Vice President Kamala Harris’ much older ex-boyfriend, Willie Brown, believes President Joe Biden should resign as president so she can take the job.
Brown spoke with Politico columnist Jonathan Martin about his thoughts on Harris, whom he dated when he was 60 and running for mayor of San Francisco. She was a relatively unknown 29-year-old Alameda County prosecutor.
Brown, now 90, joked that if Harris won the presidency, “she would deport my ass,” a joke he has long made about his former girlfriend turned political protégé.
Brown worried that Harris had “the Hillary syndrome” and that “people don’t like her,” which he said was an insoluble problem.
He is the former speaker of the California State Assembly and mayor of San Francisco. Harris considers him one of her political mentors.
Wille Brown and Kamala Harris when they were dating in San Francisco
Brown also revealed that Harris was not former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s first choice for president and that he made sure his other political protégé, Governor Gavin Newsom, fully supported Harris.
Brown confirmed the story of how when he was dating Kamala Harris in the 1990s and was attending an event at Harvard, then-business developer Donald Trump took Brown, Harris and his team on his private jet for a meeting in New York.
Harris was not at the meeting, but Brown says he has a photo of him and Harris on Trump’s plane.
Brown said former President Donald Trump was successful in politics because of his celebrity.
“He’s an entertainer, that’s all,” he said.
Brown gave Harris a major boost in her political career, as detailed in Amateur Hour: Kamala Harris in the White House.
At the time they were in a relationship, Brown was considered the most powerful politician in California. Although still married, he was estranged from his wife Blanche, who lived in another home.
Willie Brown advised that Joe Biden resign and let Harris take over the presidency while she runs for president
US Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia,
Brown appointed Harris to two different state boards, paying her more than $400,000 over five years and giving her the keys to a BMW. He opened the doors to San Francisco’s rich and powerful.
Brown broke off the relationship with Harris after a year, but he was always there to help her throughout her political career.
During her first campaign as San Francisco District Attorney, Brown donated to her campaign and helped raise money for the race.
Harris threw Brown under the bus during her campaign, claiming her romantic and political ties with the mayor were over.
“Willie Brown will be gone. He’s gone — hello people, move on,” Harris told SF Weekly in a 2003 magazine profile, in which she insisted that she would be “independent” of Brown and that “he’s probably expressing some angst now about the fact that he can’t control me.”
“His career is over; I’ll be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I don’t owe him anything,” she claimed.
It was the last time she would speak publicly about her former lover and political mentor.
Because Harris was endorsed by Democrats as the new presidential candidate, Brown shared his views with the San Francisco Standard about her ability to participate in and win elections.
“It’s very easy to underestimate Kamala Harris, but if you do, you’ll be looking up from the dungeon to the queen sitting on the throne,” he said.