Leftist radicals are Harris’ trusted advisers

OPINION:

Since being coronated the Democratic nominee for president without receiving a single vote in a primary, Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to transform herself from Berkeley radical to “joyful” moderate.

But there is an old saying in politics: “Personnel is policy.” By that measure, Ms. Harris hasn’t changed a bit.

Contrary to her purported road to Damascus moderating experience upon becoming the nominee, Ms. Harris has purposefully surrounded herself with a cadre of liberals, progressives and even a few radicals.

The most senior is Brian Fallon, whose title is senior adviser. Mr. Fallon is a veteran of the Justice Department under former President Barack Obama and the failed 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Mr. Fallon co-founded a dark-money activist group called Demand Justice, which could more accurately be called Distort Justice.

Demand Justice successfully hounded Justice Stephen Breyer with calls to retire during the Biden administration and has spent the last four years promoting the fringe idea of a Democratic administration packing the Supreme Court. Yet Mr. Fallon, co-founder of this group, is now “crafting the vice president’s daily message.”

It gets worse. The Harris-Walz campaign has hired as its faith adviser the Rev. Jennifer Butler, who has called America “an imperial cult” and “a bloodthirsty beast.”

The Presbyterian minister says that “a large percentage of White Christians is marching to the drumbeat of White nationalism,” and “Christians are using [religious freedom] as a sword.” These attacks just might give the impression that the campaign is hostile to people of faith.

But perhaps the best example is the vice president’s new “climate engagement director.” Camila Thorndike, a former staffer for Sen. Bernie Sanders, was most recently employed by a dark money group called Rewiring America — best known for leading the unpopular effort to ban natural gas stoves.

Ms. Thorndike describes herself as “a climate hype girl” and has said publicly over the years that the question of whether or not to start a family in light of climate change “keeps [her] up at night.” She has also referred to the United States as a “rapacious fossil fuel, White supremacist economy and culture.”

This is the kind of misguided “environmentalism” we expect out of progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But with Ms. Thorndike in the halls of power, a Harris presidency could impose this destructive ideology on the American economy, shutting down energy jobs and driving up costs for Americans who are already struggling. There is nothing moderate about that.

If Ms. Harris wants to prove that she is moving to the center, then she should jettison far-left climate policies for the energy agenda conservatives are advocating. It would not only be the moderate thing to do but would also be a lot more effective.

For the last 15 years, the United States has led the world in reducing carbon emissions, including under former President Donald Trump. This didn’t happen because Washington banned gas stoves that are used in one-quarter of American households or because of protests from “woke” activists such as Ms. Thorndike. It certainly wasn’t because of nonbinding agreements such as the 2015 Paris climate accord. Rather, it was achieved through technology and the free market.

Increasing production of clean American energy and expanding consumer choice drive down emissions. Other conservative policies can do more, including supporting our manufacturers with a carbon tariff to punish China for its unfair trade practices, its use of slave labor and its cavalier destruction of the environment.

But I won’t hold my breath waiting for Ms. Harris to have a genuine change of heart. While the vice president is sprinting away from her previous anti-American energy agenda, she keeps Ms. Thorndike on the payroll, and she acknowledged that “climate anxiety” is endemic to her staff.

So which Kamala Harris will we get — the left-wing radical or the self-proclaimed moderate? The vice president keeps telling the press that her values haven’t changed, and her radical activist base seems to believe her. It’s no wonder why: You are known by the company you keep, and the company Ms. Harris keeps is as fringe as it gets.

• Chris Johnson is a GOP strategist who organizes the next generation of conservative leaders. He also serves as a senior adviser to the National Federation of College Republicans, focusing on energy issues.