Kamala Harris' record on crime under the microscope as presidential campaign takes shape

WASHINGTON (TND) — Kamala Harris' record as a prosecutor is shaping up to be a campaign issue both sides will seize on now that she’s looking more like the Democratic nominee for President.

As Harris’ campaign takes shape, so does the narrative she’ll try to form over the next three-plus months.

I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type,” Harris told supporters in Wisconsin earlier this week.

Her critics, including the former President, are countering by going after her record on crime.

And she’s got a new line she says ‘I’m the prosecutor.’ She’s one of the worst prosecutors in history, she destroyed San Francisco," Donald Trump said at his rally in North Carolina.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called her “soft as Charmin” on crime in a post on X, previously known as Twitter. Other critics say her policies as a city attorney in San Francisco and California Attorney General led to a crimewave. Harris also received criticism from constituents in her own party during her 2020 presidential run for not being “progressive enough” on law enforcement issues. Something she tried to counter by being sympathetic to the “defund the police” movement.

“It is outdated and is actually wrong and backward to think that more police officers will create more safety," Harris told MSNBC in June 2020.

Harris later distanced herself from the movement after she became Joe Biden’s running mate.

But voters have signaled they're more open to crime crackdowns as opposed to more progressive policies. So-called progressive prosecutors have faced sometimes successful recall votes in California. A Pew Research survey from early 2024 showed that 58% of Americans believe that reducing crime should be a top priority for the President and Congress.

A Harris campaign shift and lean-in towards her prosecutorial background could be seen as a way to flip the script on the attacks that her record is too soft on crime. Ads touting her work as a district attorney and California Attorney General are already running.

It’s not clear what narrative will win, but Americans are likely to see plenty of more ads about it.

Politico reports a pro-Trump group is spending about $70 million from now until Labor Day on ads about her record. A group backing Harris is spending about $50 million on ads over the next three weeks.