https://time.com/7001670/kamala-harris-fact-check-false-claims-citizenship-black-willie-brown-montel-williams/
CLAIM:
Harris got her start by having an affair with a married man, California politician Willie Brown.
THE FACTS:
This is missing some important context. Brown was separated from his wife during the relationship, which was not a secret.
Brown, 90, is a former mayor of San Francisco who was serving as speaker of the California State Assembly in the 1990s when he and Harris were in a relationship. Brown had separated from his wife in 1982.
“Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago,” Brown wrote in 2020 in the San Francisco Chronicle under the article title, “Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what?”
He wrote that he supported Harris’ 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 Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Harris, 59, was state attorney general from 2011-2017 and served in the Senate from 2017 until 2021, when she became Vice President. She has been married to Doug Emhoff since 2014.
Harris’ critics have used the past relationship to question her qualifications, as Fox News personality Tomi Lahren did when she wrote on social media in 2019: “Kamala did you fight for ideals or did you sleep your way to the top with Willie Brown.” Lahren later apologized for the comment.
Trump and some of his supporters have also highlighted the nearly three-decade old relationship in recent attacks on Harris.
