Asked on CNN’s “The Situation Room” on Friday whether Vice President Kamala Harris, a potential 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, no longer maintained her past position of praising defunding police, Harris campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu said “I don’t think so,” claiming that footage of her doing so had been “taken out of context.” He added, “What she was trying to say there, and what I think a lot of criminal justice experts would say is true, is that we can be tough on crime and smart on crime, and that police officers are crucial. Her position has always been that we can be tough on crime and smart on crime, and that requires funding police, but also funding rehabilitation and making the criminal justice system safer.”
“I want to ask you about this, CNN’s KFILE found that Harris praised the movement to defund the police just months before joining the campaign trail as Biden’s running mate in June 2020. Let’s hear about that,” host Pamela Brown asked.
She then played a clip of Harris saying, “We’re going to cut the police budget. The issue behind that is we need to rethink how we make sure we’re safe. When you look at many cities that spend a third of their entire budget on policing, you know that’s not a smart way to make sure we’re safe, it’s not the best way, it’s not the right way.” She added, “This movement is rightly saying that we need to re-examine these budgets and see if they reflect the right priorities.” She added, “For too long, the status quo has been that if you put more police on the streets, you’re going to be safer. But that’s wrong.”
Brown then asked, “Isn’t that Ms. Harris’ position anymore?”
Landrieu responded, “No, I don’t think so. And as she says, it’s a funny story, but I think you have to take it all in context. The fact is, the vice president, you know, started her career as a prosecutor prosecuting criminals in San Francisco. She went after bad guys. She put sexual abusers in prison. She put business fraudsters in prison. When she was attorney general of California, she literally ran the largest law firm in the country, and in many cases the world. What she was trying to say there, and I think many criminal justice experts would say this is true, is that you can be tough on crime and you can be smart on crime, and that police officers are crucial. If you look at her record, as well as the president, they’ve actually defunded the police. They’ve not only put money into the FBI, the DEA, the ATF, the U.S. Marshals’ Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, they’ve put real cash into police departments and put real cops on the streets. So she believes in police officers and she understands their sacrifice.”
He continued, “But I also think it’s true that when we deal with criminal justice, we have to be able to judge someone as bad or good by their actions, not by the color of their skin. And when we deal with mental health and substance abuse, when we try to find alternatives for offenders who aren’t felons, we can actually create a safer system. This isn’t just about police officers. And, actually, I think the proof is in the pudding. Under the Biden-Harris administration, crime has actually decreased significantly. And, of course, under the Trump administration, crime rates were very high. So if we combine both of those things, get tough on crime and get smart on crime, we can achieve both and make our streets safer.”
Brown then asked, “Okay, but at the end of the day, you said you didn’t think what we just played was still her position. You’ve just made her position clear, Mitch…”
Landrieu then interjected, saying, “No.”
Brown then interjected: “Okay, so her position is still the same. She wants to move funding out of the police department, but does she still think the police department is the same?”
“That’s not what I said. What I said is that those comments need to be taken in context,” Landrieu responded.
Brown continued: “[I]Is that still her position?
Landrieu responded: “What I’m saying is that what you just said was taken out of context. Her position has been that you can be tough and smart on crime and you need to fund police, but you also need to fund rehabilitation and things that make the criminal justice system safer. You can do both.”
Brown continued: “But just to be sure, does she want to take money away from the police department and put it into community services? Because that was part of the discussion.”
Landrieu responded: “What I said is, if you look at her record as vice president, she actually over-funded the police, along with President Biden. So her actions show that she wants to fund the police, but she also wants to do other things, because both of those things together bring safety to American streets.”
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