Former Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick Murphy passionately defended Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on policing during a Fox News segment on Tuesday.
Murphy criticized Republican nominee Donald Trump during the segment for promising to grant police officers “immunity from prosecution,” instead arguing that there are bad officers who must face justice in his appearance. Fox News host Martha MacCallum, in response, stated there is a “tiny percentage” of officers who need to be held to account for their behavior and argued Americans would feel safer with a larger police presence in their communities.
“You just said it yourself. It’s just a tiny percentage of police officers, and now, a loss of life is a loss of life, whether it’s at the hands of a police officer or a murderer,” MacCallum said. “It doesn’t matter, they’re both criminals, and we prosecute in this country. We see these people when they do step out of line. Look, the history of bad cops is as old as our own history, but that’s not the problem. People feel that police officers are not respected in this country. I remember when people threw milk on them not that long ago in New York City, and people don’t feel safe in our cities anymore, it’s a fact.”
“But I want to say, but when he’s saying that Kamala Harris doesn’t like cops, she spent decades of her life as an assistant DA [district attorney], as DA, as attorney general. She has been a progressive prosecutor, she wrote a book called ‘Smart on Crime.’ She said in her book she wants more cops on the street, we need to have more cops on the street, everybody would feel safer. So that’s the facts,” Murphy said.
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MacCallum pointed to Harris cosponsoring the Justice in Policing Acts of 2020 while in the U.S. Senate, which intended to reform an officer’s immunity and amend a federal criminal statute to allow for the prosecution of officers’ misconduct from “willfulness” to a “recklessness” standard. Murphy argued Harris passed a bill allocating $15 billion toward policing in the American Rescue Plan, which passed in March 2021.
“Didn’t she sponsor bills to strip officers of their protection, to lock them up in cases of [misconduct], and to bankrupt the police union?” MacCallum asked. (RELATED: ‘She Didn’t Do A Very Good Job’: Judge Joe Brown Torches Kamala Harris’ Record As San Francisco DA)
“She passed a bill where Joe Biden put $15 billion in the cops, as her record as vice president, in the American Rescue package, that’s the facts! $15 billion is $15 billion of more cops!” Murphy shouted.
Fox News host Trey Gowdy said Harris did not “embrace” being a prosecutor when she helped bail Black Lives Matter protesters out of prison in 2020.
“That’s not accurate, Trey. That is not accurate. Listen, she wrote a book on it, she spoke about it, she ran as attorney general, supported the death penalty,” Murphy said.
MacCallum said voters are questioning whether Harris is “soft on crime” or “tough on crime,” given that she prosecuted nearly 2,000 people on marijuana-related charges during her time as California attorney general between 2011-2016. Harris later pivoted to supporting a “reimagining” of policing and the “defund the police” movement of 2020, in which she advocated for redirecting resources from police to areas of government, including schools and small businesses, according to ABC News.
Harris told the “Ebro In The Morning” New York radio show in June 2020 that the “defund the police” movement justifiably questioned the budgets being given to police. She further praised Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2020 for cutting $150 million from the police budget and allocating the funds to social services in an interview conducted a day later, according to CNN.
She also called to “demilitarize police departments” and said it was “wrong and backward” to suggest more policing is the solution to crime, according to an MSNBC interview from 2020.
The Biden-Harris campaign put out a statement in 2020 denying that Harris supported defunding the police.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris do not support defunding the police, and it is a lie to suggest otherwise,” Sabrina Singh, Harris’ then-press secretary, said. “Throughout her career, Sen. Harris has supported increasing funding to police departments and boosting funding for community policing.”
Harris’ current campaign spokesperson, James Singer, said on July 30 that Trump is the only candidate who has called for defunding the police, according to ABC News.
“The only candidate running for President who has ever advocated for defunding the police or proposed cutting funding for law enforcement is convicted felon Donald Trump. Vice President Harris spent years prosecuting criminals and getting justice for victims, and has supported increased funding to keep our communities safe and hold convicted felons like Trump accountable — which is why America is currently seeing a near 50-year low in violent crime.”
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