VP Harris to sit down with accused rapist Clinton to talk “women empowerment”

OPINION:

Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to have a one-on-one “women’s empowerment” conversation with accused rapist and former President Bill Clinton on Friday.

Just who at the White House approved this conversation?

The meeting is part of the 13th annual Clinton Global Initiative University meeting (yes, the Clinton Global Initiative is still a thing) and is set to take place at Mrs. Harris’ alma mater, Howard University.

The virtual meeting will “bring together 600 students from across the world who have made Commitments to Act — new, specific, and measurable initiatives that address pressing challenges,” the Clinton Foundation wrote in a statement, and the topics will include “the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, and empowering women and girls in the U.S. and around the world.”

Was there no one better to have this conversation with than Mr. Clinton? Jeffrey Epstein or Harvey Weinstein, perhaps? Former President Clinton was impeached after having sexual relations with an intern while serving in the Oval Office and has been accused of rape by Juanita Broaddrick and sexual misconduct by three other women.

Although dismissed by Democratic Sen. Kristen Gillibrand and others during the #MeToo movement, Mr. Clinton must still have some pull with the donor class, which continues to fund the Clinton Global Foundation.

And perhaps that’s why Mrs. Harris is having the conversation with him rather than his daughter Chelsea — which would be better optics. Mrs. Harris follows the money.

Mrs. Harris, like Mr. Clinton, is a creature of the Democratic establishment and donor class — why else would President Biden name her as vice president? She was despised in California among the working class and Democratic voters didn’t take to her during the presidential primary, where she didn’t even make it to the Iowa primary. 

Yet, Mrs. Harris had more billionaire donors than any other Democratic candidate running for president last year. As Jacobin magazine reported, Silicon Valley’s big-money donors were very excited about her VP pick, given her “deep and long-standing ties to the Silicon Valley elite,” allowing corporate leaders to breathe “a deep sigh of relief.” 

“Donors to her failed presidential bid included Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky, Microsoft president Brad Smith, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, Oracle NetSuite executives Evan Goldberg and Dorian Daley, Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer, former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos, and venture capitalist John Doerr,” Jacobin added.

The list goes on, with Politico reporting other past donors to Mrs. Harris including “Tony Fadell, co-founder of smart thermostat maker Nest; Jony Ive, the design guru at Apple; Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder and former Facebook president; and Brian Chesky, chief executive of Airbnb, the home-sharing service.”

So, it makes sense why Mr. Clinton would want to tap into her wealthy donor pool and invite Mrs. Harris to have a conversation. Given the broad Clinton Foundation donor list, it also makes sense as to why Mrs. Harris agreed.

To be sure, this conversation will focus on “women’s empowerment,” but all it’s really about is swapping information on wealthy donors to bulk up both Mrs. Harris’ and Mr. Clinton’s vast Rolodexes. That’s the No. 1 priority of the Washington, D.C., establishment swamp, after all: keeping the money coming for the enrichment of oneself.