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In the wake of the assassination of [Qasem Soleimani](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qasem_Soleimani "Qasem Soleimani"), the commander of the Iranian [Quds Force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quds_Force "Quds Force"), Harris joined her Senate colleagues in introducing the No War Against Iran Act and condemning Trump's "dangerous escalation" with the Iranian regime.[\[219\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-219) |
## Kamala Harris' political views |
### Middle East |
#### Saudi Arabia |
In late 2018, Harris voted to withdraw U.S. military aid for [Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabian-led_intervention_in_Yemen "Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen"). She also backed a resolution blaming Saudi Crown Prince [Mohammad bin Salman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_bin_Salman "Mohammad bin Salman") for the murder of dissident journalist [Jamal Khashoggi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Khashoggi "Jamal Khashoggi") at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul[\[220\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-220) and said that Trump had turned a blind eye to the murder.[\[165\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-CFR2019-165) She has called for a "fundamental" reevaluation of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, but acknowledged that the Saudis have been strong partners in areas of mutual interest, such as [counterterrorism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterterrorism "Counterterrorism").[\[165\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-CFR2019-165) |
## Kamala Harris' political views |
### Middle East |
#### Syria |
In April 2017, in response to the [Khan Shaykhun chemical attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Shaykhun_chemical_attack "Khan Shaykhun chemical attack"), Harris condemned Syrian president [Bashar al-Assad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashar_al-Assad "Bashar al-Assad") for attacking Syrian children, calling it a "clear fact that president Assad is not only a ruthless dictator brutalizing his own people鈥攈e is a war criminal the international community cannot ignore." She called on Trump to work with Congress on his administration's "lack of clear objectives in Syria and articulate a detailed strategy and path forward in partnership with our allies."[\[221\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-221) Later that month, in her first overseas trip as a senator, she visited the [Zaatari refugee camp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaatari_refugee_camp "Zaatari refugee camp") in Jordan, the world's largest camp for Syrian refugees.[\[222\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-222) |
In May 2017, the Trump administration armed [Kurds in Syria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rojava "Rojava") in the fight against [ISIS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISIS "ISIS") over the objections of [Turkey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey "Turkey").[\[223\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-223) In November 2017, under pressure from Turkish President [Recep Tayyip Erdogan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan "Recep Tayyip Erdogan"), Trump reversed course and cut off the Kurds' supply of arms.[\[224\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-224) Then, in December 2018, Trump announced the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, leading to the resignation of Defense Secretary [Jim Mattis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Mattis "Jim Mattis"). Harris immediately criticized Trump's decision, which gave [Turkey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey "Turkey") the green light to launch the [military offensive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Turkish_offensive_into_north-eastern_Syria "2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria") against Syrian Kurds.[\[225\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-225) |
In August 2019, after Representative [Tulsi Gabbard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsi_Gabbard "Tulsi Gabbard") attacked Harris's record as a prosecutor in a presidential debate, Harris called Gabbard an "apologist" for Assad's regime.[\[226\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-226) In a November 2019 a presidential debate, Harris condemned Gabbard for meeting with Assad in 2017, her subsequent skepticism about claims that Assad used chemical weapons against civilians in [Khan Shaykhun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Shaykhun_chemical_attack "Khan Shaykhun chemical attack"), and her refusal to call Assad a war criminal. |
## Kamala Harris' political views |
## Climate change and the environment |
U.S. Senator Harris tours neighborhood in Santa Rosa, California. |
During her time as San Francisco District Attorney, Harris created the Environmental Justice Unit in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office[\[228\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-228) and prosecuted several industries and individuals for pollution, most notably [U-Haul](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-Haul "U-Haul"), Alameda Publishing Corporation, and the [Cosco Busan oil spill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosco_Busan_oil_spill "Cosco Busan oil spill"). She also advocated strong enforcement of environmental protection laws.[\[229\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-229) |
In October 2017, Harris was one of 19 senators to sign a letter to [Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrator_of_the_Environmental_Protection_Agency "Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency") [Scott Pruitt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Pruitt "Scott Pruitt") questioning Pruitt's decision to repeal the [Clean Power Plan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Power_Plan "Clean Power Plan"), asserting that the repeal's proposal used "mathematical sleights of hand to overstate the costs of industry compliance with the 2015 Rule and understate the benefits that will be lost if the 2017 repeal is finalized" and that denying science and fabricating math would fail to "satisfy the requirements of the law, nor will it slow the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, the inexorable rise in sea levels, or the other dire effects of global warming that our planet is already experiencing."[\[230\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-230) |
In September 2018, Harris was one of eight senators to sponsor the Climate Risk Disclosure Act, a bill co-sponsor [Elizabeth Warren](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren "Elizabeth Warren") said would use "market forces to speed up the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy鈥攔educing the odds of an environmental and financial disaster without spending a dime of taxpayer money."[\[231\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-231) Harris said her goal would be to get 100% of U.S. electricity from [renewable energy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy "Renewable energy") sources, and that she supports a [Green New Deal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal "Green New Deal"), an idea popularized by Representative [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria_Ocasio-Cortez "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez"), because "climate change is an existential threat to all of us".[\[232\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-232) |
In November 2018, Harris was one of 25 Democratic senators to co-sponsor a resolution specifying key findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and National Climate Assessment. The resolution affirmed the senators' acceptance of the findings and their support for bold action to [address climate change](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_mitigation "Climate change mitigation").[\[233\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-233) |
On July 29, 2019, Harris and Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Climate Equity Act, a bill that laid out steps for Congress and the White House to guarantee policies that composed "a future Green New Deal to protect the health and economic wellbeing of all Americans for generations to come." Calling climate change "an existential threat", Harris said that cutting emissions and ending American reliance on fossil fuels were not enough and cited the need "that communities already contending with unsafe drinking water, toxic air, and lack of economic opportunity are not left behind." |
In August 2019, Harris was one of 15 senators to sign a letter to EPA Administrator [Andrew Wheeler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_R._Wheeler "Andrew R. Wheeler") urging the EPA to ban chlorpyrifos given that the agency had found "that chlorpyrifos harms children's brains at exposures far lower than what the EPA allows" and warned that "more children, farmworkers and American families will be exposed to this pesticide and they will suffer as a result" of the EPA not reversing its decision.[\[235\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-235) |
On September 4, 2019, Harris unveiled a $10 trillion climate change plan intended to move the U.S. to a 100% renewable energy-based power grid by 2030 in addition to requiring that all vehicles sold in the U.S. have no tailpipe emissions by 2035.[\[236\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-236) She pledged to rejoin the [Paris Agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement "Paris Agreement") and end U.S. support for international oil and natural gas extraction projects, adding that as president she would "hold polluters accountable for the damage they inflict upon our environment and set us on a path to a 100% clean economy that creates millions of good-paying jobs".[\[237\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-237) |
In February 2020 Harris was one of seven senators to sign a letter to [Secretary of the Interior](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_the_Interior "United States Secretary of the Interior") [David Bernhardt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bernhardt "David Bernhardt") that called it "reckless and unwise" to remove protections to the Arctic after the U.S. Geological Survey found the Arctic to the fastest-warming place on earth and stating their support for "the strongest possible protections" for Special Areas within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.[\[238\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris#cite_note-238) |
In April 2020, in response to the proposed decision of the EPA to retain the [Obama administration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_administration "Obama administration")'s air quality standards, Harris was one of 18 senators to sign a letter led by [Maggie Hassan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Hassan "Maggie Hassan") asserting that the EPA "should be taking actions that will further protect health during this crisis, not put more Americans at risk". |
## Kamala Harris speaking style |
bay you either live in the Hills or the |
Flatlands we lived in the flats a |
beautiful workingclass neighborhood of |
firefighters nurses and construction |
workers all who tended their lawns with |
pride my mother she worked long hours |
and like many working parents she leaned |
on a trusted Circle to help raise us Mrs |
Shelton who ran the daycare below us and |
became a second mother |
Uncle Sherman Aunt Mary uncle Freddy |
Auntie Chris none of them family by |
Blood and all of them family by |
love family who taught us how to make |
gumbo how to play |
chess and sometimes even let us |
win family who loves loved us believed |
in us and told us we could be anything |
and do |
anything they instilled in us the values |
they |
personified |
Community faith and the importance of |
treating others as you would want to be |
treated with |
kindness respect and |
compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 |
foot tall brown woman with an |
accent and as the eldest child as the |
eldest child I saw how the world would |
sometimes treat her but my mother never |
lost her cool she was tough courageous a |
Trailblazer in the fight for Women's |
Health and she taught Maya and me |
a lesson that Michelle mentioned the |
other night she taught us to never |
complain about Injustice but do |
something about it do something about |
it that was my |
mother and she taught us and she always |
she also taught us and she also taught |
us and never do anything half |
asked and that is a direct quote |
qu a direct |
quote I grew up immersed in the ideal of |
the Civil Rights Movement my parents had |
met at a civil rights Gathering and they |
made sure that we learned about civil |
rights leaders including the lawyers |
like thur Good Marshall and con |
Constance Baker |
mle those who battled in the courtroom |
to make real the promise of America so |
at a young age I decided I wanted to do |
that work I wanted to be a lawyer and |
when it came time to choose the type of |
law I would pursue I reflected on a |
pivotal moment in my |
life you see when I was in high school I |
started to notice something about my |
best friend |
Wanda she was sad at school and there |
were times she didn't want to go home |
so one day I asked if everything was all |
right and she confided in me that she |
was being sexually abused by her |
stepfather and I immediately told her |
she had to come stay with us and she |
did this is one of the reasons I became |
a |