Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris had a solid enough start to her 2020 presidential campaign and received a significant boost in the polls following her opening debate attacks on the front-running candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, but has seen things go steadily downhill since then.
Harris now stands accused of having utilized dozens of her own supporters to artificially boost the enthusiastic response of the crowd during her speech at the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting in San Francisco, a group that abruptly and loudly left the room when another candidate began to deliver the next speech.
Kamala Harris’ personal “cheering section”
Reports suggest that the throng of Harris supporters loudly cheered at all of the senator’s big applause lines in her speech, then promptly exited the room while chanting loudly in her support while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders took the stage to deliver a speech of his own.
That act was viewed with sincere skepticism by The Atlantic‘s Edward-Issac Dovere, who tweeted, “Kamala Harris’s speech at the DNC was boosted by a cheering section of about 40 people that her campaign brought in, erupting every time she hit a big line — and then that group got up and walked out as soon as she finished.”
Several commenters pointed out that the “cheering section” was not just a group of random Harris supporters pressed into service for this particular purpose, but instead were actually campaign volunteers.
However, that seems to be something of a distinction without a difference that doesn’t justify the inauthentic and arguably dishonest nature of their response.
Matching shirts, coordinated chants
Indeed, another attendee at the DNC summer meeting — who goes by the Twitter handle “Plain Ol’ Johnny Graz” — posted a video clip of the group being disruptive on their way out of the room, and also noted that the group continued to chant loudly in support of Harris both as they walked out and while they congregated in the hallway outside, even as Sanders began to address the crowded room.
Graz, as evidenced by his Twitter profile, is certainly no conservative, but his apparent disdain for the Harris crowd was unmistakble when he posted video from the event.
Kamala staffers walking out on Bernie’s speech to the DNC. They’re now yelling outside the hall as Bernie begins to speak. #SFDNC pic.twitter.com/e5WvUsQXg5
— Plain Ol’ Johnny Graz (@jvgraz) August 23, 2019
As can be clearly seen in the clip, the supporters/staffers/volunteers all appeared to be wearing matching shirts in support of Harris as they repeatedly chanted, “She’s smart! She’s strong! With Kamala, you can’t go wrong!”
Trouble in her own backyard
Harris may have started strong and enjoyed the boost she received following the first debate, but the RealClearPolitics average of polls shows that Harris essentially plateaued in terms of her support at about 15% in early July.
She has seen that support steadily decline since then — particularly after she was caught flat-footed by sharp criticisms from Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in the second debate — to now come in at a very distant fourth place among the candidates with about 7.5% support.
Considering San Francisco is, for all intents and purposes, Harris’ hometown, one would readily assume that there would be plenty of organic support among the crowd for the California senator, and she would not need a group of artificially boisterous volunteers to create an inflated sense of enthusiasm for her speech.
1,091 Responses
I’m extremely impressed together with your writing abilities and also with the layout on your weblog. Is that this a paid theme or did you customize it your self? Anyway stay up the nice quality writing, it’s uncommon to peer a great weblog like this one these days..|
My partner and I stumbled over here by a different web address and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to looking at your web page for a second time.|
A lot of thanks for each of your effort on this web site. Ellie really likes carrying out internet research and it’s really easy to understand why. We notice all concerning the dynamic method you give effective ideas by means of this web site and strongly encourage participation from others about this matter so our favorite simple princess has been becoming educated so much. Have fun with the rest of the year. You have been conducting a wonderful job.
With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright infringement? My site has a lot of completely unique content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but it appears a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my agreement. Do you know any methods to help stop content from being ripped off? I’d genuinely appreciate it.
It’s nearly impossible to find knowledgeable people about this topic, but you seem like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks|
Hi! I’ve been reading your weblog for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Lubbock Tx! Just wanted to mention keep up the great work!|
I together with my buddies ended up looking through the excellent suggestions from your web site while all of the sudden developed a terrible feeling I had not thanked the website owner for them. Those young men ended up for this reason stimulated to learn them and have really been using them. Appreciate your being quite thoughtful and also for selecting variety of quality useful guides most people are really desperate to know about. Our own sincere regret for not expressing appreciation to you sooner.
Very nice article, exactly what I needed.|
I’m now not positive where you’re getting your info, but great topic. I must spend some time finding out more or understanding more. Thanks for excellent info I was in search of this information for my mission.|
Hi! Someone in my Facebook group shared this site with us so I came to take a look. I’m definitely loving the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Fantastic blog and great design and style.
Keep this going please, great job!|
Hi there to every body, it’s my first pay a visit of this weblog; this website carries remarkable and in fact excellent stuff designed for visitors.|
fantastic points altogether, you just gained a new reader. What would you suggest in regards to your post that you made some days ago? Any positive?
I do agree with all of the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They are really convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are very short for beginners. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post.
This is a topic which is near to my heart… Best wishes! Where are your contact details though?|
I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme? Fantastic work!
Thanks designed for sharing such a pleasant thought, paragraph is fastidious, thats why i have read it completely|
I do not know whether it’s just me or if everybody else experiencing problems with your blog. It appears as if some of the written text on your content are running off the screen. Can someone else please comment and let me know if this is happening to them as well? This could be a problem with my web browser because I’ve had this happen before. Many thanks|
There are some attention-grabbing cut-off dates in this article however I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There may be some validity however I will take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we wish extra! Added to FeedBurner as properly
I’d should verify with you here. Which is not one thing I usually do! I get pleasure from studying a put up that may make folks think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. After all I will be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again very soon!|
Thanks for sharing excellent informations. Your website is very cool. I’m impressed by the details that you have on this site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this website page, will come back for more articles. You, my friend, ROCK! I found simply the information I already searched everywhere and just couldn’t come across. What a perfect site.
Hi there to all, how is all, I think every one is getting more from this site, and your views are good in support of new people.|
Hi! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could get a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one? Thanks a lot!|
Hi, Neat post. There is a problem with your website in internet explorer, would test this… IE still is the market leader and a large portion of people will miss your excellent writing because of this problem.
Greetings from Carolina! I’m bored at work so I decided to check out your site on my iphone during lunch break. I really like the knowledge you present here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how quick your blog loaded on my mobile .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, fantastic site!|
I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I by no means found any interesting article like yours. It’s beautiful price sufficient for me. In my view, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content material as you probably did, the internet will be much more helpful than ever before.
It’s actually a great and useful piece of info. I am glad that you just shared this useful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.|
Thanks for any other informative site. The place else could I get that kind of information written in such a perfect method? I’ve a venture that I’m just now running on, and I have been at the glance out for such information.|
It is the best time to make some plans for the future and it is time to be happy. I have read this post and if I could I desire to suggest you some interesting things or suggestions. Maybe you can write next articles referring to this article. I desire to read even more things about it!
Wow, fantastic weblog structure! How lengthy have you been running a blog for? you made blogging glance easy. The entire glance of your site is magnificent, let alone the content material!
Hey! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this website? I’m getting fed up of WordPress because I’ve had issues with hackers and I’m looking at options for another platform. I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
I have been absent for a while, but now I remember why I used to love this website. Thank you, I will try and check back more frequently. How frequently you update your web site?
I really like it when folks come together and share views. Great website, continue the good work!|
I do consider all of the concepts you’ve presented to your post. They’re really convincing and can definitely work. Nonetheless, the posts are too brief for novices. Could you please extend them a bit from subsequent time? Thank you for the post.|
Nice weblog here! Additionally your website a lot up very fast! What web host are you the use of? Can I am getting your affiliate link to your host? I want my web site loaded up as quickly as yours lol
It’s going to be finish of mine day, but before end I am reading this fantastic post to increase my knowledge.|
Oh my goodness! Impressive article dude! Thanks, However I am encountering difficulties with your RSS. I don’t know the reason why I can’t join it. Is there anyone else getting similar RSS issues? Anyone that knows the solution can you kindly respond? Thanx!!|
I am sure this paragraph has touched all the internet people, its really really fastidious paragraph on building up new web site.|
I have read a few good stuff here. Definitely worth bookmarking for revisiting. I wonder how much effort you put to make such a fantastic informative website.