US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris defended his record as a prosecutor, pledged to decriminalize marijuana and push for police reform as he sought to bolster support among black men in an interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God on Tuesday.
Charlamagne, a black comedian and author who hosts The Breakfast Club radio program, is known for his candid celebrity interviews.
Although a supporter of Harris, he has been critical of her and President Joe Biden in the past and called Democrats “cowards” for ineffectively prosecuting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In one of his first questions, he asked Harris to address the rumor that she disproportionately jailed black men during her more than a dozen years as San Francisco’s district attorney.
“That’s just not true,” Harris said, adding that she has been described as “one of the most advanced prosecutors” in marijuana cases. She said that as president she would work to decriminalize marijuana because she knows how the laws have hurt certain populations, especially black men.
Some sociological studies show this fewer black men support Harris than they did with Biden in the 2020 election.
Her campaign and allies, including Barack Obama, are working to win them back in Michigan and other battleground states that will be decided by narrow margins.
Harris said one of the biggest challenges she faces is misinformation from the Trump team aimed at black voters. “They’re trying to scare people because they know they have nothing else to run to,” she said.
Asked how she would curb police brutality and the killings of black men, Harris said she would work to pass the George Floyd Police Act, which has been stalled in Congress in 2021.
Charlamagne countered that Harris probably couldn’t get the votes, a reference to the sharply divided US Congress, and asked why he should push for it.
“I don’t support that approach,” Harris said, adding that it took a lot of work to push voting rights and other acts through Congress and that she would help elect lawmakers who would support it.
She declined to directly answer whether she thinks Attorney General Merrick Garland should have sent Trump to prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“I think the court should address that,” she said. “I’ll handle November.”
Callers from the audience said they feared the US election might not be free and fair or that Trump would try to trigger another Jan. 6-style event.
Harris avoided calling those fears unfounded and instead accused Trump of failing to protect the Constitution. “This man is weak and unfit,” she said.
She also listed her economic proposals targeting black men and other policies aimed at small business owners and lowering drug prices.
FOX, ROGAN NEXT?
On Wednesday, Harris will be interviewed by Fox News, the conservative network that in 2023 paid $787 million to a voting machine company that sued it over false claims by some Fox hosts about vote manipulation in the 2020 presidential election .
She also considered joining podcaster Joe Rogan, whose show reaches millions of men across the political spectrum and who joked that a “puppet master” was behind Harris’ strong performance in the anti-Trump debate.
The effort reflects growing concern in Democratic circles about Harris’ waning momentum in a handful of swing states and concerns that her poor showing with men, and black men in particular, could doom her bid for the White House.
More than a quarter of young black men say they would support Trump in the election race, according to a September survey by the NAACP, the nation’s largest civil rights organization. Biden won about 80% of the black male vote in 2020.
Harris’ lead over Trump has narrowed in recent days, several polls show. Her lead is holding steady at 3 points in the latest Reuters/Ipsos national poll, and other polls in the state field show the two in a dead heat.
Harris participated in a media blitz, chatting with friendly hosts from comedy shows, talk shows and podcasts.
In his fifth trip to the Detroit area since launching his campaign in July, Harris also promoted a set of recently unveiled policy proposals aimed at black men, including forgivable small business loans and access to a new legal recreational marijuana industry.
If elected, Harris would be the first woman and the first person of Asian descent to hold the office, as well as the second black president.
