(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris linked up with rapper and activist Fat Joe, born Joseph Antonio Cartagena, to discuss easing penalties for marijuana use. This move comes despite Harris’s prior history of prosecuting such offenses during her time as a California prosecutor.
On a Monday roundtable at the White House, Harris highlighted concerns about federal penalties for the illegal consumption of marijuana, emphasizing that criminal justice reform has fallen short of delivering on the promise of “equal justice” under the law.
“I say that with full knowledge of how this system has worked, including my experience as a prosecutor,” she asserted. “The president and I have addressed inequities through implementation of long-overdue criminal justice reform.”
She further added: “Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.” However, despite Harris’s apparent shift in stance, she faced intense criticism for prosecuting low-level marijuana users during her tenure as a California prosecutor.
“I have said many times, I believe, I think we all at this table believe, nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.”
— VP Kamala Harris hosts roundtable with Fat Joe, Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY), and recipients of pardons from admin’s executive action on marijuana offenses pic.twitter.com/4d0TicZUUq
— The Recount (@therecount) March 15, 2024
During her time as the district attorney for San Francisco from 2004 to 2011, Harris oversaw the conviction of over 1,900 marijuana cases.
While this number was lower than that of her predecessor, it still raised questions about potential hypocrisy in Harris’s advocacy for criminal justice reforms during her unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019.
Following her role as district attorney, Harris served as the attorney general for California from 2011 to 2017. Notably, in 2016, Californians voted to legalize the use of marijuana, yet Harris remained neutral on the measure.
Also present at the Monday roundtable was Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat known for pro-criminal justice reforms, particularly on marijuana offenses.
Praising Beshear’s progressive policies on marijuana, Harris remarked, “I would like to just publicly applaud and thank you for being so forward-leaning around having the courage to challenge certain traditions and critically evaluate whether what we have been doing is smart and what can we do to be smarter.”
This is not the first time Harris and Fat Joe, a criminal justice reform activist, have collaborated for an event, as both previously met during a college tour by Harris at Florida International University in September 2023.
The White House itself has a history with marijuana, with instances of its presence being reported on at least several occasions in 2022.
Tellingly, the emergence of reports on marijuana followed the discovery of a cocaine baggie in the White House, with the Secret Service unable to identify the culprit.
Fat Joe & Kamala Harris link up pic.twitter.com/awWTgmJavD
— 2Cool2Blog (@2Cool2Blog) March 16, 2024
