Harris Gets Cooked on 'Breakfast Club'

Radio host Charlamagne tha God had a tough time trying to elicit an authentic response from Vice President Kamala Harris during a Tuesday virtual town hall on "The Breakfast Club."

From questions about Harris' time as San Francisco's district attorney and her prosecution of Black men on weed charges, to the border crisis, to reparations for Black Americans, to sending money overseas while Americans are struggling, the vice president stuck to her talking points.

Near the start of the interview, Harris was pressed on her role as district attorney.

"One of the biggest allegations against you is that you targeted and locked up thousands of Black men in San Francisco for weed," Charlamagne said, adding, "Some say you did it to boost your career."

Harris responded by framing her record as progressive. "I was the most progressive prosecutor in California on marijuana cases and would not send people to jail for simple possession of weed."

According to the The Mercury News, "Harris oversaw more than 1,900 marijuana convictions in San Francisco, previously unreported records from the DA's office show. Her prosecutors appear to have convicted people on marijuana charges at a higher rate than under her predecessor, based on data about marijuana arrests in the city."

When the conversation shifted to immigration, Charlamagne pushed Harris on the Biden administration's handling of the southern border.

"Doesn't the Biden administration have to take some blame for the border though? A lot of the blame? Because, I mean, the first three years, y'all did get a lot of things wrong with the border," Charlamagne stated.

Harris responded, stating that among the Biden administration's first priorities was the border.

"Charlamagne," Harris stated flatly to the host, "within hours of being inaugurated, the first bill we passed, before we did the Inflation Reduction Act, before we did the bipartisan Infrastructure Act, before we did the Safer Communities Act to deal with gun violence, the first thing we dropped was a bill to fix the broken immigration system, which by the way, Trump did not fix when he was president."

Moments later, Harris responded that the Biden-Harris administration issued "an executive order that has actually reduced significantly the number of illegal crossings and tightened up what needs to happen in between ports of entry."

According to a report from the Republican-led House Homeland Security Committee, the Biden-Harris administration is on track to hit "10 million" encounters across the southern border "well before the end of the fiscal year" 2024.

In regards to reparations for Black Americans, when asked for her stance, Harris called for a study. "On the point of reparations, it has to be studied. There's no question about that," she said before pivoting to discuss her middle-class up-and-commence.

But after a prolonged diatribe, Charlamagne, however, called her out for not giving a direct answer, saying, "OK, filibuster, ma'am."

Earlier in the interview, one listener questioned Harris on the allocation of U.S. foreign aid in light of domestic issues like homelessness and poverty. "Why are we sending money to other countries when we desperately need it in our own country? For homeless housing resources? For whatever?"

Charlamagne then noted that such concerns are why Trump's "America First" rhetoric resonates with so many people.

Harris defended the administration's policies, arguing that America can manage both foreign aid and manage domestic issues.

"We can do it all, and we do," Harris responded. "First of all, I maintained very strongly America should never pull ourselves away from our responsibility as a world leader, and that is in the best interest of our national security in each one of us as Americans and our standing in the world."