Vice President Kamala Harris is being called out for ‘rewriting’ her story about where she really grew up in northern California to claim more moderate beginnings.
The presidential hopeful speaks fondly about her upbringing in Oakland, California, but she actually spent the majority of her youth and early school years in Berkeley, a place with more leftist connotations.
During her presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last week in Chicago, Harris spoke about how her mother rented an apartment in ‘the East Bay.’
‘In the bay, you either live in the hills or the flatlands,’ she said. ‘We lived in the flats, a beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses, and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride.’
Harris, however, did not officially move to the flats of Oakland until she was an adult in her 20s, according to the New York Times.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about her upbringing at the Democratic National Convention without mentioning her ties to Berkeley
Although she was born in an Oakland hospital, her birth certificate lists an apartment building near to the University of California at Berkeley where her parents were pursuing their doctorates.
Harris has a record of speaking vaguely about her upbringing, likely an attempt to identify with a more humble middle class life, instead of the privileged life as a child of Berkeley academics.
Harris also sidestepped her Berkeley identity when she first delivered her official kickoff rally in Oakland for her failed 2020 presidential campaign.
‘I am so proud to be a daughter of Oakland, California,’ she said. ‘And as most of you know, I was born just up the road at Kaiser Hospital.’
In her 2019 memoir, Harris wrote that she ‘spent the formative years of my childhood living on the boundary between Oakland and Berkeley.’
But Harris grew up in Berkeley and attended Berkeley public schools.
She was also part of a busing program that shifted the location of her school to the more wealthy part of the city.
A young Kamala Harris at her mother Shyamala at a laboratory at UC Berkeley
An image of Kamala Harris’ childhood home in Berkeley, California
Harris’ childhood friend wrote about the ‘Berkeley village’ that raised them
Oprah Winfrey mentioned Harris’ participation in the busing initiative during her DNC speech, noting that Harris ‘became part of the second class to integrate the public schools in Berkeley, California.’
A close childhood friend Stacey Johnson-Batiste published a book in 2021 about her relationship with Harris and ‘The Berkeley Village that raised Kamala and me.’
At the DNC, Harris also avoided any mention of her upbringing in Montreal, Canada.
Harris’ mother moved twelve-year-old Kamala and her family to Montreal to teach at McGill University’s medical school and worked in research at the prestigious Jewish General Hospital.
Kamala Harris spent her formative teenage years in Montreal and graduated from High School at the age of 17.
She then moved to Washington, D.C., to study at Howard University before returning back to California.
Harris did not officially move to Oakland until 1993 when she purchased a one-bedroom condo, while she was working as a prosecutor for Alameda County.
In this April 1965 photo provided by the Kamala Harris campaign, Donald Harris holds his daughter, Kamala.
Kamala Harris and her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris
It was then she met and started dating California State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, who appointed her to well-paying positions on state government boards.
Harris moved to San Francisco after she was appointed to work for San Francisco District Attorney Terrence Hallinan.
Harris’ life story drew the attention of Fox News host Jesse Watters who highlighted the Harris family address on her birth certificate.
Jesse Watters uses Kamala Harris’ birth certificate to claim she didn’t didn’t grow up in Oakland pic.twitter.com/ksM0zjcrlk
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 27, 2024
A copy of Kamala Harris’ birth certificate
‘Did you know that Kamala Harris didn’t grow up in Oakland as she always said she did?’ he asked his audience on Jesse Watters Primetime.
Watters featured a New York Times article investigating Harris’ Berkeley ties and her efforts to obfuscate her upbringing in a town known for it’s leftist activism.
‘Kamala Harris grew up in Berkeley, the “People’s Republic of Berkeley,” “Berserkeley,” the most insanely liberal precinct in America,’ he continued.
‘Her birth certificate lists an apartment right next to Berkeley’s campus,’ he noted.