How the mighty have fallen.
Sen. Kamala Harris last month dismissed Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s criticisms of her record as a corrupt law enforcement official, pointing smugly to the disparity between her and Gabbard’s 2020 Democratic primary polling numbers.
However, a survey released this week by CNN shows Harris’ support among potential Democratic voters has plummeted from 17% in June to a measly 5%. In contrast, Gabbard has seen her admittedly poor numbers improve slightly, clocking in at 2% in August, up from 1% in June.
Sure, Harris is still polling ahead of Gabbard, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, but it counts for something that of the two candidates, only the Hawaii congresswoman has seen her numbers improve since the last Democratic debate. And considering that the California senator is now only two points ahead of Gabbard in the new CNN survey, perhaps now she can respond to the congresswoman’s criticisms.
As of this writing, Harris, who was a pitiless, overzealous law enforcement official when she served as district attorney of San Francisco and later as California’s attorney general, has yet to respond to Gabbard’s broadside on her record, which came during the second night of the second round of Democratic primary debates.
“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,” the congresswoman said. “She blocked evidence — she blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California.“
Gabbard added, “And she fought to keep [the] bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.”
Harris responded with a canned line about how she is “proud of that work” she did as a prosecutor in California.
Gabbard kept at it, saying, “The bottom line is, Sen. Harris, when you were in a position to make a difference and an impact in these people’s lives, you did not. And worse yet, in the case of those who were on death row, innocent people, you actually blocked evidence from being revealed that would have freed them until you were forced to do so.”
She added, “There is no excuse for that, and the people who suffered under your reign as prosecutor owe — you owe them an apology.”
After the debate, as Harris tried to spin the attack in a positive light, she chose simply to brush off Gabbard’s criticisms, suggesting that it is not worth it to respond to such a poorly polling candidate.
“This is going to sound immodest, but I’m obviously a top-tier candidate, and so I did expect that I would be on the stage and take hits tonight because there are a lot of people that are trying to make the stage for the next debate,” Harris told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
The senator added, “Especially when some people are at zero or 1%, whatever she might be at. So I did expect that I might take hits tonight. … So, you know, I’m prepared to move on.”
Speaking of moving on, it looks like the potential Democratic voters surveyed by CNN have done just that.
