From the earliest days of her candidacy, one subject has loomed over Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid: her monitor document with felony justice reform in the USA.
On Tuesday, Harris — the Democratic nominee for the presidency — had an opportunity to deal with a few of the criticisms, in a city hall-style interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God.
It was additionally a chance for Harris, the previous legal professional normal of California, to bolster assist among the many Black neighborhood.
Whereas the overwhelming majority of Black voters determine with the Democratic Celebration, current polls present their backing for Harris shouldn’t be as robust as in 2020, when fellow Democrat Joe Biden was operating for president.
Harris took the offensive on Tuesday, in a short time steering the dialog in direction of correcting the document about her candidacy.
“Of us say you come off as very scripted,” Charlamagne started, within the first minute of their dialog. “They are saying you want to stay to your speaking factors —”
The vice chairman instantly jumped in. “That might be known as self-discipline,” she quipped.
It was an obvious effort to attract a distinction between herself and her Republican rival Donald Trump, whose public appearances are sometimes described as rambling.
Harris continued to present sharp rebuttals to criticisms of her public look as buttoned-up.
“What do you say to individuals who say you keep on the speaking factors?” Charlamagne requested.
“I might say, ‘You’re welcome,’” she replied.
Prosecutor previous beneath highlight
A former prosecutor who turned district legal professional of San Francisco after which legal professional normal of California, Harris has lengthy confronted scrutiny for her method to felony justice.
On the marketing campaign path this election cycle, Harris’s allies have sought to leverage her background to the Democrat’s benefit, framing the race as a battle between “the prosecutor” and “the felon”.
Trump, in spite of everything, has 34 felony convictions to his identify, after he was discovered responsible in Might of falsifying enterprise data in relation to a hush-money cost to an grownup movie actor.
Harris herself has leaned into that framing. On July 23, shortly after she launched her presidential marketing campaign, Harris struck a distinction between herself and Trump, who faces a complete of 4 felony indictments.
“Earlier than I used to be elected vice chairman, earlier than I used to be elected United States senator, I used to be elected legal professional normal of the state of California, and I used to be a courtroom prosecutor earlier than then,” Harris informed a rally in Wisconsin.
“And in these roles, I took on perpetrators of every kind: predators who abused girls, fraudsters who ripped off shoppers, cheaters who broke the foundations for their very own acquire. So hear me after I say, I do know Donald Trump’s kind.”
However critics have blasted Harris for that very same historical past as a prosecutor, with members of each the correct and left slamming her insurance policies.
Progressives, on one hand, have criticised her hard-handed method to points like pupil truancy: Harris famously championed a state regulation that may make dad and mom eligible for a misdemeanour if their little one had been chronically absent from faculty with out an excuse.
In 2014, Harris additionally opposed calls to implement an unbiased system to evaluation the deadly use of pressure by police.
Critics on the time argued that native prosecutors work intently with police and are due to this fact unable to be goal when deciding whether or not to deliver expenses. Harris, nonetheless, mentioned, “I don’t suppose it might be good public coverage to take the discretion from elected district attorneys.”
Her opponents on the correct, in the meantime, have accused Harris of being lax on crime and failing to adequately assist regulation enforcement.
Decriminalising marijuana
In her interview with Charlamagne, Harris sought to tamp down on the criticism in opposition to her by branding it the product of right-wing misinformation.
“One of many greatest challenges that I face is mis- and dis-information,” Harris informed the radio host. “And it’s purposeful. As a result of it’s meant to persuade folks that they in some way shouldn’t consider that the work I’ve executed has occurred and has which means.”
Charlamagne, for his half, known as on Harris to reply a number of rumours swirling round her marketing campaign.
“One of many greatest allegations in opposition to you is that you simply focused and locked up 1000’s of Black males in San Francisco for weed. Some mentioned you probably did it to spice up your profession. Some mentioned you probably did it out of pure hate for Black males,” he mentioned, asking: “What are the details of that scenario?”
Harris refuted the allegations, replying, “It’s simply merely not true.”
She then pivoted to her work on decreasing penalties for marijuana possession, a problem that disproportionately impacts Black males.
A 2020 evaluation from the American Civil Liberties Union, for example, discovered that Black persons are 3.64 occasions extra more likely to be arrested for possessing the drug, in comparison with white folks. The report, nonetheless, discovered no vital distinction in marijuana use between the 2 populations.
That distinction in arrest charges contributes to increased incarceration charges general for Black males within the US. The Pew Analysis Middle discovered that, in 2020, Black adults confronted 5 occasions the speed of imprisonment as their white counterparts.
Referencing this discrepancy, Harris informed Charlamagne that she would decriminalise marijuana on the federal degree if elected president.
“My pledge is, as president, I’ll work on decriminalising it, as a result of I do know precisely how these legal guidelines have been used to disproportionately affect sure populations and particularly Black males,” she mentioned on Tuesday.
Roughly 24 states have already taken steps to legalise small portions of marijuana for leisure use. However on the federal degree, the drug stays unlawful, although the Biden administration has taken steps to decrease penalties.
In Might, for example, Biden’s Justice Division initiated a new rule reclassifying marijuana as a “schedule III drug”, down from the best rank beneath the Managed Substances Act’s five-tier system.
That reclassification made the drug acceptable for medical use. It additionally indicated a shift within the authorities’s place, to acknowledge that marijuana shouldn’t be as harmful as the opposite medication in its earlier class, like heroin.
“As vice chairman, [I] have been a champion for bringing marijuana down on the schedule,” Harris informed Charlamagne. “So as an alternative of it being ranked up there with heroin, we deliver it down.”
Attacking Trump on ‘cease and frisk’
Harris not solely defended her felony justice work as “progressive”, however she additionally actively attacked her Republican rival Trump for insurance policies she warned can be detrimental to the Black neighborhood.
All through his marketing campaign, Trump has championed a crackdown on crime within the US, proposing insurance policies that critics warn might enhance the usage of extreme pressure amongst regulation enforcement officers — and trigger the violation of civil liberties.
Final month, for example, Trump floated the concept of getting “one actual tough, nasty day” for regulation enforcement to deal with property crime with out restraint.
He has additionally pledged to strengthen police immunity from prosecution and push for elevated use of “cease and frisk” insurance policies.
“It’s important to do a coverage of cease and frisk,” Trump informed the TV present Fox and Pals in August, envisioning a scenario the place a police officer recognises a suspect on the road. “Cease and frisk and take their gun away.”
Whereas the US Structure protects folks from “unreasonable search and seizure”, advocates say “cease and frisk” insurance policies permit the police to go looking suspects in an un-intrusive method if they’ve a “affordable suspicion” they could be armed or harmful.
However critics warn that “cease and frisk” has been used to racially profile folks and harass them with out warrant or trigger. Some “cease and frisk” insurance policies have due to this fact been struck down as unconstitutional.
Harris zeroed in on Trump’s assist for “cease and frisk” in Tuesday’s interview.
“My opponent”, she mentioned, would have “a formalised cease and frisk coverage, for which he has mentioned, if a police division doesn’t do it, they need to be defunded”.
“There’s a lot at stake” this election, she added, pointing to the potential dangers for the Black neighborhood, which has been disproportionately focused by such insurance policies.
Strain on Harris
Harris’s look on the radio city corridor with Charlamagne got here in the future after the Democratic candidate made one other main overture to Black voters, releasing an “Alternative Agenda for Black Males“.
That agenda outlined plans for decriminalising marijuana, selling cryptocurrency and offering a million “forgivable” loans for Black entrepreneurs.
If elected, Harris can be the primary lady — and the primary individual of blended Black and South Asian descent — to win the White Home.
However whereas she carries a majority of assist amongst Black Individuals, some pollsters see concern in how her numbers examine to the 2020 election. In that race, President Joe Biden carried 90 p.c of Black votes, based on a survey from The New York Occasions and Siena School.
In contrast, solely 76 p.c of the Black voters plan to vote for Harris, Biden’s vice chairman, on this 12 months’s election. That’s a big drop — and the ballot confirmed even decrease numbers amongst Black males.
Solely 69 p.c backed Harris, in comparison with 81 p.c of Black girls.
Trump has tried to make features in that demographic — and he has even publicly questioned Harris’s id as a Black lady.
Throughout her city corridor on Tuesday, Harris confronted questions on her dedication to the Black neighborhood. One caller requested her about her “lack of engagement” with the Black church.
Harris refuted that declare too. She replied that she had grown up within the Black church.
“So to start with, that allegation is after all coming from the Trump staff, as a result of they’re stuffed with mis- and dis-information,” she mentioned. “They’re attempting to disconnect me from the folks I’ve labored with and that I’m from, to allow them to attempt to have some benefit on this election.”
