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Prosecutor who challenged Kamala Harris for California attorney general reveals why the VP is 'dangerously wrong' to serve as president
In a year when Democrats swept all statewide offices, Vice President Kamala Harris barely eked out victory in her campaign for California attorney general in 2010, and the moderate prosecutor who challenged her is now speaking out forcefully against her candidacy for president.
‘I think she’s wholly unqualified and that her election could be the worst thing that happens in my lifetime to our nation,’ Steven Cooley, 77, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
‘She has extreme positions that are not good for this country,’ he said. ‘On immigration, on the economy, on law and order, crime and punishment, I can go on and on and on. I think she’s wrong about almost everything, and dangerously wrong.’
In his campaign, Cooley, then Los Angeles district attorney, ran a TV ad blasting his counterpart in San Francisco for her controversial handling of a case involving the 2004 shooting death of San Francisco police officer Isaac Espinoza.
The ad featured the officer’s mother, tearful and angry over Harris’ decision not to pursue the death penalty against gang member David Hill, who shot the cop with an AK-47 during a traffic stop.
Steven Cooley, 77, (pictured) who challenged Kamala Harris in 2010 for California attorney general, spoke out about what he thinks about her running for presidency in 2024
During their election for district attorney, Cooley revealed that Harris 'was disliked by a lot of people that knew her.' (pictured: Harris board Air Force Two on August 7)
Holding firm to a campaign pledge, the district attorney went on camera just three days after the killing to announce her decision, without seeking input from the victim’s family or given them advance notice.
The late Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein drew a standing ovation from police when she criticized the decision at the funeral. Cooley said this may also help explain why every law enforcement agency in the state endorsed him when he ran for attorney general six years later.
Cooley said 'law enforcement specifically didn’t like her' during their election because she decided not to pursue the death penalty for the gang member who killed San Francisco Police Officer Isaac Espinoza (pictured)
‘Law enforcement specifically didn’t like her because she refused to pursue the death penalty in the machine gun murder of a police officer,’ Cooley said.
'That just really turned off law enforcement, especially when it was widely known that she made the announcement even before Espinoza was buried.’
But it wasn’t just law enforcement giving support, he pointed out. Nearly every newspaper in the state endorsed him.
Cooley said he even got the vote of Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate for governor that year.
‘Governor Brown, who won the governorship that year, told me he was voting for me,’ Cooley told DailyMail.com. ‘I replied "What, why?" and he replied, "I don’t like Kamala Harris." I said "okay, thanks Jerry".'
‘It’s kind of strange, but it’s also pretty said,’ he continued. ‘She was disliked by a lot of people that knew her.’
Cooley (pictured) said nearly every newspaper in the state endorsed him and that he even got the vote of Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate for governor that year
Cooley was actually leading on election night, but conceded three weeks later after provisional and mail-in ballots gave Harris an edge. (pictured: Harris poses for a portrait in San Francisco on June 18, 2004)
Brown did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
In the deep blue state that year, most Democrats coasted to victory by 10 to 20 percentage points. Cooley was actually leading on election night, but conceded three weeks later after provisional and mail-in ballots gave Harris an edge.
‘She won all 58 counties on provisional votes, even in conservative counties where I won handily,’ he said.
Cooley would later watch with disgust several years later as Attorney General Harris advocated Proposition 47, a ballot measure that enacted sweeping sentencing reforms, downgrading a list of felonies such as retail and property theft and narcotics possession to misdemeanors in an effort to ease overcrowding in the state’s prisons.
A November ballot initiative seeks to roll back the 2014 law, which critics on both side of the aisle say contributed to lawlessness.
‘Kamala Harris was one of the major reasons it passed overwhelmingly,’ Cooley said. ‘She wrongly and intentionally mistitled Prop 47 the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act when it had nothing to do with schools or neighborhoods or being safe.
‘Kamala Harris is just so unqualified and weak on the issues that Trump doesn’t need to engage in any argumentative ad hominem,’ Cooley said. (pictured: Donal Trump at a campaign rally on July 31)
Cooley said Trump should focus on Harris' 'screwball' Vice President pick, Tim Walz. (pictured: Walz and Harris hand-in-hand at a campaign rally in Wisconsin on August 7)
'The public was misled into voting for something that ended up being detrimental to public safety, and now the public is trying to fix it.’
‘The real authors (of Prop 47) were acolytes of George Soros,’ he added of the progressive mega-donor who has advanced soft-on-crime reforms to the criminal justice system.
‘They’re the ones who wrote it. Kamala Harris is very close to Soros, as it turns out, and went right along with the program. And they deceived the public.’
Cooley’s now offering unsolicited advice to Donald Trump in his campaign to return to the White House.
‘Kamala Harris is just so unqualified and weak on the issues that Trump doesn’t need to engage in any argumentative ad hominem,’ Cooley said.
‘The personal attacks, nobody’s interested in that. And talking about the 2020 election, that’s old news. Just focus on her extraordinarily radical positions. And I’d say that right now, he should also focus on her choice of a vice president because he looks like a screwball too.’