Tulsi Gabbard Confronts Kamala Harris on Criminal Justice Record During Democratic Debate Exchange

[00:00] congresswoman Gabbard you took issue

[00:01] with senator Harris confronting Vice

[00:03] President Biden at the last debate you

[00:05] called it a quote false accusation that

[00:07] Joe Biden is a racist what's your

[00:09] response I want to bring the

[00:11] conversation back to the broken criminal

[00:13] justice system that is

[00:14] disproportionately negatively impacting

[00:17] black and brown people all across this

[00:19] country today now senator Harris says

[00:21] she's proud of her record as a

[00:23] prosecutor and that she'll be a

[00:24] prosecutor president but I'm deeply

[00:26] concerned about this record there are

[00:28] too many examples to cite but she put

[00:31] over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana

[00:33] violations and then laughed about it

[00:35] when she was asked if she ever smoked

[00:36] marijuana she blocked evidence freed an

[00:43] innocent man from death row until the

[00:45] courts forced her to do so she kept

[00:47] people in prison beyond their sentences

[00:49] to use them as cheap labor for the state

[00:51] of California and she fought to keep a

[00:54] system in place that impacts poor people

[00:58] in the worst kind of way Thank You

[01:00] congresswoman

[01:00] senator Harris your response as the

[01:06] elected Attorney General California I

[01:08] did the work of significantly reforming

[01:12] the criminal justice system of a state

[01:14] of 40 million people which became a

[01:16] national model for the work that needs

[01:18] to be done and I am proud of that work

[01:20] and I am proud of making a decision to

[01:23] not just give fancy speeches or being a

[01:25] legislative body and give speeches on

[01:27] the floor but actually doing the work of

[01:29] being in the position to use the power

[01:31] that I had to reform a system that is

[01:33] badly in need of reform that is why we

[01:36] created initiatives that were about

[01:38] re-entering former offenders and getting

[01:40] them counseling it is why and because I

[01:42] know that criminal justice systems are

[01:43] broken that I am an advocate for what

[01:47] legalized marijuana in the United to

[01:50] bring that congresswoman Gabbard back in

[01:52] your response the bottom line is senator

[01:54] Harris when you are in a position to

[01:55] make a difference and an impact in these

[01:58] people's lives you did not and worse yet

[02:00] in the case of those who were on death

[02:02] row innocent people you actually blocked

[02:05] evidence from being revealed that would

[02:07] have freed them until you were forced to

[02:10] do so

[02:10] no excuse for that and the people who

[02:13] suffered under your reign as prosecutor

[02:15] oh you owe them an apology senator

[02:18] Harris my entire career I have been

[02:23] opposed personally opposed to the death

[02:25] penalty and that has never changed and I

[02:27] dare anybody who was in a position to

[02:29] make that decision to face the people I

[02:32] have faced to say I will not seek the

[02:34] death penalty that is my background that

[02:36] is my work I am proud of it I think you

[02:40] can judge people by when they are under

[02:41] fire and it's not about some fancy

[02:43] opinion on a stage but when they are in

[02:45] the position to actually make a decision

[02:46] what do they do when I was in the

[02:49] position of having to decide whether or

[02:51] not to seek a death penalty on cases I

[02:53] prosecuted I made a very difficult

[02:56] decision that was not popular to not

[02:58] seek the death penalty history shows

[03:00] that and I am proud of those decisions