Over the weekend, a video of Vice President Kamala Harris saying no one should go to jail solely for consuming marijuana went viral, and her critics pounced.
Harris’ comments contradicted her record as a prosecutor in California. They came on the heels of President Joe Biden’s announcement on Thursday ordering mass pardons for thousands of people with past federal convictions on drug crimes.
Harris started by talking about the justice system. You may have heard this week that the federal government’s stance on marijuana is shifting.
To applause from the audience, Harris said, “Because the bottom line is nobody should have to go to jail for smoking pot.”
John Dennis, chairman of the Republican Party in San Francisco and a candidate against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, tweeted, “Shameless. Harris put individuals in jail for “smoking pot” when he was California’s attorney general.
“The hypocrisy is astonishing,” actor Matthew Marsden chimed in.
Mark Meuser, a Republican running for the Senate from California, said, “Clearly, Kamala has lost her legacy in California.”
Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TXspecial )’s communications advisor Steve Guest said, “REMIND: Kamala Harris has sent at least 1,560 people to prison for marijuana-related charges.”
Kamala Harris “comes out against Kamala Harris,” Dan King remarked.
You may criticize Kamala all you want, but at least she’s consistent, as the Twitter user @MattsIdeaShop put it.
People have the opportunity to alter their ways of thinking now. O’Shea Jackson tweeted that despite everything, the situation was still humorous.
Many of Harris’s detractors date the real end of her presidential campaign in 2020 to when former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) began detailing the former prosecutor’s record during a debate.
Now, Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor, and she’ll be a prosecutor president, but I’m deeply concerned about this record,” Gabbard said, refocusing the conversation on the broken criminal justice system that disproportionately affects black and brown people across the country today.
Gabbard said, “There are too many cases to cite.” When asked if she had ever smoked marijuana, she responded with a giggle after sending over 1,500 individuals to prison for illegal possession.