Who Would Be A Worse Vice President-- Amy Klobuchar Or Val Demings?

On Thursday, Norman Solomon wrote that "eighteen years before Minneapolis police killed an unarmed black man named George Floyd on Monday, Minneapolis police killed an unarmed black man named Christopher Burns. Today, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar decries the killing of Floyd. Back then, Minneapolis chief prosecutor Amy Klobuchar refused to prosecute city police for killing Burns... [T]he gruesome killing of Floyd has refocused attention on Klobuchar’s history of racial injustice. In sharp contrast to her prosecutorial approach two decades ago, she has issued a statement calling for 'a complete and thorough outside investigation' into Floyd’s death and declaring that 'those involved in this incident must be held accountable.'... Klobuchar’s political record, when it comes to light, simply can’t stand up to scrutiny. While mainstream media rarely seem interested in her Senate record, it has been no less contemptuous of equal protection under the law than her career as a prosecutor. When the progressive advocacy group Demand Justice issued a 'Report Card' about the confirmation votes of Senate Democrats on President Trump’s right-wing federal judge appointees, it explained that the report graded 'willingness to fight Trump’s judges.' Elizabeth Warren received an 'A,' Bernie Sanders an 'A-' and Kamala Harris a 'B+.' Amy Klobuchar got an 'F.'"

This is a gross way to put it, but there's a actual silver lining to this brutal murder of George Floyd: Klobuchar will not be president. I say president because whoever Biden picks as his running mate will probably wind up as president sooner or later. I haven't been writing about the VP speculation much-- just that Susan Rice was briefly in the mix-- but I've always suspected it would be Klobuchar because she's the only one conservative enough to make Biden comfortable.

Yesterday, writing for NBC News, Marianna Sotomayer noted that "Klobuchar’s record as Hennepin County attorney has come under fire in recent days even though she has not been involved with the police officer who is being accused of killing Floyd. Even so, she has faced increased scrutiny from the African American community in numerous op-eds over the last week that say she should not be chosen as Biden’s vice president because of her lack of prosecuting police misconduct in Minnesota during her tenure. Prior to ending her presidential campaign in early March, Klobuchar was forced to cancel a campaign event in St. Louis Park, Minnesota because black activists overtook the stage to protest her decision to sentence a Minnesota teenager to life in prison for murder while serving as county attorney."

Elena Schneider's piece for Politico emphasized Klobuchar's abysmal performance among black voters during her primary run for president-- and how Black activists are warning Biden to steer clear of her. She wrote that Klobuchar has an "ideological profile to mesh well with Biden, and she’s regularly appeared as a surrogate and a fundraiser for him, raking in more than $1.5 million for a single event she headlined. The pair have a warm relationship... and they didn’t tangle publicly during the primary."

But more than a dozen black and Latino strategists and activists warned in interviews that selecting Klobuchar would not help Biden excite black voters-- and might have the opposite effect. Klobuchar would “risk losing the very base the Democrats need to win,” said Aimee Allison, founder of She the People, which promotes women of color in politics. They pointed to Klobuchar’s poor performance among nonwhite voters during the presidential primary, as well as her record as a prosecutor in Minnesota.

It’s not yet clear how much the opposition of activists matters to Biden. He's made clear that the electoral politics of his pick matter less than choosing someone who can be a governing partner and step into the top job without worry.

But the vocal contingent of African American and Latino detractors-- many of whom said they would prefer that Biden select a black woman as a running mate-- is unique to Klobuchar; Elizabeth Warren, another top contender for VP, doesn’t elicit similar antagonism from communities of color.

"It comes from her performance in the primary-- her weakness in being able to motivate them," said Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, who supports several potential vice presidential selections. “The engagement and the enthusiasm of black voters is going to be a difference-maker in this election, and the concerns about her in this role stem from the degree to which she resonated or not with those core constituencies.”

Earlier this week, Biden confirmed that "multiple black women [are] being considered" for vice president. Those often named include Sen. Kamala Harris, former Georgia gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams and Florida Rep. Val Demings. Besides Klobuchar, other Midwestern options, like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, have been mentioned.

But for many of these operatives, Klobuchar symbolizes a strategic division within the Democratic Party: whether to focus on winning back white, Midwestern voters who flipped to Donald Trump in 2016, or on activating voters of color who were not excited to vote. She “represents that tension,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who added he’s told Biden that he would prefer a black woman on the ticket, but noted he’s “not anti-Amy.”

“It is not her fault, but she is in the middle of an ongoing battle from the last few presidential races,” Sharpton continued, adding he would be “concerned” that selecting Klobuchar would not help energize black and brown voters.

In a Washington Post op-ed this month urging Biden to select a woman of color as running mate, seven black strategists and activists called out Klobuchar, warning she would “only alienate black voters.”

"Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, does not need help winning white, working-class voters-- he serves that function himself," they wrote. Referring to her record as a chief prosecutor in Minneapolis-based Hennepin County, they added, "A choice such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN), who failed to prosecute controversial police killings and is responsible for the imprisonment of Myon Burrell, will only alienate black voters."

“If it was important enough to raise in an op-ed, it speaks to how serious we are,” LaTosha Brown, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter and the lead author of the op-ed, said in an interview. “Her campaign appeal was about bringing in working-class, white people from the Midwest, and perhaps that’s true, but that’s a particular strategy that doesn’t align with what it’s going to take to win. You need to excite the base.”

Angela Rye, a Democratic strategist and the former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, who also signed the op-ed, called Klobuchar a “nonstarter.”

Klobuchar's boosters counter that opposition to President Donald Trump will bring out the Democratic base no matter what, and that the key Rust Belt states Democrats have to win play to Klobuchar's strengths.

"I think she could help put the upper Midwest in play, and that's an invaluable asset," said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who backed Bernie Sanders during the presidential primary. He also noted that "there are a lot of black people" in the Midwest, in cities like Detroit and Milwaukee, who will be key for Democrats’ winning back those states.

"I think the base is going to be excited enough because, before, Trump was an idea, now Trump is the reality," Ellison continued.

...The primary results illustrate Klobuchar's failure among voters of color.

In South Carolina, she won 1 percent of black voters, even though they make up a majority of Democratic primary voters in the state. It was the lowest total for any of the presidential candidates on the ballot.

In Nevada, Klobuchar received 4 percent support of the Latino vote, the lowest share of any presidential candidate other than Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. Nationally, Klobuchar regularly polled in the low single digits among voters of color.

...Biden, too, was recently warned about not taking African American voters for granted. On Friday, he apologized on a conference call with black leaders for comments he made to The Breakfast Club radio host: "If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black."

Klobuchar’s prosecutorial record as Hennepin County attorney is another sore spot, particularly her handling of a case involving Burrell, a black teenager. An investigation by The Associated Press found numerous flaws in the case, and civil rights leaders in Minnesota called for her to suspend her presidential campaign.

Klobuchar called for an independent investigation after her campaign ended, a move applauded by the Minnesota NAACP.

If Biden picked Klobuchar as his vice president, “it would add to [his] workload” for the general election, said Daughtry, who signed onto another letter sent to Biden, urging the selection of a black woman as vice presidential nominee.

“There are enough people who either A, don’t know her, or B, have a negative view of her that it becomes another thing the campaign has to do-- introduce her and convince communities of color that she’s OK,” Daughtry said. “That’s not impossible, but there’s already a lot of work to do in a presidential race.”

Yesterday House Majority Whip and Biden king maker, Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said that he believes it’s not the right time to choose Klobuchar. "We’re all victims sometimes of timing and some of us benefit tremendously from timing," said Clyburn on a media call. "This is very tough timing for Amy Klobuchar, who I respect so much." He's pushing Val Demings (D-FL), a former police chief in Orlando.

It's a real no-no to refer to a black woman as a moron. But Demings fits the description. She demonstrated she can read her staff's notes aloud-- more or less-- when she participated in the impeachment hearings but the idea of her as a vice president, let alone a president rises to a Trumpian level of unqualified. One of her more senior colleagues in the House who knows her well told me that "Honestly, I could go on and on and on about her. She is a deeply flawed person, in my opinion. I would say that her biggest problem, as an elected official, is her self-absorption. She has now managed to get through two entire campaigns without ever making any promise to anyone to do anything. She stands for nothing except personal advancement. Val Demings is all about Val Demings. Her only constituent is the one in the mirror. She is so lacking in principles that she joined both the Progressive Caucus and the New Dems. If there were a Gay Caucus and a Straight Caucus, she’d probably join both of those, too... On the other hand, her husband should be on that short list. He is an actual public servant, and a good soul. Compared to him, she’s [description deleted; even I couldn't publish it]."

Warren would be the best choice but it's hard to imagine Biden picking someone so much smarter than himself and so much more likely to be admired than he is-- not to mention someone as ideologically distant from where he has spent his entire adult life. Still, Warren is the one who will help him the most electorally and would be the best person standing there if he dies or becomes so much more senile than he already is that he would have to step down.