# Hillary in a Kamala suit

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Hillary in a Kamala suit," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/hillary-in-a-kamala-suit/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's assessment of the incoming Biden administration three weeks after the 2020 election: Biden as Obama 2.0, Kamala Harris as "Hillary in a Kamala suit", and a career prosecutor whose drug sentencings he says ruined thousands of lives.*

- **On Biden:** Obama 2.0
- **On Harris:** "Hillary in a Kamala suit"
- **The charge against Harris:** Long sentences for personal-use drug offences
- **When:** Three weeks after the 2020 election
- **His expectations:** None

Asked in late November 2020 what he expected from the incoming Biden administration on whistleblowers and foreign policy, [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) answered in two phrases and then declined to soften either.

## The two phrases

On the president-elect: *"obviously I see him as Obama 2.0."* His interviewer said the words had come out of her own mouth simultaneously.[1]

On the vice-president-elect: *"I see Kamala as Hillary in a Kamala suit."*[1]

## The charge behind the phrase

The second judgement came with a reason attached, and the reason was prosecutorial rather than ideological. Kiriakou identified Harris as a career prosecutor and asked his listener to *"imagine the thousands of lives that she ruined by sending people to prison for long stretches for having, you know, personal use drugs."*[1]

The complaint is the one he makes most consistently in his post-prison writing and speaking: that the American federal and state criminal systems produce draconian sentences for conduct that harms no one, and that the people who administered those sentences are rewarded rather than examined.

## The verdict

Asked directly whether he had any high hopes for the administration on anything, he answered with three words: *"No, I don't."*[1]

## Context

The forecast was made by someone with a specific grievance against the previous Democratic administration. Kiriakou attributes his own prosecution to [Barack Obama](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/barack-obama)'s White House and has said elsewhere that he applied to Obama for a pardon and was ignored, knowing that he would be. He would later approach the Biden administration through a Greek Orthodox priest close to the president, assemble letters of support, and be passed over as well. The Obama 2.0 assessment predates that experience by two years.

## See also

## See also

- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Barack Obama](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/barack-obama)
- [One hundred and twenty-three investigations](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/one-hundred-twenty-three-investigations)

## Sources

1. Revolutionary Change (2020-11-24), at 11:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IozNdHiBjJM&t=690s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-24-revolutionary-change-revolutionary-change-IozNdH/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/hillary-in-a-kamala-suit/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt