KAMALA’S WAY Kamala'sKamala's Way Way CC.indd 234x153.indd 1 1 25/11/202025/11/2020 10:3212:39 KAMALA’S WAY An American Life DAN MORAIN Kamala'sKamala's Way Way 234x153.indd CC.indd 2 2 25/11/202025/11/2020 12:39 10:32Kamala's Way CC.indd 3 25/11/2020 10:32 KAMALA’S WAY An American Life DAN MORAIN Kamala's Way CC.indd 2 25/11/2020 10:32Kamala'sKamala's Way Way CC.indd 234x153.indd 3 3 25/11/202025/11/2020 10:3212:39 First published in the United States by Simon & Schuster, 2021 First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2021 Copyright © Dan Morain, 2021 The right of Dan Morain to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the To Claudia, my everything Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Simon & Schuster UK Ltd 1st Floor 222 Gray’s Inn Road London WC1X 8HB www.simonandschuster.co.uk www.simonandschuster.com.au www.simonandschuster.co.in Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi The author and publishers have made all reasonable efforts to contact copyright-holders for permission, and apologise for any omissions or errors in the form of credits given. Corrections may be made to future printings. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Hardback ISBN: 978-1-3985-0485-1 Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-3985-0487-5 eBook ISBN: 978-1-3985-0486-8 Interior design by Lewelin Polanco Printed in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Kamala'sKamala's Way Way 234x153.indd CC.indd 4 4 25/11/202025/11/2020 12:39 10:32Kamala's Way CC.indd 5 25/11/2020 10:32 First published in the United States by Simon & Schuster, 2021 First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2021 Copyright © Dan Morain, 2021 The right of Dan Morain to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the To Claudia, my everything Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Simon & Schuster UK Ltd 1st Floor 222 Gray’s Inn Road London WC1X 8HB www.simonandschuster.co.uk www.simonandschuster.com.au www.simonandschuster.co.in Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi The author and publishers have made all reasonable efforts to contact copyright-holders for permission, and apologise for any omissions or errors in the form of credits given. Corrections may be made to future printings. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Hardback ISBN: 978-1-3985-0485-1 Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-3985-0487-5 eBook ISBN: 978-1-3985-0486-8 Interior design by Lewelin Polanco Printed in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Kamala's Way CC.indd 4 25/11/2020 10:32Kamala'sKamala's Way Way CC.indd 234x153.indd 5 5 25/11/202025/11/2020 10:3212:39 Contents 1 Shyamala’s Daughter 1 2 That Little Girl 11 3 An Education, Apartheid, and a Slaughter 18 4 A Taste of Politics 27 5 Setting Her Sights 38 6 Becoming a Boldface 43 7 Severing Heads. Figuratively. 48 8 Officer Down 56 9 Getting “Smart” on Crime 62 10 Harris and Obama 67 11 The Mad Dash 70 12 Change Comes to California 80 13 Attorney General Harris 87 14 The Relic 94 15 Wedding Bells 100 16 The Damned Photos 108 17 Mortgage Meltdown 114 18 Phenomenal Women 121 19 “Just a Dude” 125 Kamala'sKamala's Way Way 234x153.indd CC.indd 6 6 25/11/202025/11/2020 12:39 10:32Kamala's Way CC.indd 7 25/11/2020 10:32 Contents 1 Shyamala’s Daughter 1 2 That Little Girl 11 3 An Education, Apartheid, and a Slaughter 18 4 A Taste of Politics 27 5 Setting Her Sights 38 6 Becoming a Boldface 43 7 Severing Heads. Figuratively. 48 8 Officer Down 56 9 Getting “Smart” on Crime 62 10 Harris and Obama 67 11 The Mad Dash 70 12 Change Comes to California 80 13 Attorney General Harris 87 14 The Relic 94 15 Wedding Bells 100 16 The Damned Photos 108 17 Mortgage Meltdown 114 18 Phenomenal Women 121 19 “Just a Dude” 125 Kamala's Way CC.indd 6 25/11/2020 10:32Kamala'sKamala's Way Way CC.indd 234x153.indd 7 7 25/11/202025/11/2020 10:3212:39 viii Contents 20 Woman in a Hurry 130 21 Joe Biden Gives Harris a Hand 134 22 Picking Her Shots 142 23 Fighting the Forever War 147 24 “Go Get ’Em” 154 25 “I Intend to Fight” 161 KAMALA’S 26 Stepping onto the National Stage 166 27 The Resistance 172 WAY 28 “I’m Asking the Questions” 181 29 “Yes or No” 186 30 Harris v. Kavanaugh 193 31 A Death in the Family 201 32 “For the People” 206 33 Timing Is Everything 211 34 Dancing in the Rain 218 Acknowledgments 227 Notes 229 Kamala'sKamala's Way Way 234x153.indd CC.indd 8 8 25/11/202025/11/2020 12:39 10:32Kamala's Way CC.indd 9 25/11/2020 10:32 viii Contents 20 Woman in a Hurry 130 21 Joe Biden Gives Harris a Hand 134 22 Picking Her Shots 142 23 Fighting the Forever War 147 24 “Go Get ’Em” 154 25 “I Intend to Fight” 161 KAMALA’S 26 Stepping onto the National Stage 166 27 The Resistance 172 WAY 28 “I’m Asking the Questions” 181 29 “Yes or No” 186 30 Harris v. Kavanaugh 193 31 A Death in the Family 201 32 “For the People” 206 33 Timing Is Everything 211 34 Dancing in the Rain 218 Acknowledgments 227 Notes 229 Kamala's Way CC.indd 8 25/11/2020 10:32Kamala'sKamala's Way Way CC.indd 234x153.indd 9 9 25/11/202025/11/2020 10:3212:39 1 Shyamala’s Daughter f Kamala Harris owes her place in history to anyone, it is to the twenty-six-year-old Indian immigrant who gave birth to her at IKaiser Hospital in Oakland, California, in the fall of 1964. Per- haps it was no coincidence that her birth came just two weeks before Election Day, and that it came in California. It was a year and a state that proved to be the perfect incubator for a girl who grew up proving that social progress and bare-knuckle politics go hand in hand. That little girl grew up to be a tough, sharp-witted, exacting, hard- working, smart, multilayered, and multicultural woman. Kamala Harris misses little and forgets even less. She has loyal supporters who have been part of her political organization from the start, and she has alienated people who were once as close as family. When the cameras aren’t on, she has exhibited empathy and acts of kindness for people who could not help her, and some people who have known her well see her as cold and calculating. Though she lives on a national stage, Harris shares few personal details. She is a foodie who finds joy in cooking and dining at fine restaurants and out-of-the-way joints. The one time we had lunch she picked a small family-owned Carib- bean place across from the capitol in Sacramento; she talked about the varied spices and ate slowly, unlike me, she noted. Mostly, she is her mother’s daughter. People who work closely with her say hardly a week goes by that she doesn’t recall some nugget of wisdom passed along by Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who died in 2009. The one she most often repeats publicly: “You may be the first to do many things, Kamala'sKamala's Way Way 234x153.indd CC.indd 10 10 25/11/202025/11/2020 12:39 10:32Kamala's Way CC.indd 1 25/11/2020 10:32 1 Shyamala’s Daughter f Kamala Harris owes her place in history to anyone, it is to the twenty-six-year-old Indian immigrant who gave birth to her at IKaiser Hospital in Oakland, California, in the fall of 1964. Per- haps it was no coincidence that her birth came just two weeks before Election Day, and that it came in California. It was a year and a state that proved to be the perfect incubator for a girl who grew up proving that social progress and bare-knuckle politics go hand in hand. That little girl grew up to be a tough, sharp-witted, exacting, hard- working, smart, multilayered, and multicultural woman. Kamala Harris misses little and forgets even less. She has loyal supporters who have been part of her political organization from the start, and she has alienated people who were once as close as family. When the cameras aren’t on, she has exhibited empathy and acts of kindness for people who could not help her, and some people who have known her well see her as cold and calculating. Though she lives on a national stage, Harris shares few personal details. She is a foodie who finds joy in cooking and dining at fine restaurants and out-of-the-way joints. The one time we had lunch she picked a small family-owned Carib- bean place across from the capitol in Sacramento; she talked about the varied spices and ate slowly, unlike me, she noted.