Former Vice President Kamala Harris has faced significant resistance from California Democratic donors in recent weeks as she ramped up outreach for a potential gubernatorial run, with some major contributors still bitter about her role in what one called the “complete s*** storm” of her 2024 presidential run. Harris has been testing the waters with trusted supporters as she considers a gubernatorial run, but enthusiasm has noticeably waned among the Democratic donor class, according to a POLITICO report. One California Democrat who contributed six figures to Harris’s presidential campaign bluntly stated that her candidacy would only remind voters of the “traumatizing” 2024 election when Donald Trump regained power. “Kamala just reminds you we are in this complete s*** storm. With Biden, we got bamboozled … I think she did the best she could in that situation, but obviously she knew about the cognitive decline too,” the unidentified donor reportedly said. “I’ve written so many checks because I knew the Trump administration would be horrible, but we’re living in a nightmare because of the Democrats. I’m furious at them, truly.” POLITICO reports that many GOP candidates, eager to face Harris given her damaged reputation, would consider throwing their hat in the ring should the former vice president enter the race. Democratic fundraisers note that Harris has yet to address accusations from former Los Angeles mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, who alleges both she and Biden’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, another Democrat who has already entered the gubernatorial race, were “complicit in a cover-up” regarding Biden’s condition. “Voters deserve to know the truth, what did Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra know, when did they know it, and most importantly, why didn’t either of them speak out?” Villaraigosa said in a statement. “This cover up directly led to a second Donald Trump term — and as a result, all Californians are paying the price.” Harris has set a late-summer deadline for her decision. She is exploring multiple options beyond the governor’s race, including a potential 2028 presidential run or establishing “a philanthropic venture” outside of elected office, per POLITICO. “It’s very fair to say there’s not an overwhelming clamor” for a Harris gubernatorial bid, said Scott Drexel, a Bay Area-based donor adviser. “It’s very hard for there to be one if it’s not 100 percent clear if she really wants to do it.” “She’s going to have to work for the nomination,” Drexel said, “Every day that passes, there’s less of a sense of inevitability about her candidacy.” Harris has made some quiet outreach, including multiple private meetings in the Bay Area during her visit to headline a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in early June. These intimate gatherings in supporters’ homes were officially billed as social events but carried “an unmistakable subtext” regarding her political future, POLITICO reported. “The donors that are here, that have been with her know that this is her home state. She can win … but they also don’t want her to find herself in a spot of vulnerability, particularly if someone like a Rick Caruso comes into the race,” said Todd Hawkins, a Harris bundler dating back to her tenure as California attorney general. Caruso, a billionaire developer and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate, has been mentioned as a potential centrist challenger who could complicate Harris’s path to the nomination. Caruso is a former Republican who changed his party registration several times before running as a Democrat in the 2022 L.A. mayoral race, when he lost to Karen Bass.  One Southern California fundraiser, speaking anonymously, said donors “realize it’s just going to bring up the whole pathetic last presidential, which no one wants to hear about again. And then it’s the whole ‘Did you know Joe Biden?’ thing. She still would probably lead, but honestly, no one is incredibly pumped.”

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist candidate for mayor of New York, said on Thursday that he understood economics better than billionaire Bill Ackman, arguing that Ackman’s opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies was bad for business. In the wake of Mamdani’s victory Tuesday night in the Democratic primary over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Ackman had stated of Mamdani on X:  … his policies would be disastrous for NYC. Socialism has no place in the economic capital of our country. The ability for NYC to offer services for the poor and needy, let alone the average New Yorker, is entirely dependent on NYC being a business-friendly environment and a place where wealthy residents are willing to spend 183 days and assume the associated tax burden. Unfortunately, both have already started making arrangements for the exits. I awoke this morning gravely concerned about New York City. I thought “What has NYC become that an avowed socialist who has supported defunding the police, whose solution to lowering food prices is city-owned supermarkets, who doesn’t understand that freezing rents will only… — Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) June 26, 2025 Asked by Erin Burnett of CNN about his insistence that New York City raise the top corporate tax rate, Mamdani preached, “I’d also tell Bill Ackman that I firmly disagree with his attempt to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion across the country because it’s not only against the morals of so many, it’s also against the actual bottom line for so many businesses. And as a businessman, he should understand that.” Socialist Zohran Mamdani lectures billionaire @BillAckman on the business case for DEI. Oh, this is rich. “I’d also tell Bill Ackman that I firmly disagree with his attempt to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion across the country. Because it’s not only against the morals… pic.twitter.com/az5x2XOjaH — The Vigilant Fox ? (@VigilantFox) June 27, 2025 Mamdani, 33, a state assemblyman who grew up the privileged son of “acclaimed Marxist scholar Mahmood Mamdani and Oscar-nominated film director Mira Nair,” as The Indypendent reported, attended Bowdoin College, where he co-founded the school’s chapter of the radical activist group, Students for Justice in Palestine. His entire job history outside of politics has consisted of working as a foreclosure prevention counselor and a rapper. JULY 4 SALE: Get Six Months Of DW+ Free Ackman, by contrast, has invested in businesses so successfully that he is now worth an estimated $9 billion. He is a signatory of The Giving Pledge, committing to donate at least 50% of his wealth by the end of his life to charitable causes. The resident of New York City was a lifelong Democrat who crossed the aisle to support President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. New York Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent this mayoral election cycle, slammed Mamdani, saying, “This election is a choice between a candidate with a blue collar and one with a soup silver spoon. A choice between dirty fingernails and manicured nails. … This is not a city where you use idealism to stake your giving everything to everyone for free. There’s no dignity in someone giving you everything for free. There’s dignity in giving you a job so you can provide for your family and the opportunities that you deserve. So, this is not a city of handouts. This is a city of hands up.” Mamdani also issued a statement blasting President Trump, stating, “Zohran Mamdani will fight Trump’s attempts to gouge the working class, and deliver a city where everyone can afford a dignified life. Here’s how: Make NYC the Strongest Sanctuary City in the Country.” After asserting his desire to “Get ICE out of all City facilities and end any cooperation,” the statement continued, “The Mamdani administration will:
 Invest $165M in funding for immigration legal defense services
. … Protect all personal data from other jurisdictions: The Mamdani administration will take seriously the threat Trump poses and will think expansively about ways to protect undocumented New Yorkers from deportation or other federal attacks.” BREAKING: This is the memo that could be Zohran Mamdani’s downfall. He wants to triple down on making NYC a Sanctuary City and crack down on ICE. These two policies are extremely unpopular with New Yorkers, especially the middle class. pic.twitter.com/EuvdjFUyhH — Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) June 26, 2025 Other actions by Mamdani have also elicited harsh criticism: Remember back in 2013 when two Islamist terrorists used a meat cleaver to try to behead British soldier Lee Rigby in the streets of London? Zohran shared a 2013 article by Glenn Greenwald questioning whether the killing was terrorism because Rigby was a soldier pic.twitter.com/F5eMdFQo9i — Drew Pavlou ???????? (@DrewPavlou) June 27, 2025  

District courts judges

'patriotic Americans'

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U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

'We’re living in a nightmare'