Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) slammed Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) for the later’s eagerness to prosecute pot offenses during her time as a prosecutor, during Wednesday night’s Democratic primary debate.
“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,” Gabbard said to applause.
- The hashtag #KamalaHarrisDestroyed started trending, though some have suggested it received a boost from bots and Trump supporters.
- ” The moment highlighted an uncomfortable truth about Harris’s record on drug reform, one that she is desperately trying to atone for by adopting a more relaxed stance than she’s adopted historically,” EJ Dickson writes in Rolling Stone.
- “This is the work I’ve done,” Harris defended herself. “There are going to be hits on a debate stage when people are trying to, you know, make a name for themselves,”
Rolling Stone
Gabbard has attracted plaudits from cannabis activists for her strong pro-legalization stance. “I don’t smoke marijuana. I never have,” she told Tom Angell in March. “But I believe firmly in every person’s freedom to make their own choices, and that people should not be thrown in jail and incarcerated or made into criminals for choosing to smoke marijuana.”
Elsewhere in the debates, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.Y.) said that on criminal justice, Vice President Joe Biden created “all the problems he’s talking about.”
New York Times
Quick Hit
- Key Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) appeared to endorse cannabis banking reform.
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