garcia, the report notes, though Harris’ endorsement “made the difference,” Kevin Johnson, the dean of UC Davis’ law school, told the Sacramento Bee earlier this year.  HARRIS SHIFTS KEY POSITIONS ON BORDER, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AS CAMPAIGN PROMISES ‘PRAGMATIC’ APPROACH “When the highest law enforcement officer of a state weighs in and says this is legal, this is permissible, this is possible, the Supreme Court of the State of California listens,” said Johnson, who also represented the State Bar of California in support of Garcia’s case. “She could have ducked and covered and tried to avoid any political controversy. But she sided with the State Bar of California and Sergio Garcia, so, I respect her for that.” Garcia ultimately became the first undocumented immigrant to practice law in California after the state Supreme Court sided with him and legislation was passed that allowed the licensing of individuals regardless of immigration status. Garcia was ultimately awarded the Medal of Valor by AG Harris before becoming a citizen and voting for Harris on the presidential ticket along with Joe Biden in 2020, CBS News reported. MIGRANT CRIME CRISIS COMES TO NANTUCKET, MARTHA’S VINEYARD, PLAYGROUNDS FOR RICH AND FAMOUS The Garcia situation was one of several examples where Harris was to the left of the Obama administration, which Harris referenced during the 2019 presidential primary when she spoke out against deportations for illegal immigrants who haven’t committed any crimes beyond crossing the border.  “Well, thank you. I will say — no, absolutely not, they should not be deported,” Harris said. “And I actually — this was one of the very few issues with which I disagreed with the administration, with whom I always had a great relationship and a great deal of respect.” “But on the secure communities issue, I was attorney general of California,” Harris continued. “I led the second-largest Department of Justice in the United States, second only to the United States Department of Justice, in a state of 40 million people.” “And on this issue, I disagreed with my president, because the policy was to allow deportation of people who by ICE’s own definition were non-criminals. So as attorney general, and the chief law officer of the state of California, I issued a directive to the sheriffs of my state that they did not have to comply with detainers, and instead should make decisions based on the best interests of public safety of their community.” Harris reiterated her differences with Obama on illegal immigration in 2019 interview with Univision’s Jorge Ramos where she said that Obama was “wrong” when it came to deportations and ICE detainers.  The Harris-Walz campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.  Multiple outlets reported this week that Harris’ campaign is considering a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, although details have not been decided. The vice president’s critics were quick to dismiss the possible trip as a “political stunt.” The latest Scripps News/Ipsos Poll, released last week, shows that approximately 54% of all respondents “strongly” or “somewhat” support the idea of mass deportation, according to the poll.  On the subject of immigration in general, respondents favored Trump (44%) to Harris (34%) as better able to handle the issue. Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw and Timothy HJ Nerozzi contributed to this report

In hyperpartisan environment, MSNBC drawing fire for anti-Trump, pro-Harris programming

In hyperpartisan environment, MSNBC drawing fire for anti-Trump, pro-Harris programming

There is so much bias and bluster in cable news that it’s hard to know what to believe. Depending on the network, the coverage can seem like bouncing between alternate galaxies.   And overall trust in the media has of course plummeted to new lows. Most people don’t even trust the fact-checkers, so we don’t have a basic agreement on what’s true or not in this insane presidential race, a common base of information that everyone can then debate. PILING ON: A TSUNAMI OF ANTI-TRUMP PIECES OFFER A STARK CONTRAST WITH KAMALA’S UPBEAT COVERAGE That’s true even of the podcasters and social media influencers who have made such an impact in the mediasphere. Fox News draws the most scrutiny, of course, because its audience far eclipses that of its two main cable news rivals. But there is almost no scrutiny of MSNBC as an uber-liberal organization. Maybe that’s because so many New York Times and Washington Post employees are either paid contributors or regular guests, so the leftist environment comes to seem normal. Once in a blue moon, someone writes the “hey, that place is pretty darn liberal” piece. But another barometer is former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki, who has her own show, and Symone Sanders-Townsend, the former top aide to Vice President Kamala Harris, co-hosting a weekend show.  To be fair, there are some good journalists at MSNBC. Whatever Steve Kornacki says at the big monitor, I believe him. MS also benefits from news packages by seasoned NBC reporters. Mediaite’s Colby Hall says it’s common knowledge that “MSNBC has figured out a lucrative model designed around programming that appeals to progressive, liberal, and left-of-center viewers, eyeballs that they then sell to multibillion-dollar corporations to advertise pharmaceutical products, cars, and fossil fuels… “With a crucial election approaching, MSNBC’s naked advocacy for the Harris-Walz campaign has only become louder and further afoot from what a news network would reasonably do.” TRUMP BLAMES KAMALA RHETORIC FOR 2ND ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AS DEMOCRATS BLAME HIM FOR HAITIANS IN OHIO Hall says he’s made the same arguments about Fox, “but MSNBC pretty much gets a pass from the same set of group-thinkers eager to farm engagement from one another on social media.” I’ll have more to say on that in a moment. “There is also the relentless pro-Harris fawning pervasive on the network, perhaps best exemplified by Chris Hayes saying that Kamala Harris’s performance in her debate with Trump was the ‘best performance’ in history because Trump ‘couldn’t control her mind.’ There is Donny Deutsch admitting that he ‘kind of fell in love’ with Harris after her campaign kickoff speech.” Bottom line: “Perhaps most damning is the complete lack of reporting on air of stories that are in any way negative about Harris… Let’s not pretend that they are anything close to a news outlet when, in recent weeks, they have looked more like an arm of political propaganda working on behalf of the Democratic Party.” Now, what most critics overlook, because it doesn’t fit the narrative, is that Fox has a news division, of which I am a part. These hard-working journalists and producers do their best to play it straight.  Naturally, the most attention is paid to the high-profile conservative hosts on the opinion shows after 5 p.m. But it’s a mistake to represent that as all of Fox News. SCANDALS, FAILED ASSASSINATIONS AND POLITICAL RHETORIC: BOTH SIDES GO HIGH AND LOW Here’s the proof. On big nights – conventions, debates, elections – Fox’s coverage is anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum of the news division, in my view the best in the business. On CNN, the coverage is anchored by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash or Anderson Cooper. But at MSNBC, it’s an all-liberal pundit lineup: Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O’Donnell, maybe Alex Wagner. Ever since Brian Williams, well after the controversy that cost him the NBC anchor job, left MSNBC, there hasn’t been even the fig leaf of a nationally known broadcaster who attempts to play it down the middle. Every network makes its choices and is conscious of its audience. The result may be, as Hall says, dishing out propaganda for the campaign. Maggie Haberman, the ace New York Times reporter who is also a CNN analyst, has a sunnier view: “I think that the media does a very good job covering Trump,” she said on NPR. “There are always going to be specific stories that could have been better, should have been better, that are written on deadline, and people are not being as precise as they should be.” But Haberman argues that there is an industry “dedicated toward attacking the media, especially as it relates to covering Donald Trump and all coverage of Trump. And I think that Trump is a really difficult figure to cover because he challenges news media process every day, has for years. The systems are just fundamentally – they were not built to deal with somebody who says things that are not true as often as he does or speaks as incoherently as he often does.”  She adds that the press is not a monolith and “most of the information that the public has about Trump is because of reporting by the media.” Sure, the right wing goes after the media, widely viewed as liberal – CNN’s nighttime panels are often 6 to 1 against Trump – for criticizing their man or swooning over Kamala. Trump himself is at the forefront of the attacks on the “enemy of the people,” often ripping individual journalists.  But there’s also a left wing that attacks conservative outlets, and not just Fox, for supposedly being fiercely protective of Trump and harshly critical of Harris.  Being caught in the crossfire is rather unpleasant, as Maggie knows better than anyone. But taking the heat is part of the job we all signed up for.