California’s newest Attorney General is making history as the first female and the first African-American to hold the post. Kamala Harris was sworn in Monday. She’s pledging to take on everything from gangs to mortgage fraud.
California Chief Justice Tani Cantil Sakauye administered the oath of office in a courtyard of the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento.
The former San Francisco District Attorney calls herself a “daughter of Brown v.Board of Education,” noting that she was in the second class to integrate Berkeley public schools. In her speech, she said she’ll form working groups to focus on California’s gang problem, reducing truancy and combating mortgage fraud. But it was this line about the state’s greenhouse gas law that got the most applause.
“I will aggressively defend AB 32 and I will make sure that the people of California are not dictated to from the board rooms of big oil,” Harris said.
Hundreds attended the event, which also included classical Indian dancing to honor Harris’s South Asian heritage.
