Willie Brown worried Harris has 'Hillary syndrome,’ that 'people don't like her'
Former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown was candid about Vice President Harris' chances in the 2024 presidential race in a newly published interview.
Brown, who has been open about his extramarital relationship with Harris in the ‘90s, said he was nervous about the VP’s likability with voters in the weeks before she became the presumptive Democratic nominee.
"Brown worried out loud that Harris had ‘the Hillary syndrome’ — that ‘people don’t like her’ — and fretted it was not fixable," Politico reported on Wednesday.
The interview was conducted before President Biden's disastrous debate and weeks before he dropped out of the 2024 race.
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Brown said he was no longer in touch with Harris, according to Politico, but believed Biden should step down immediately to give the country time to see her as president "before the election." He also advised Harris to downplay her gender and ethnicity in the presidential race because "the voters want her to answer them."
On her far-left record, Brown suggested she cling to a more vague political platform.
"If she keeps people continually guessing then she can adjust the interpretation of your guess every time she sees you," he told Politico.
The Democratic Party has been energized by Harris' decision to run since Biden exited the race, raising record-setting fundraising amounts for her campaign.
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Harris has also enjoyed a dramatic boost in the polls since becoming the presumptive presidential nominee. According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted a week after President Biden exited the race, her overall favorability rose from 35% to 43% compared to the week prior, while her unfavorability rating fell from 46% to 42%.
Fox News Digital reached out to Brown and Harris' offices for comment, but did not hear back.
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Harris met Brown while at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in the mid-90s. She went on to date the-then California Assembly Speaker, who is 30 years her senior, while he was estranged from his wife.
Brown also appointed Harris to several well-paid state commissions: the state Insurance Commission, the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and, later, the California Medical Assistance Commission.
In 2019, Brown wrote a column for The San Francisco Chronicle admitting the pair's past extramarital relationship. He also conceded that he helped boost Harris' career, but said that he had also helped other prominent California Democrats like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
"Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was [California] Assembly speaker. And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco," he wrote at the time.
In 2020, Brown also weighed in on Harris' political career, urging her in a Chronicle column to say no to the vice presidency and aim for a role as attorney general in the Biden administration instead.
He even suggested the position would boost her chances at taking the White House in 2024 or 2028.
"Best of all," he wrote, "being attorney general would give Harris enough distance from the White House to still be a viable candidate for the top slot in 2024 or 2028, no matter what the state of the nation."
Fox News' William La Jeunesse and Yael Halon contributed to this article.