WASHINGTON — As lawmakers negotiated a criminal justice bill last year, Vice President Kamala Harris seemed like a natural person to go to for guidance and leadership. She'd served as the top prosecutor in San Francisco and as the attorney general of California. As a senator, she had co-written the George Floyd policing bill.
Yet she remained an afterthought to the lead Democratic negotiator in the House.
"She was the attorney general of California. We needed the attorney general of the United States," said Rep. Karen Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat.
