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THOMAS HEDGES: Even as late as 2013, Harris continued not only to defend her tough-on-crime philosophy, but make fun of the emergent movement against the crisis of mass incarceration.
KAMALA HARRIS: We all have these posters in our closet that is attached to a stick.
BRANKO MARCETIC: She on stage, and she kind of mocks this kind of, this activist impulse, less prisons more schools.
KAMALA HARRIS: And we run around with these signs. Build more schools, less jails. Build more schools, less jails. And we walk around everywhere. Build more schoolswe protest. Build more schools, less jails.
BRANKO MARCETIC: She does it in this very, kind of, like, very mocking way, where the idea is that these people, these activists, are not serious.
KAMALA HARRIS: There's a fundamental problem with that approach, in my opinion. And it's this. I agree with that, conceptually. But you have not addressed the reason I have three padlocks on my front door.
BRANKO MARCETIC: You know, she talks about how we all we all have these placards in our closets. We all used to be activists. But if you really want to be in the real world, you want to be a serious person, you have to forget that kind of soft-headed nonsense, and you know, the way to go is by really prosecuting people.
KAMALA HARRIS: So part of the discussion about reform of criminal justice policy has to be an acknowledgement that crime does occur.
BRANKO MARCETIC: I mean, that's not really smart on crime. And I would say that that's not even a realistic thing. That's a fantasy, the idea that you can just keep locking people up and solve anything. It's a fantasy that is driven by political considerations, because thatfor her, for someone of her generation, that was seen as the ticket to political power, was to show that you were tough.
THOMAS HEDGES: Similarly, she mocked her Republican opponent for supporting the legalization of marijuana a year later in 2014, during the race for attorney general of California.
RON GOLD: My position is it needs to be legalized.
SPEAKER: Ron Gold, the Republican candidate for attorney general, wants to tax and regulate the use of marijuana for recreational purposes.
RON GOLD: Colorado is already beginning to prove to everybody that there is sufficient taxable base.
SPEAKER: We asked California's current top cop Kamala Harris for her position on this controversial issue.
SPEAKER: But your opponent Ron Gold has said that he is for the legalization of marijuana recreationally. Your thoughts on that?
KAMALA HARRIS: I think that he is entitled to his opinion.
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