While the vice president's appearances before the public have been limited since she became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, they have been consistent, says Meg Kilgannon – adding that they’ve also been deliberately confusing.
Harris addressed the American Federation of Teachers in Houston two weeks ago, twisting words and intentions of Republicans on issues like gun rights and protections for school children before a friendly crowd.
“Book bans in this year of our Lord 2024. Just think about it,” said Harris, pausing for effect. “We want to ban assault weapons … and they want to ban books.”
Kilgannon told Washington Watch host Jody Hice that Harris needed to be briefed on recent court rulings. U.S. District Court Judge Peter Sheridan in late July ruled that New Jersey’s ban on AR-15-style assault rifles is unconstitutional.
Following the law with a frown
Sheridan, begrudgingly, cited recent Supreme Court precedents. The High Court expanded Second Amendment protections in the Bruen case in 2022.
“It is hard to accept the Supreme Court's pronouncements that certain firearms policy choices are ‘off the table’ when frequently, radical individuals possess and use these same firearms for evil purposes,” Sheridan wrote. “Even so… where the Supreme Court has set forth the law of our nation, as a lower court, I am bound to follow it.”
Democrats don’t hide their contempt for the Supreme Court, Kilgannon said.
“She’s going to keep trying. 'Let’s not let the Supreme Court be the final say.' The Biden administration is famous for getting knocked down by the Supreme Court and just doing exactly what they want to anyway,” she said.
Republican-led efforts for accountability in school libraries and public libraries is aimed at children not at free speech, she explained.
“We don’t want to ban books. We simply don’t want pornographic material to be presented to schoolchildren as educational. We certainly don’t want it offered in school libraries. This is not something any reasonable person doesn’t understand,” Kilgannon explained.
Harris is being disingenuous on both guns and books, she said.
“The way she wants to gloss over all this is to just talk about the religious right wanting to ban books. That’s not exactly honest. Neither is it honest that [Democrats] want to ban [only] assault weapons. They want to ban all the guns. She’s for mandatory gun buy-backs.”
Freedom with a catch
Harris, drawing some criticism for her scant public appearances, spoke to teachers that day on what she says are rampant attacks on freedom in America. But the freedoms the VP describes are on Democratic terms, Kilgannon argued.
“Not freedom for people to live out their religious faith but freedom to abort your babies, freedom to present sexualized material to children, freedom to castrate and sterilize children in so-called gender-affirming care. Those are the kinds of things that her administration has advocated for … and that’s the kind of freedom she envisions for the country,” the FRC fellow added.
