Harris campaign dishes out six-figure donations to groups who support defunding police, reparations
FIRST ON FOX: The Harris campaign cut multiple six-figure checks last month for left-leaning groups that have been vocal about defunding the police, reparations, and are tied to radical activists who have supported notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan.
The Harris campaign gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to a handful of Black advocacy groups who are mobilizing Black voters ahead of November's election next week, according to FEC filings released last week.
Black Voters Matters Fund, which received $150,000 from the Harris campaign on Sept. 19, has repeatedly called for defunding the police and has been vocal about pushing for reparations.
"The answer to police violence against communities of color is not more money for police," the group wrote in February 2023. "It's time to defund the police and redirect those resources into building strong, healthy communities."
In 2020, the group also tweeted, "We are proud to be partner in the #DemocracyFrontlinesFund, created to leverage millions of new dollars to fund Black-led organizers fighting for free and fair elections, and working to defund prisons and police."
"There are more than 3,000 sheriffs in the US, nearly all are elected, the group said in another post. "We are working to defund sheriffs and build voter power. Reimagining the system also comes with taking action!"
The group's co-founder Latosha Brown, who has been a frequent visitor to the Biden-Harris White House, has repeatedly posted about the group's reparations push and said in a 2021 X post that she has been working on the issue for 27 years.
"We deserve to be compensated for the literal blood, sweat and tears our ancestors were forced to put into this country," Black Voters Matters Fund posted in May. In another post last year, the group called reparations "crucial for acknowledging past injustices and moving towards a more just and equitable future."
Black Church PAC, which also received $150,000 from the Harris campaign last month, has multiple controversial religious leaders on its board and recent social media posts show it is partnering with a defund the police group to help with "Get out the vote" efforts in Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
"We’re mobilizing 100K Strong: Knock for Change, Vote for Justice volunteers across GA, PA, and NC to knock on doors and have REAL conversations with REAL voters about the REAL issues that matter most," the Black Church PAC posted last week on social media. The post also mentioned that they were partnering with Until Freedom, which was co-founded by disgraced Women's March leaders Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour.
Until Freedom has repeatedly advocated for defunding and abolishing the police and sells a "defund the police" shirt on its website.
HARRIS PRAISES PRO-FARRAKHAN PASTOR WHO SAID GAY PEOPLE SHOULD FEEL 'UNCOMFORTABLE' IN THEIR 'SIN'
Mallory previously came under fire for her close ties to Farrakhan and calling him the "GOAT," which means "greatest of all time." Her social media profiles are also littered with social media posts showing her attending Nation of Islam events and praising Farrakhan.
"One of the reasons why I support Kamala Harris is because I know about the things she was doing while she was in the Senate," Mallory said during a "Breakfast Club" interview a couple of months ago.
Mallory also pushed back against people who claim Harris doesn't support reparations, saying she's heard Harris say "over and over again" that she supports reparations. While Harris has been coy about what her reparations plan would look like while campaigning for president, she previously told The Root during her failed 2019 campaign that she believes "there has to be some form of reparations" for Black Americans.
The Black Church PAC board includes several pastors who have either called for defunding police, reparations or have praised Farrakhan, including Pastors Jamal Bryant, Frederick D. Haynes III and Michael McBride.
McBride, the lead pastor of The Way Christian Center in Berkeley, California, ranted in support of defunding police in 2020, saying on a livestream that defunding the police "ain't a slogan" and that it is a "declaration of a future that we deserve."
"We do not deserve police departments to have 40, 50, 60% of the general funds of every single black majority, brown majority city in this country while we don't have food, while we don't have housing, while we don't have equitable education, but we got an expanding police budget," McBride said.
"Yes, we want these [police] departments to be shrunk," McBride added.
"Must read article by @mearest @arthurrizer if you want an inside look at policing culture," McBride said in another post. "My takeaway: How do you redeem this? You don’t...abolish and defund the police and reconstruct a new one…"
McBride has also repeatedly supported reparations, including praising a $15 trillion plan that was proposed by Jennifer Epps-Addison, a self-proclaimed "Radical Truth Teller."
Bryant, who hosted Harris at his church earlier this month, has faced backlash for repeatedly praising Farrakhan and saying he was "humbled" to be in his presence and "honored" to host him. He has also attacked gay people and previously said it was their "responsibility" to make gay people and other sinners "uncomfortable in [their] sin."
Bryant has also been a longtime advocate for reparations. In an Instagram post last month, he called it a "monumental moment" that he and another pastor walked from Baltimore to the White House to "bring attention to the administration that black people deserve #reparations for 400 years of oppression."
"We are the only marginalized group in America that hasn’t been compensated," he added. "We went 42 miles because we never got 40 acres! Even if it’s not on the ballot it needs to be on the agenda!"
Another pastor on the board is Haynes, the senior pastor at Friendship-West Baptist Church. He tweeted a photo of himself and Farrakhan in 2017, calling him a "wonderful and great man." In 2015, Haynes also lavished praise on Farrakhan, saying he was "a prophetic leader of our time."
He has also been a vocal supporter of reparations and spoke at an event called "Solidarity for Reparations," which was hosted at the church of Harris' controversial pastor and longtime mentor, Rev. Amos Brown. During the event, Haynes said, "America, you owe us. What you done to us has been immoral. It’s been evil. It’s been unjust. It’s been downright wrong and the only way to bring salvation to America — you gotta pay us what you owe us."
The Harris campaign also doled out $2,050,000 to the civil rights group National Urban League; $300,000 to the Power Rising Action Fund, an "intergenerational power force of Black women from various sectors"; and $250,000 to the National Action Network, which was founded by controversial MSNBC anchor Al Sharpton, whose ties to Farrakhan go back decades.
During the 2019 National Action Network Convention, Sharpton asked Harris whether she would sign now-deceased Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's H.R. 40 bill, which would form a commission to study reparations for descendants of slaves, if it passed and came across her desk.
"When I am elected president, I will sign that bill," Harris said at the time.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign, Black Church PAC and Black Voters Matter Fund.