CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski wrote this morning that radical leftist Kamala Harris voiced her support for the “defund the police” movement in a radio interview in 2020.
But when she was picked as Biden’s VP, she suddenly denounced it:
Vice President Kamala Harris voiced support for “defund the police” in a radio interview in June 2020 amidst nationwide protests for police reform, just months before denouncing the movement after she had joined the Biden presidential campaign.
Harris said in the June radio interview the movement “rightly” called out the amount of money spent on police departments instead of community services such as education, housing, and healthcare, emphasizing that more police did not equate to more public safety.
“This whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities,” Harris said on a New York-based radio program “Ebro in the Morning” on June 9, 2020, adding that US cities were “militarizing police” but “defunding public schools.”
Harris made her comments just weeks after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer galvanized the “defund” movement among progressive activists. At the time, Harris was six months removed from ending her own presidential campaign and was still two months away from being tapped as Joe Biden’s vice presidential nominee.
In an interview a day earlier, Harris also lauded Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for his decision to slash $150 million from the police budget and move it into social services.
As Harris works to replace Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee following his decision to drop out of the 2024 race, the newly unearthed interview could complicate her strategy of highlighting her history as a tough on crime prosecutor in a potential matchup against Donald Trump, who is facing numerous legal challenges, including multiple felony convictions.
After June 2020, Harris rarely if at all mentioned the “defund the police” movement. The Biden campaign later tried to clarify after adding her to the ticket that she supported funding the police.
But in June 2020, Harris argued the “defund” movement was correct to examine police budgets, and also talked about police departments needing to be demilitarized.
“We need to have this conversation and critically examine and understand this is not working,” Harris said on “Ebro in the Morning.” “It’s not working. So, this is an important conversation and not just a conversation – cause to your earlier point, can’t just be about talk. It has to be about forcing change.”
“And this is why, you know, I was out there with folks and we’ll, any movement, any progress we have gained has been because people took to the streets,” Harris added.
In another interview on “The View” on June 8, 2020, Harris engaged in an exchange on defunding the police where she directly suggested the funding for police could be used in other social programs.
“In many cities in America, over one third of their city budget goes to police. So, we have to have this conversation. What are we doing? What about the money going to social services? What about the money going to helping people with job training? What about helping with the mental health issues that communities are being plagued with for which we’re putting no resources?”
Kudos to Kaczynski for digging this up. The American public need to see just how radical she is and how she would destroy the country worse than Joe Biden.