Hypocrisy? Kamala Harris asks for ID to attend her campaign events while opposing laws requiring ID to vote

In August 2020, when Kamala Harris was still Joe Biden's vice presidential candidate, she took aim at Republicans for pushing laws requiring ID as a requirement to vote. "They are deploying suppressive voter ID laws, racial gerrymandering, voter roll purges, precinct closures and reduced early-voting days – all of which have been laser-targeted toward communities of color since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013," she wrote at the time. Four years later, and, without renouncing this stance,the Democratic candidate for president is asking for ID to enter her campaign events.

With less than 100 days until the election, Harris is touring key states with her running mate, Tim Walz. One of his recent stops was Arizona, a state that Biden won in 2020 and that now appears much closer to handing its electors to Donald Trump. However, the news of the event was not the content of his speech, but a detail that some social network users did not let pass.

As reported by Fox News, the Harris-Walz ticket campaign sent an email to rally attendees, reminding them that they must enter with a "matching government-issued photo ID in order to be admitted to the venue". In turn, the campaign said the Arizona Democratic Party would send out "non-transferable invitations" via email Thursday afternoon to attend Friday's event.

In this context, social media users began sharing images of the mailer by way of criticism and recalling Harris' stance on voter ID.

"Voter ID is racist, but you can't walk into a Kamala rally without ID," wrote actor Kevin Sorbo.

"Kamala Harris requires photo ID to enter a private campaign event. Kamala Harris doesn't want to require photo ID to vote. Kamala Harris doesn't want to require ID before crossing our border. It's bizarre," political commentator Gunther Eagleman wrote in X.

"Do you need a photo ID to get into an invitation-only event for Kamala Harris, but not to vote?" journalist Ian Haworth added for his part.

Again with Harris, already as vice president she insisted with her stance on voter ID in an interview with Soledad O'Brien.

"I don't think we should underestimate what that might mean. Because in some people’s mind that means, well, you’re going to have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove you are who you are. Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don’t do it – there’s no Kinko’s, there’s no Office Max near them. People have to understand that when we’re talking about voter ID laws, be clear about who you have in mind and what would be required of them to prove who they are," he said in 2021.