The day of the big debate with President Trump, a 1995 video from ABC News has surfaced, showing Kamala Harris whooping it up party-hearty with her sugar daddy, San Francisco political boss Willie Brown, back when she served as his mistress and drew political appointments, a BMW, a trip to Paris, and other stuff that might be showered on a courtesan from a king or kingmaker in exchange.

Reporter: "Uh, are you his daughter?"

Kamala Harris, blushing: "No, I'm not"

They really don't want this going viral pic.twitter.com/CH7QYb3RZo

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 10, 2024

The video amounts to a gushing mini-profile of Willie Brown, celebrating him as a "rogue" politicians fond of the high life, from fancy suits to fancy cars, to "beautiful women."

The camera then focused on Harris, who turned around was asked by an anonymous reporter:

"Are you his daughter?"

Obviously, the reporter was wondering why someone so young (Harris was 31) was so close to the 62-year-old Brown, who had just been elected mayor of San Francisco, with Kamala so close to him with such affection, passing him a baseball hate with "Da Mayor" written on it.

Harris sort of hesitated, before putting on a big, strained smile and curtly answering: "No, I'm not," clearly warning the questioner not to ask any more questions.

Because of course she did.

Back in those days, Kamala Harris's main accomplishments were social. She hooked up with Willie Brown, who brazenly wrote that they "dated" and then Brown introduced her to all the big moneybags of the Pacific Heights set of San Francisco, who in turn gave her campaign money. Her life revolved around getting the best tables and invitations to the best parties, as Politico reporter Michael Kruse wrote in 2019, in what was an excellent profile of Harris's rise to where she's at -- it was always a matter of whom she knew, not what she knew.

I wrote about that rise and why I think that account got it exactly right, since I knew a bit about that scene at the time Kamala was prowling it, here.

Kruse wrote:

In this less explored piece of her past, Harris used as a launching pad the tightly knit world of San Francisco high society, navigating early on this rarefied world of influence and opulence, charming and partying with movers and shakers — ably cultivating relationships with VIPs who would become friends and also backers and donors of every one of her political campaigns, tapping into deep pockets and becoming a popular figure in a small world dominated by a handful of powerful families. This stratum of San Francisco remains a profoundly important part of her network — including not just powerful Democratic donors but an ambassador appointed by President Donald Trump who ran in the same circles.

Harris, now 54, often has talked about the importance of having "a seat at the table," of being an insider instead of an outsider. And she learned that skill in this crowded, incestuous, famously challenging political proving ground, where she worked to score spots at the some of the city's most sought-after tables. In the mid- to late '90s and into the aughts, the correspondents who kept tabs on the comings and goings of the area's A-listers noted where Harris was and what she was doing and who she was with. As she advanced professionally, jumping from Alameda County to posts in the offices of the district and city attorneys across the Bay, she was a trustee, too, of the museum of modern art and active in causes concerning AIDS and the prevention of domestic abuse, and out and about at fashion shows and cocktail parties and galas and get-togethers at the most modish boutiques. She was, in the breezy, buzzy parlance of these kinds of columns, one of the "Pretty Thangs." She was a "rising star." She was "rather perfect." And she mingled with "spiffy and powerful friends" who were her contemporaries as well as their even more influential mothers and fathers. All this was fun, but it wasn't unserious. It was seeing and being seen with a purpose, society activity with political utility.

Kamala got ahead and did very well for herself with that relationship with Brown.

The question remains as to whether Kamala should tout this gamy history to all the little girls out there about how to get ahead.

It's also interesting that this video leaked out now -- at a time when the press seems to be turning on her in multiple matters. Does this portend a lack of confidence in her ability to debate Donald Trump? One can only guess.

Image: Twitter screen shot