2020 Democratic candidate Kamala Harris (D-CA) defended her criminal justice record in a CNN interview that aired on Sunday morning.
During a taped interview for “The State of the Union,” Jake Tapper asked Harris about her tough criminal policies as a prosecutor, which have been widely criticized by the left wing of the Democratic party.
Tapper started with Harris threatening a homeless single woman with jail time under Harris’ anti-truancy initiative as district attorney.
“It was more about getting her the services she needed that didn’t know was available,” Harris responded. “It was more about putting pressure on the school district to do its job.”
Harris claimed that “no one parent” was sent to jail when it was a district law, but Tapper pointed out her support for a statewide truancy law that did land parents in jail.
“That was an unintended consequence,” Harris said. “That was never the intention, and it was never anything I did.”
When asked about her perception by the left as a “cop,” Harris said that she would “never apologize” for cracking down on violent crimes but: “I am also acutely aware that we have a criminal justice system in America that is deeply flawed, has often by informed by bias and is in need of severe reform.”
“Which is why my entire career I have worked to do both,” she said.
Watch below:
Kamala Harris defends her criminal justice record: I am "acutely aware" that the U.S. criminal justice system is "deeply flawed," so I'm working to reform it pic.twitter.com/Mw2UHxmk5m
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 12, 2019
