Ex-mayor says he dated US presidential candidate Kamala Harris

A week after US Senator Kamala Harris announced she is running for US president against Donald Trump, 84-year old former San Francisco mayor has gone on to admit his extra marital relationship with her.

In an oped  published in San Francisco Chronicle, Willie Brown conceded: ""Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago,".

"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,"Fox News quoted him as having written.

Citing a 1996 People magazine report, Fox wrote that Brown was knonw for his charm, arrogance and ego during his two stints as mayor of San Franscisco.

According to Fox News the Brown and Harris broke up in 1995.

Kamala Harris 

After two terms as district attorney of San Francisco (2004-2011), she was twice elected as attorney general of California (2011-2017), becoming not only the first woman but the first black person to serve as chief law enforcement officer of that populous state.

Then in January 2017, she took the oath of office as California´s junior US senator, making her the first woman of South Asian descent (her mother is a Tamil Indian) and only the second black woman senator in American history, after Carol Moseley Braun.

Her focused and often tough-sounding lines of questioning during closely watched Senate hearings reflect her past as a prosecutor. Harris often proudly recalls that as a prosecutor she fought big banks during the 2008 financial crisis to defend families.

She casts herself as a champion of middle class families "living paycheck to paycheck" and denounces police brutality and the killing of unarmed black men. Nearly 22 months before the 2020 election, the battle for the White House is already firming up, as Americans begin to assess who might be the opposition party nominee to challenge Trump for control of the White House.

AFP/Web Desk