Politics

Biden Campaign Tries To Distance Itself From Linda Sarsour, But Kamala Harris Spoke At Sarsour’s Women’s March

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign has publicly distanced itself from former Women’s March co-chair Linda Sarsour.

But Biden’s running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, enthusiastically embraced the Women’s March under Sarsour’s leadership, a Daily Caller News Foundation review found.

Biden’s campaign has also maintained a private channel of communication with Sarsour, who has faced scrutiny for her ties to radical figures including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite.

Sarsour and other Women’s March leaders resigned from the organization in September 2019 after facing criticism for allegedly making anti-Semitic remarks and affiliating with Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

A spokesman for the Biden campaign on August 18 denounced Sarsour after she spoke at a Democratic National Convention event last week.

Campaign officials then reached out to Sarsour and privately apologized for the condemnation, according to a recording of a phone conversation between the officials and Sarsour that was obtained by Middle East Eye.

After news of the phone conversation leaked to the media, the Biden campaign again distanced itself from Sarsour.

“We met to affirm Vice President Biden’s unshakable commitment to working with Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim Americans and to standing up against anti-Muslim prejudice, and to make clear that we regretted any hurt that was caused to these communities,” senior Biden campaign advisor Symone Sanders told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Monday.

Sanders added that the campaign continues to “reject the views that Linda Sarsour has expressed.”

Although the Biden campaign has recently distanced itself from Sarsour, Harris was an enthusiastic supporter of the Women’s March under Sarsour’s leadership.

Harris spoke at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington and promoted the march on social media.

Tomorrow I will be speaking and participating in the @WomensMarch on Washington in Washington, D.C. I’m excited to join this movement.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 21, 2017

You want to talk about women’s issues? That’s fantastic. Let’s talk about health care, education, climate change, and more. #WomensMarch pic.twitter.com/PhNtH7qlNi

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 21, 2017

Here’s a look at some of my favorite photos taken at the @WomensMarch 100 days ago. pic.twitter.com/LkoxIhLaiW

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) April 30, 2017

“The #WomensMarch is not the end, rather, this is just the beginning of a movement. We must recommit ourselves to getting involved at home,” she wrote on Twitter the day after the 2017 march.

Roughly one month before Harris spoke at the 2017 march, Sarsour posed for a photograph with a former Hamas operative, the Daily Caller reported in January 2017.

Harris declared her “solidarity” with the Women’s March ahead of its second annual protest.

“There’s nothing more powerful than a group of determined people marching and standing up for our nation’s values and for what we know is right,” Harris wrote in a January 2018 tweet. “Standing in solidarity with those attending the #WomensMarch across the country.”

The Biden campaign didn’t return an email asking whether Harris regrets promoting Women’s March while it was under Sarsour’s leadership.