Kamala Harris Brags About Power To Jail Offenders In Resurfaced Clips

“The power I have as a prosecutor is that with a swipe of my pen, I can charge someone with a misdemeanor, the lowest level offense possible,” Harris said.

Vice President Kamala Harris bragged about the power to incarcerate someone with a “swipe of her pen” during her time as a San Francisco prosecutor in a resurfaced 14-year-old viral interview as she runs for the White House.

Harris, who Democrats installed to helm the 2024 presidential nominee after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, was elected as the first woman District Attorney in San Francisco's history in 2003 and was overwhelmingly reelected to a second term in November 2007.

As she campaigned to become California’s attorney general at an event organized by Google in 2010, Harris described her prosecutorial power while discussing the importance of federal officials using their authority responsibly.  

“The power I have as a prosecutor is that with a swipe of my pen, I can charge someone with a misdemeanor, the lowest level offense possible,” Harris said. “And by virtue of that swipe of my pen, you will have to go to a courthouse and stand in line. You will have to come out of pocket and hire an attorney. You may get arrested for a few hours. You will be embarrassed in your community. You miss time from coming onto the Google campus all because, with the swipe of my pen, which I’ve tried — charged you with a crime, which I may choose to dismiss two weeks later. 

“It’s an incredible amount of power,” she added.

She said such power should be in the hands of people “taking seriously the responsibility.” Yet, more than a decade later, her remarks take on a new meaning as reports suggest wrongful convictions or harsh sentencing under Harris's watch as a two-term attorney general for California.

The Washington Free Beacon reported a minimum of 1,560 individuals were incarcerated in state prisons for offenses related to marijuana between 2011 and 2016. Those convictions disproportionately affected black communities, 

During her failed 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Harris echoed the same power-wielding rhetoric while on the campaign trail.

"I learned that with the swipe of my pen, I could charge someone with the lowest-level offense, and because of the swipe of my pen, that person could be arrested," she said in a 2019 New Hampshire speech, adding a series of outcomes that included potential job loss, incarceration, and expensive lawyer charges.

"Weeks later, I could dismiss the charges, but their life would forever be changed,” she added.