Vice President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee, in June 2020 called to "redirect resources" from police departments as violent anti-police protests swept across the nation in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
"We have to redirect resources" from police to other areas "where they are needed to truly support communities to be healthy and therefore safe," Harris said during an interview on June 10, 2020, with radio host Nick Cannon, noting that many American cities spent over one-third of their budget on policing while their schools were "suffering."
The interview was one of many that summer in which the vice president expressed her support for the "defund the police" movement as riots spread nationwide in response to Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020.
"We have to reimagine public safety in America," Harris added. "For too long, people have confused achieving public safety with putting more cops on the street."
The comments stand in stark contrast to Harris’s presidential campaign—launched earlier this month after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid—where she highlights her record as a "tough prosecutor" in California as a key reason she is the best candidate to take on Republican nominee Donald Trump in November.
Harris campaign spokesman James Singer, in a statement to ABC News, denied the vice president has ever supported defunding or cutting funding from law enforcement, instead accusing Trump of doing so.
"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," the spokesman said.
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