Cardi B has called out the Kamala Harris detractors who have used the Vice President’s dating history as a means to question her qualifications.
Since Harris, 59, was endorsed by President Joe Biden to be his replacement in the 2024 presidential race, she has faced increased scrutiny from her conservative opponents.
From complaints about her laugh to targeting her race and gender, Harris is now facing attacks from some Donald Trump supporters who have accused her of sleeping her way to the top.
“What does Kamala Harris husband or relationships have to do wit [sic] her credentials?” Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B tweeted on Tuesday (July 23). “Do y’all hire people based on who they f***ing??”
Before Harris was elected as San Francisco’s district attorney in 2004, she had been in a decade-long relationship with Willie Brown, then-speaker of the California State Assembly, who would go on to become the mayor of San Francisco that same year.
“Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago,” Brown, now 90, confirmed in a 2019 article in the San Francisco Chronicle titled: “Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what?”
Some critics have falsely claimed that Harris had an affair with Brown while he was still married. However, in a fact-checking piece, The Associated Press points out that Brown had been separated from his wife for years – since 1982 – before he and Harris began dating in the Nineties.
Brown wrote that he supported Harris’s first race to be San Francisco district attorney – just as he has supported a long list of other California politicians, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Senator Dianne Feinstein and Governor Gavin Newsom, The AP reported.
Harris’s other exes, including actor and TV host Montel Williams, have also faced scrutiny from Trump supporters.
“Here she is ‘dating’ @Montel_Williams in 2001, who appears to be holding hands with more than one woman at the same time on the red carpet,” one person tweeted alongside a video of the moment. Williams responded, clarifying that the other “woman” was his then-teenage daughter, Ashley.
Harris has been married to entertainment lawyer Doug Emhoff, 59, since 2014. While she doesn’t have any biological children, Harris is the proud stepmom – dubbed “Momala” – to Emhoff’s two adult children, Cole and Ella.
Writing about her stepchildren in a personal 2019 essay for Elle, Harris detailed the moment she met Emhoff’s children for the first time.
“Children need consistency; I didn’t want to insert myself into their lives as a temporary fixture because I didn’t want to disappoint them,” she said, calling them “brilliant, talented, funny kids who have grown to be remarkable adults.”