Harris did not laugh about putting 1500 people in jail for MJ violations as Gabbard claimed.

[uponit7771]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Yonnie3 (a host of the General Discussion forum).

That's the crap I wish we can leave out this time around ... that's not a short allegation.

eom

[Hortensis]

1. Well, soon Gabbard's "crap" will be left behind, at least if she doesn't

qualify for the third debates in spite of months of promotion by Russia, the Repubs, etc. But for now RT and the rest of the Russian media appear to be very satisfied with her performance in this one.
Breitbart and Drudge's audiences also think Gabbard's great.

Strangely, none of them like Harris. Maybe she put some of their friends in prison...?

[Ptah]

3. Is this about the debate?

[unitedwethrive]

4. Even knowing nothing about this...I figured Gabbard was spouting BS

Under the old laws it took more than smoking MJ to be arrested. You had to be dealing or in possession of a certain amount. I never agreed with it, and doubt Harris did either, but she was sworn to uphold the laws of the state.

[stonecutter357]

5. The Democratic Primaries forum are open !

[elocs]

6. I thought she laughed at being asked if she ever used mj herself,

not at having put the people in jail.
Although if you prosecuted people for mj use and smoked it yourself that would seem a tad hypocritical.

[emulatorloo]

7. Yes, that's what Gabbard said. OP must have misheard

[bigtree]

8. correct

This claim about Harris putting "over 1,500 people in jail" for pot violations is cited in a February article by the Free Beacon, a conservative online news website. The article 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.

PolitiFact could not immediately access that data during the debate. But we do know that as attorney general, Harris would not have personally prosecuted marijuana cases. Those cases would have been handled by lower-level state attorneys.


https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/jul/31/fact-checking-democratic-debate-detroit-night-two/

[highplainsdem]

9. Gabbard did NOT say Harris laughed about putting people in jail.

She said Harris had put people in jail for MJ violations, and that Harris herself had laughed about having smoked weed.

Gabbard quote here:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tulsi-gabbard-kamala-harris-criminal-justice-record_n_5d424340e4b0aca3411841fb

“There are too many examples to cite, but 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.

This is video of the interview Gabbard is talking about:

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/02/11/kamala-harris-marijuana-radio-int-orig-vstop-bdk.cnn


Looking at Gabbard's statement again, I can see that for some people the "about it" part of that second sentence could be confusing.

I knew Gabbard was referring to Harris laughing about having smoked MJ long ago, because I was familiar with that interview.

And HuffPost also understood what Gabbard was saying, because this was the paragraph immediately above the one I just quoted:

Gabbard took Harris to task for flip-flopping on decriminalizing marijuana. The congresswoman from Hawaii pointed out that Harris joked in a recent interview that she smoked weed in college, but the former attorney general also locked up over 1,000 people on marijuana citations.

But apparently some people are misreading what Gabbard said as suggesting Harris had laughed about locking people up for MJ violations.

[highplainsdem]

12. Harris, though she's used marijuana herself, OPPOSED legalizing marijuana in 2010 and 2014.

https://thinkprogress.org/harris-record-weed-history-ce37afd239ce/

In 2010, while Harris was San Fransisco district attorney and running for state attorney general, she came out in opposition to Proposition 19. The measure would have legalized marijuana in California, and in a statement shared with The New York Times, Harris said Prop 19 would encourage “driving while high” and drug use in the workplace.

As CBS reported at the time, both Harris and her Republican opponent, then-Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, refused to give a straight answer during a debate when they were asked whether they’d defend Prop 19 if it passed.

-snip-

Four years later, Harris was up for re-election, and her Republican opponent Ron Gold made legalizing recreational marijuana part of his platform. When a local news reporter asked Harris what she thought of Gold’s position, Harris said, “He’s entitled to his opinion,” before bursting into laughter.

Video there showing Harris bursting into laughter at the thought of her opponent being in favor of legalizing marijuana.

[Renew Deal]

10. Did she smirk?

Chuckle?

[demmiblue]

11. Is it really that hard to post in the correct forum? n/t

[Yonnie3]

13. Locking ...

Per the announcement on Feb 20, 2019 by site administrators, all discussion of the Democratic Primaries and candidates belongs in the Democratic Primaries Forum. Please re-post there if you like.