Kamala Harris is back on the campaign trail, and even in deep-blue California her presence is already creating headaches for Democrats who would rather not be seen too closely with the deeply unpopular vice president.
As reported by RedState, many Democrats in competitive races have quietly signaled they do not want Harris anywhere near their campaigns, fearing that her association with the Biden administrations failed agenda could drag them down with swing voters. One candidate who has decided to roll the dice, however, is Dr. Richard Pan, a former California state senator now running for the states 6th Congressional District, a safely liberal seat centered in Sacramento. In that friendlier territory, Pan welcomed Harris for a brief nine-minute appearance at his campaign headquarters, a tightly controlled event that quickly turned into a case study in how Democrats talk about democracy and press freedom while working behind the scenes to shut out inconvenient media.
Harris stop at Pans headquarters might have been routine political theater, but the way it was handled raised serious questions about transparency and access. According to local outlet KCRA 3, some media organizations, including The Sacramento Bee and The Los Angeles Times, were allowed to cover the event, while others were simply frozen out. KCRA 3 reported that its news team was neither invited nor approved to attend, despite being a major television station in the region and a standard presence at high-profile political events.
The exclusion was not limited to local television. A spokesman for Pans campaign told KCRA 3 on Friday night that the decision to block access for certain outlets, including KCRA 3 and The New York Times, was at the direction of Kamala Harris team. Typically, for events involving national political figures, journalists are notified in advance and given the opportunity to apply for press credentials, a basic norm in American politics that allows for at least the appearance of fairness and openness.
In this case, KCRA 3 said that normal procedures were ignored. Instead of a standard credentialing process, approved outlets were simply told they could come by being notified either through an email or phone call, effectively turning press access into a selective, behind-closed-doors decision. As Pans spokesman put it, All credentialing to the campaign office drop was directed by VP Kamala Harris office, a statement that squarely placed responsibility on the vice presidents operation.
Harris team, however, quickly tried to distance itself from the controversy. A person on Harris staff, who did not want to be identified, denied the claim and insisted that Pans campaign was fully responsible for handling the press. That same individual further asserted that Harris did not have any members of her communications team at the event, a curious admission for a sitting vice president supposedly engaged in a public campaign appearance.
The result was a spectacle of finger-pointing between a Democratic congressional candidate and the sitting vice presidents operation, each side apparently eager to avoid blame for shutting out certain journalists. Even for the media outlets that were allowed inside, access was tightly limited, with Harris and Pan refusing to take questions from the press. For a party that constantly lectures the country about protecting democracy and defending the free press, the optics were striking.
KCRA 3s Ashley Zavala pressed the issue the following day, confronting Pan directly about the decision to block some journalists from his event. In a post shared on social media, Zavala noted: Former VP Kamala Harris and Sacramento area Democratic Congressional candidate Richard Pan blocked some journalists, including @kcranews, from covering their event at Pan HQ Friday. I asked Pan today if that was the right move. He wouldn't answer the question. The exchange underscored how little interest Pan seemed to have in explaining why certain outlets were deemed unworthy of access.
When KCRA 3 repeatedly asked Pan whether excluding journalists from his event was appropriateespecially given that Democrats have long attacked President Donald Trump for clashing with certain media organizationsPan dodged. He falsely claimed his campaign had not excluded anyone, insisting instead, We had media there, and adding, I don't handle the details of the press. My staff does. The candidate refused to look directly at the reporter, repeated his talking point, and was quickly pulled away, leaving the core question unanswered.
The episode highlights a broader pattern: Democrats who rail against supposed Republican attacks on the press are perfectly comfortable curating which journalists may cover them when it suits their political interests. Harris, whose approval ratings have been underwater for much of her tenure, is now such a liability that many Democrats do not want her on stage with them, yet in safe districts she is still deployedalbeit behind a carefully managed media filter. Whether national outlets like CNN will show any interest in this affront to the First Amendment remains doubtful, but for voters paying attention, the double standard is hard to miss and harder still to excuse.
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