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U.S. NEWS Monday 2 october 2017
Harris at black church: US isn’t as split as it seems

she advocates a criminal
justice system that honors
“the concept of redemp-
tion.”
Separately, Harris called
for a more effective U.S.
response to hurricane dev-
astation in Puerto Rico. She
did not mention health
care. She’s recently signed
on as a co-sponsor of Ver-
mont Sen. Bernie Sanders’
“Medicare-for-all” bill.
Harris, the daughter of im-
migrants from Jamaica
and India, does not pub-
licly embrace speculation
about her 2020 intentions.
Her calendar is noticeably
devoid of visits to the early
nominating states of Iowa,
New Hampshire and South
In a Tuesday, June 13, 2017 photo, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washing- Carolina. But she’s also met
ton. Harris on Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017, spoke at First Congregational Church of Atlanta as the congre- in recent months with key
gation celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding by freed former slaves. Democratic donors and
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
hired aides who worked for
By BILL BARROW cludes business, civic and general who opposes the 2016 presidential nominee
Associated Press political players in Atlanta’s death penalty, Harris says Hillary Clinton.q
ATLANTA (AP) — Making black community — also
her first high-profile foray nods to a Democratic con-
into the Southern black stituency that helped sway
church, California Sen. Ka- the party’s last two presi-
mala Harris told a Georgia dential nominating battles.
congregation founded by Harris’s future prospects
former freed slaves that dominated her appear-
the United States remains ance as the invited key-
wracked by racism, sexism note for the 150th anniver-
and other forms of discrimi- sary of First Congregational
nation that flout the na- Church’s founding.
tion’s core values. Introducing Harris, church
But the rising Democrat- member and personal
ic Party star added that friend of the senator Eu-
Americans aren’t as split gene Duffy called the oc-
as “forces of hate and di- casion “a day of projec-
vision” suggest. “I believe tion and reflection.” At the
it is time we replace the word “projection,” Duffy
divide-and-conquer,” she pointed at the senator.
said from the pulpit of First Duffy also dispensed with
Congregational Church in Harris’s avoidance of lam-
downtown Atlanta, adding basting the Trump admin-
that national unity comes istration, praising her for
from citizens’ recognizing her aggressive questioning
their share priorities while of “that white supremacist
still honoring diversity. Jeff Sessions,” the nation’s
A 52-year-old, first-term attorney general. He said
senator widely mentioned Harris “pulled (Sessions’)
as a potential national sheet off” at hearings on
candidate, Harris did not Capitol Hill.
mention President Donald Harris smiled but did not
Trump in her remarks. clap as did many congre-
Yet her approach high- gants when Duffy blasted
lights a complex political Sessions.
task for Democrats as they From the pulpit, Harris criti-
try to counter Trump’s eco- cized “the attorney gen-
nomic appeals to working- eral,” without naming Ses-
class whites, while honor- sions, for renewing the
ing their core supporters push for harsher sentences
among nonwhites, to re- in nonviolent drug crimes
build the electoral coali- and for rolling back some
tions that twice elected of policing overhauls from
President Barack Obama. the Obama administration.
And the choice of venue A former local prosecutor
— a congregation that in- and California attorney