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Gabbard: Voters Got No Answer From Harris on Criminal Justice Record

'She was perpetuating the worst part of our criminal justice system'

August 1, 2019

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) said on Thursday that voters got no answers from Senator Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) on her record as a prosecutor and attorney general of California.

"I got no answers, but more importantly the American people, voters, got no answers." Gabbard told MSNBC's Yasmin Vossoughian, "Senator Harris said very clearly on the debate stage last night that she's proud of her record, yet, she failed to answer these very pointed questions about these parts of her record where when she was in a position of power and responsibility where she could have been a champion of the people, instead she was the exact opposite. She was perpetuating the worst part of our criminal justice system that disproportionately impacts our black and brown brothers and sisters, poor people in California."

Gabbard slammed Harris during the Wednesday night Democratic debate over her criminal justice record as attorney general of California.

"She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana. She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so," Gabbard said at the debate, echoing findings from a Free Beacon report. "She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California, and she fought to keep cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way."

Gabbard had previously hit Harris for what she said was a false accusation of racism towards former vice president Joe Biden. Gabbard has also said that Harris was not qualified to be president because she did not have the foreign policy experience or the temperament for the job. Harris has called Gabbard an apologist for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and dismissed her as someone polling at "zero or one percent."