Kamala Harris hit for her role in promoting IRA funding of 'anti-American' groups
Several groups receiving grants promote defunding the police, ICE
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Vice President Kamala Harris is being criticized for her support for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the organizations that have been chosen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to receive grants under the law.
Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works ranking member Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., shared findings from her investigation into the groups getting money from the IRA with reporters on Wednesday.
She pointed out that Harris promoted the IRA's work to boost "equity" by providing grants through the EPA to various left-wing groups being funded by the law when they were announced last year.
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Vice President Kamala Harris was tied to left-wing groups that were chosen for grants under the IRA. (Getty Images)
"We found that a lot of this money that's going out really has little to do with the environment and a lot to do with funding groups that are basically engaged in what I characterize as anti-American activities. They're anti-American, antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-police, and anti-border security," Moore Capito said of her investigation into the money.
She listed several organizations, including the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), the NDN collective, the New York Immigration Coalition and the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice as examples of groups with radical left-wing beliefs that are being granted money by the EPA under the IRA.
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Moore Capito uncovered the political messaging of the chosen groups. (Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
CJA, which is slated for a grant of $50 million from the EPA, "have glorified Hamas in a lot of their social media on their websites and other things. And they think Israel has no right to exist," Moore Capito revealed.
The group has previously hosted events designed to frame the "free Palestine" movement as a "climate justice issue." It has also promoted artwork symbolizing the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas. One image promoted by the organization for use at protests showed a bulldozer taking down a section of the Israel-Gaza border fence during the attack, with the word "Decolonize Palestine" written above it.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Ella Baker Center has frequently promoted its support for defunding the police, particularly through posts on X.
In a statement last year, the NDN Collective claimed, "We do support defunding the police and U.S. military which continue terrorizing Indigenous, Black, LGBTQIA2S+ and poor people across the planet, because we have seen firsthand the destruction caused by state violence and control."
The group also refers to the U.S. as "so-called" as well as any locations within the country.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Both the New York Immigration Coalition and the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice have expressed support for abolishing ICE or keeping the agency from operating within the states.
When groups selected for EPA grants were announced in December 2023, Harris remarked that in order to provide a clean environment, "President Joe Biden and I have put equity at the center of our nation’s largest investment in climate in history."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Today’s announcement puts that commitment into action by ensuring critical resources to fund environmental justice projects across the country reach the organizations that know their communities best," she said in a statement at the time.
Biden's EPA was found to have selected a controversial climate group for a $50 million grant despite their anti-Israel activism. (Getty Images)
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Moore Capito pointed to a new report that a coalition called the Green New Deal Network, which is linked to CJA and other youth climate groups, is allegedly planning to endorse Harris for president.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The West Virginia senator claimed the EPA was rushing to get the grants out to groups as they fear a potential return to the White House for former President Trump.
"There's been a recent rush to get this money out. And that's because they know that there's a likelihood, we like to think a high likelihood, that the administration will change come November," Moore Capito said.
A spokesperson for the EPA told Fox News Digital, "These are selections from EPA funding programs administered independently by EPA, in accordance with our rigorous grant competition policy. EPA strongly condemns violence, hate, or discrimination in any form, and any such comments are abhorrent and unacceptable."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"EPA is confident in the Agency’s strong oversight of all programs with robust controls in place to ensure all recipients manage grants consistent with the law and other federal requirements," they added.
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Harris' office pointed to a recent statement from the vice president condemning Hamas. "I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews," she said in the statement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}None of the highlighted groups selected for EPA grants immediately provided comment to Fox News Digital.