So lets take a look at reality.
Were Tulsi Gabbard’s attacks on Kamala Harris’ record as a California prosecutor on target?
We’ll examine Gabbard’s claims one-by-one.
Harris "put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana."
There’s some context missing in this claim, and it’s framed in a misleading way. We couldn’t independently verify the 1,500 figure, which is cited in a February
article by the Free Beacon, a conservative online news website. It says "at least 1,560 people were sent to state prisons for marijuana-related offenses between 2011 and 2016," when Harris was California attorney general. It says the data comes from reports from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. We requested that data from the state prisons agency.
The agency’s data shows there were 1,883 admissions to state prison on marijuana offenses during the years Harris was attorney general. There were another 92 admissions for crimes related to hashish, a drug made from cannabis resin. Notably, the figures dropped dramatically during Harris’ tenure, from 817 marijuana-related admissions in her first year in office to 137 in her last.
Also, as attorney general, Harris would not have personally prosecuted marijuana cases. Those cases would have been handled by lower-level state attorneys.
Harris "blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so."
Gabbard’s campaign said she was referring to the case of Kevin Cooper, a black man on death row in California.
We found Gabbard’s statement leaves out some key information.
Harris "kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California."
This claim comes from a February Daily Beast article. It found lawyers in then AG Harris’ office argued in 2014 that, despite court orders to reduce state prison crowding, some non-violent offenders needed to stay in the prison system to help combat wildfires. It does not detail how many prisoners, if any, ended up staying longer than required.
A spokesperson for Harris was quoted in the article saying, "Senator Harris was shocked and troubled by the use of this argument. She looked into it and directed the department’s attorneys not to make that argument again."
Harris "fought to keep a bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way."
A March article by Business Insider detailed then-San Francisco DA Harris’ push in 2004 to increase cash bail. "Shortly thereafter, San Francisco's Superior Court judges moved to sharply increase cash bail costs for weapons-related felony charges, including assault with a firearm and the sale of machine guns," according to the article.
It adds that as a senator, Harris has introduced bipartisan legislation to encourage states to reform their cash bail systems so that lower-income people aren't kept in jail as a result of their inability to pay steep bail costs.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/aug/01/were-tulsi-gabbards-attacks-kamala-harris-record-c/'
Everything Gabbard said was either a lie or misstatement. What you right wingers don't seem to get is that no matter how loud, forceful or confidently a lie is spoken, it is still a lie. Gabbard didn't do shit to Harris, and looking at where they both are now, Gabbard is the one who got destroyed.
