DNC paints Harris as ‘law and order’ standard-bearer as past comments on ‘militarization of police’ resurface
Fox News
In the video introduction to Rep. Jamie Raskin’s, D-Md., speech on Monday evening, the Democratic National Convention aired a parody narration of an opening segue from “Law & Order.”
“In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime, and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders,” the narration went, in similar form to the NBC standard.
The video went on to paint former President Trump as a criminal defendant on the program, with the narrator saying, “He lies, he rips off workers, he sexually abuses women.”
“[T]o take on this case, we need a president who has spent her life prosecuting perpetrators like Donald Trump,” the narration continues, clearly referring to Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Harris has recently called out her opponent in a similar light: “I know Donald Trump’s type.”
Prior to her time in the Senate, she served as California attorney general and San Francisco County district attorney. She notably won her attorney general’s race by the narrowest margin in state history.
In 2009, Harris wrote a book: “Smart on Crime,” which sought to “mak[e] the criminal justice system truly, not just rhetorically, tough.”
In the interim, she made several comments critical of the state of law enforcement and has been criticized by Republicans for actions including soliciting donations for the Minnesota Freedom Fund – which paid bail for Minneapolis riot suspects.
During a June 2019 presidential candidates’ forum hosted by the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC), Harris joined Hialeah, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for a panel hosted by PPC’s Liz Theoharis and MSNBC pundit Joy Reid.
In response to a multi-tiered question by Theoharis, Harris said, “On the issue of militarization of police, I have a long-standing record of saying we need to demilitarize police, and we really need to get to a point where communities frankly don’t need a law enforcement response to what’s happening in their communities because they are safe communities.”
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CNN and other networks have recently flagged Harris’ past statements on policing, as the left-leaning network revisited her June 2020 comments on a New York radio show that the Defund the Police movement “rightly sa[id] we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities.”
The Democrat also said some municipalities were “militarizing police” while “defunding public schools.”
In 2020, Harris sparred with then-“View” host Meghan McCain, after the Republican scion pressed the future vice president as to whether she supports “defunding the police.”
Harris replied by asking how McCain would define defunding police, while separately offering that the U.S. needs to “reimagine how we are achieving public safety.”
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“And to have cities where one-third of their entire budget is going to policing, but yet there’s a dire need in those same cities for mental health resources, for resources going into public schools, for resources going into job training and job creation. Come on.”
During a discussion with celebrities Andy Cohen and Laverne Cox in 2020, Harris said the “status quo thinking” that more police on the street translates to safer streets is wrong.
“It is outdated, and it is actually wrong and backward to think that more police officers will create more safety,” she added on an episode of Chris Hayes’ MSNBC program.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but did not receive a response at press time.