Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) revealed the list of her four favorite politicians of all time on Friday while appearing on Will Ferrell’s “Ron Burgundy Podcast.”
The Democratic presidential candidate <a href="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/the-ron-burgundy-podcast-30270227/">was quick to name</a> her top three favorites, which consisted of former Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), who was the first black woman elected to Congress; former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; and Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president.
“You know, one of the people I think is really great, who is still living but who has done really great work on an issue like climate change, for example, is Jerry Brown,” Harris said, seemingly placing the former California Governor as her number four pick.
“I mean, I didn’t agree with everything he did, but I do appreciate that he always, as a leader, had a vision of the future and tried to connect where we’re going to end up with where we are now,” she continued. “And thinking about solutions and ways to mitigate harm in the future.”
Harris acknowledged that as she often looks to these individuals for inspiration when she feels exhausted or overwhelmed by politics, especially while she has been campaigning for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
“Someone I’ve been thinking a lot about, because I am running for president, is Shirley Chisholm,” Harris said. “I love the fact that she would just own that microphone and speak truth. And unburdened by what others might think of as the appropriateness of her being present and speaking as forcefully and as strongly as she did.”
Chisholm became the first black major-party candidate to run for president after she formally launched her campaign in 1972. Her campaign slogan at the time was “Unbought and unbossed,” which has been influential to the California senator.
“I take great inspiration from that [slogan] because she understood that she was a voice of truth and a voice that must be heard,” Harris said. “She just went to that microphone and took hold of it and didn’t ask permission.”
Harris has often expressed her admiration for the former New York congresswoman, especially during Black History Month and Women’s History Month.
“Shirley Chisholm created a path for me and so many others,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/964261538247970816?s=20">tweeted</a> in Feb. 2018. “She is one of the reasons I am serving the people of California in the U.S. Senate today.”
Days later, Harris <a href="https://www.essence.com/news/politics/honor-shirley-chisholm-kamala-harris-yvette-clarke-statue-bill/">penned an op-ed</a> in Essence magazine where she called for more black women to follow in Chisholm’s footsteps and run for elected positions across the country, as well as urging for Congress to pass legislation that would place a statue of Chisholm inside the nation’s Capitol Building.
“Fifty years from now, I hope that statue stands among the other American icons we honor in the Capitol. I hope Black women crowd into the Senators-only elevator, giving every American equal voice and equal representation,” Harris wrote. “And I hope that all our nation’s leaders demonstrate the guts, grit, and grace that Shirley Chisholm taught us.”

Kamala Harris Speaks At Thurgood Marshall College Fund

Kamala Harris Names Her Four All-Time Favorite Politicians. One Is a Beloved Republican.

Abraham Lincoln

Jerry Brown

Kamala Harris

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Former President Barack Obama has been awarded yet another prize for his commitment to &#8220;peace,&#8221; though this time it&#8217;s not the Nobel, it&#8217;s the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope award, bestowed for Obama&#8217;s &#8220;work toward a more peaceful and just world.&#8221;
<a href="http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/06/barack-obama-rfk-human-rights-award/">The Daily Caller reports</a> that the center announced Obama as the award recipient Monday night, but that no mention was made of Obama&#8217;s long and storied history of drone strikes (one occurred approximately every half hour of his presidency, at least in his second term), or his larger foreign policy narrative.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
We are honored to present <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BarackObama</a> with our 2018 Ripple of Hope Award. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RFK50?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RFK50</a> <a href="https://t.co/7MEAZ5vwOs">pic.twitter.com/7MEAZ5vwOs</a>
&#8212; RFK Human Rights (@RFKHumanRights) <a href="https://twitter.com/RFKHumanRights/status/1026456623311716354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
Obama responded by crediting Robert F. Kennedy with inspiring his own political ambitions.
&#8220;Bobby Kennedy was one of my heroes,&#8221; Obama tweeted in response to the announcement. &#8220;He was someone who showed us the power of acting on our ideals, the idea that any of us can be one of the &#8216;million different centers of energy and daring&#8217; that ultimately combine to change the world for the better.&#8221;
The DC notes that Obama has fallen under harsh criticism for human rights violations that occurred under his tenure as president. One report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism even claims that covert drone strikes killed more than 1,000 civilians during his presidency. His lack of leadership in Iraq and Afghanistan left vacuums of leadership in the Middle East that created desperate situations that may have led to more bloodshed.
Obama will receive the award at a gala later this summer.

Former President Barack Obama Awarded ANOTHER ‘Peace Prize’

Barack Obama

Kennedy Family

Notorious <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-distorted-vaccine-science1/">anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist</a> Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said that he was told from the White House that &#8220;a vaccine safety commission&#8221; will eventually be established.
At a National Press Club <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2017/02/15/vaccines-trump-panel-kennedy/?s_campaign=tw&amp;utm_content=bufferca18e&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">event</a> with fellow anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert de Niro, Kennedy stated that three aides to Trump suggested that the panel was still in the process of being created and the details still needed to be ironed out.
&#8220;I can&#8217;t tell you what&#8217;s going to happen,&#8221; Kennedy said.
Before Trump was sworn in as president, Kennedy claimed that he spoke to Trump over the phone in January, and the president-elect promised that he was &#8220;not going to back down&#8221; on the issue even if the pharmaceutical industry tried to push back against it.
Kennedy has also previously claimed that Trump asked him to chair a &#8220;vaccine safety and scientific integrity&#8221; committee.
The Trump administration has denied that they ever extended such an invitation to Kennedy and stated that there hasn&#8217;t been a decision yet on the vaccine panel.
Still, Trump&#8217;s previous statements on vaccines do warrant concern on the issue, as the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/13/what-could-trump-really-do-to-vaccines.html">Daily Beast</a> has noted that Trump has previously tweeted that he was against a &#8220;massive dose&#8221; of vaccines and that he was &#8220;proven right about massive vaccinations&#8212;the doctors lied. Save our children &amp; their future.&#8221; Therefore, it doesn&#8217;t seem unreasonable to think that Trump would reach out to Kennedy to head a vaccine panel.
The Daily Beast also points out that there are two main ways that Trump could adversely effect vaccines: slash funding for the Vaccines For Children Program that &#8220;purchases vaccines at a discount and distributes them to states to inoculate poor children&#8221; as well as influence parents not to vaccinate their children due to the conspiracy theories promulgated by Trump and Kennedy.
Of course, the science is clear-cut that vaccines are <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/4930/7-reasons-anti-vaxxers-are-total-idiots-aaron-bandler">perfectly safe</a> and effective, which is what makes Trump&#8217;s alleged overtures to Kennedy worrisome. This is definitely something to keep an eye on going forward.
Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">@bandlersbanter</a>.

Anti-Vaxxer RFK, Jr.: Trump Will Create A Vaccine Commission

Donald Trump

Vaccines

For all the talk about how Donald Trump may be dangerous for the nation, it has all been conjecture &#8211; until now.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Robert F Kennedy JR says Trump asked him to chair a commission on vaccine safety and he agreed. Has lobbied for vaccine exemptions.
&#8212; Ginger Gibson (@GingerGibson) <a href="https://twitter.com/GingerGibson/status/818897010053042177">January 10, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Kennedy, who is opposed to vaccines, claiming that those containing the element thimerosal may cause autism, which has no scientific evidence to back it up, chortled that Trump had asked him for the meeting, and asked him to &#8220;chair a commission on vaccination safety and scientific integrity.&#8221;
Kennedy wrote a book and promoted a documentary that supported the elimination of vaccines; as <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-meets-with-vaccine-skeptic-robert-kennedy-jr/">CBS News </a> reports:
<blockquote>
&#8220;During one showing of that documentary, according to the Sacramento Bee, Kennedy compared the damage done by vaccines to &#8220;a holocaust.&#8221; &#8220;They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone,&#8221; Kennedy said at the screening in 2015. &#8220;This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Kennedy later <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-apologizes-for-holocaust-comment-in-vaccine-debate/">apologized</a>.
But Trump himself has vacillated on the issue of vaccines, saying in a 2015 GOP primary debate:
<blockquote>
I am totally in favor of vaccines. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time. Same exact amount, but you take this little beautiful baby, and you pump&#8211;I mean, it looks just like it&#8217;s meant for a horse, not for a child, and we&#8217;ve had so many instances, people that work for me. &#8230; [in which] a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back and a week later had a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.
</blockquote>
He has also tweeted:
<div class="media_embed">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn&#8217;t feel good and changes &#8211; AUTISM. Many such cases!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/449525268529815552">March 28, 2014</a></blockquote>
</div>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Lots of autism and vaccine response. Stop these massive doses immediately. Go back to single, spread out shots! What do we have to lose.
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/260412905361657856">October 22, 2012</a></blockquote>
</div>
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="http://www.vaccineinformation.org/vaccines-save-lives/">all strongly support</a> protecting children with recommended vaccinations. To eliminate vaccines would be truly dangerous; as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="v">noted</a>:
<blockquote>
In 1974, Japan had a successful pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination program, with nearly 80% of Japanese children vaccinated. That year only 393 cases of pertussis were reported in the entire country, and there were no deaths from pertussis. But then rumors began to spread that pertussis vaccination was no longer needed and that the vaccine was not safe, and by 1976 only 10% of infants were getting vaccinated. In 1979 Japan suffered a major pertussis epidemic, with more than 13,000 cases of whooping cough and 41 deaths.
</blockquote>
The CDC <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/whatifstop.htm">added</a> that the success of vaccines protected the U.S. population:
<blockquote>
Before the middle of the last century, diseases like whooping cough, polio, measles, Haemophilus influenzae, and rubella struck hundreds of thousands of infants, children and adults in the U.S.. Thousands died every year from them. As vaccines were developed and became widely used, rates of these diseases declined until today most of them are nearly gone from our country. Nearly everyone in the U.S. got measles before there was a vaccine, and hundreds died from it each year. Today, most doctors have never seen a case of measles. More than 15,000 Americans died from diphtheria in 1921, before there was a vaccine. Only one case of diphtheria has been reported to CDC since 2004.
An epidemic of rubella (German measles) in 1964-65 infected 12½ million Americans, killed 2,000 babies, and caused 11,000 miscarriages. In 2012, 9 cases of rubella were reported to CDC.
</blockquote>
The CDC concluded:
<blockquote>
The United States has very low rates of vaccine-preventable diseases, but this isn&#8217;t true everywhere in the world. Only one disease &#8212; smallpox &#8212; has been totally erased from the planet. Polio no longer occurs in the U.S., but it is still paralyzing children in several African countries. More than 350,000 cases of measles were reported from around the world in 2011, with outbreaks in the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and Europe. In that same year, 90% of measles cases in the U.S. were associated with cases imported from another country. Only the fact that most Americans are vaccinated against measles prevented these clusters of cases from becoming epidemics.
Disease rates are low in the United States today. But if we let ourselves become vulnerable by not vaccinating, a case that could touch off an outbreak of some disease that is currently under control is just a plane ride away.
</blockquote>
Trump seems to be swayed by anecdotal evidence rather than actual facts. In some cases that might be tolerable, but there are millions of lives at stake, and this is no time to accede to those wanting to take us back to the era of losing thousands of children to diseases we can currently prevent.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kamala Harris Names Her Four All-Time Favorite Politicians. One Is a Beloved Republican.

Former President Barack Obama Awarded ANOTHER ‘Peace Prize’

Anti-Vaxxer RFK, Jr.: Trump Will Create A Vaccine Commission

Dangerous: Trump Consulting Anti-Vaxxers

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kamala Harris Names Her Four All-Time Favorite Politicians. One Is a Beloved Republican.

Former President Barack Obama Awarded ANOTHER ‘Peace Prize’

Anti-Vaxxer RFK, Jr.: Trump Will Create A Vaccine Commission

Dangerous: Trump Consulting Anti-Vaxxers

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