As California’s attorney general, Kamala Harris successfully defended the death penalty in court, despite her past crusade against it.
As a new senator, she proposed to abolish cash bail — a reversal from when she chided San Francisco judges for making it “cheaper” to commit crimes by setting bail amounts too low.
And now, as vice president and the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris’ campaign insists that she does not want to ban fracking, an oil and gas extraction process, even though that was precisely her position just a few years ago when she first pursued the White House.
Politicians often recalibrate in the face of shifting public opinions and circumstances. Across two decades in elected office and now seeking the presidency for the 2nd time, Harris has not hesitated to stake out expedient and — at times — contradictory positions as she climbed the political ladder. Harris’ litany of policy reversals is opening her to attacks by Republicans and testing the strength of her pitch to voters as a truth-teller who is more credible than former President Donald Trump.
The death penalty
One of Harris’ most pronounced shifts was over the death penalty. During a 2004 inauguration speech after her election as San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris vowed to “never charge the death penalty.” She framed her choice as a moral one.
She stuck to that pledge when a 21-year-old gang member was accused of killing San Francisco Police Officer Isaac Espinoza. Harris announced that she would not seek the ultimate punishment — a decision condemned by police and some fellow Democrats. At the officer’s funeral, Harris was forced to look on as Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein received a standing ovation when she said the death penalty was warranted.
Harris softened her approach 4 years later, after launching her campaign for California attorney general. Amid a tightly contested race with Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, a Republican, Harris said she would ”enforce the death penalty as the law dictates.” While other Democrats on the ballot cruised to victory , Harris barely won.
She kept that promise. Her office successfully defended the death penalty in court, arguing she was obligated to uphold the law as the state’s top attorney — even as she refused to enforce a referendum that banned gay marriage.
‘Blood and guts prosecutor’ turned progressive
As district attorney, Harris zealously approached criminal enforcement matters. While still a candidate, she blasted the progressive incumbent, Terence Hallinan, as a “do nothing prosecutor” and called for taking more aggressive steps to police the homeless. Once in office, she pursued the parents of chronically truant students, sought higher bail amounts and aggressively prosecuted drug crimes, earning her the nickname of “Copala.”
When a scandal erupted at the city’s crime lab involving a drug-skimming evidence technician, her office failed to promptly disclose the problem to defense attorneys, as required. She also sought to continue prosecuting the tainted cases, criticized the judge handling the matter as biased and trying to have her removed from overseeing the cases involving the technician, who had often served as an expert witness.
Harris has said she was unaware of issues with the lab, though emails released in a court case show her top deputies knew there was a problem.
“She was a blood and guts prosecutor,” said Bill Fazio, a longtime San Francisco attorney who ran against Harris in the 2003 district attorney’s race. “My history with her is she never gave away cases.”
As attorney general, Harris continued to take hardline stances on criminal justice matters. She appealed convictions that judges had ordered thrown out. Her office fought a court order mandating the release of state prisoners due to overcrowding. She also opposed legislation requiring her office to investigate shootings involving police and declined to back statewide standards for the use of body cameras by local law enforcement.
Once elected to the Senate in 2016, however, Harris jettisoned many of those positions amid speculation she would pursue the presidency. She sought instead to portray herself as a “progressive prosecutor” and proposed sweeping reforms, including abolishing the cash bail system — which her attorneys had defended in court just months before — and imposing a moratorium on the death penalty.
In May 2020, violent protests erupted in Minneapolis over the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man. A police station was torched and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is now Harris’ running mate, called in the National Guard to help quell the unrest. In the days that followed, Harris took to the social media site Twitter, now known as X, and urged her followers to “chip in” to a bail fund to help those arrested post bond.
It’s unclear if Harris, who tweeted “End money bail” as a presidential candidate, still supports the idea. She abandoned her primary campaign in 2019 and was picked the next year to join Biden’s ticket. Her campaign declined to directly address the question.
“She believes that we need a system where public safety, not wealth, determines who should stay behind bars following an arrest. Anyone who is a danger to society should be detained regardless of how wealthy they are,” said Singer, the spokesman.
