Kamala Harris' Time As DA: Cop or Progressive?
What A Day
What A Day
4.6 • 12.6K Ratings
🗓️ 3 August 2024
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
When then-Sen. Kamala Harris ran for president in the 2020 election, progressive activists quickly labeled her a “cop,” a reference to her time as the district attorney of San Francisco. Activists argued that being a D.A. was an inherently pro-police, pro-prisons job — a charge Harris hasn’t always shied away from in her political career. To get a sense of how Harris’ past has shaped the politician she’s become, Max and Josie examine her time as the San Francisco D.A., and later the attorney general of California. They explore key moments in her career, like when she opted not to seek the death penalty against a man who killed a police officer, to get a sense of her instincts and thinking about criminal justice more broadly. They come out the other side of the conversation with something hard to come by in politics these days: nuance.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So Josie, I look at all the progressive excitement around |
| 0:03.6 | Kamala Harris and there's one thing that kind of puzzles me. |
| 0:06.7 | Tell me Max, what is it? |
| 0:08.0 | Back when she ran in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, |
| 0:11.1 | I feel like there was a word that I heard progressives used to describe |
| 0:15.1 | her and they didn't mean it as a compliment. |
| 0:17.1 | I bet I know what the word was. |
| 0:19.2 | It was cop. |
| 0:20.2 | Right. |
| 0:21.2 | Kamala is a cop, they would say. |
| 0:22.2 | Yeah, this is in reference to our background |
| 0:23.6 | as the former district attorney for San Francisco. |
| 0:26.2 | In other words, as a prosecutor. |
| 0:27.9 | Yeah, and the charge is that being DA |
| 0:29.6 | is an inherently pro-police, pro-president's job, and she hasn't exactly shied away from that all the time. |
| 0:35.0 | Here's a clip from a campaign ad she did in 2016 when she ran for Senate. |
| 0:39.0 | As a career prosecutor, I've seen how we make the biggest difference when we focus on the needs of our children. |
| 0:45.6 | Kamala Harris, as attorney general, she aggressively prosecuted predators who victimized children |
| 0:51.0 | and took on elementary school truancy to get more students on track. |
| 0:54.8 | Aggressively prosecuted, Josie, I gotta be honest, I don't know what to think here. |
| 0:59.5 | When it comes to issues like policing and prisons, is Kamala Harris a cop or is she a |
| 1:04.2 | progressive well Max you have come to the right place because this week we are going to |
... |
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