In June 2020, amidst nationwide calls for police reform, Vice President Kamala Harris voiced support for the “defund the police” movement, advocating for a reallocation of funds from police departments to community services.
In a June 2020 radio interview, Vice President Kamala Harris expressed support for the “defund the police” movement, highlighting the excessive funding of police departments at the expense of community services such as education, housing, and healthcare. She emphasized that an increased police presence does not necessarily lead to greater public safety. “This whole movement is about rightly saying we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether they reflect the right priorities,” Harris stated on "Ebro in the Morning," a New York-based radio program, noting the militarization of police forces while public schools faced defunding.
Harris' comments came just weeks after George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, which had spurred the “defund” movement among progressive activists. At the time, Harris was six months past her own presidential campaign and two months away from becoming Joe Biden’s vice presidential nominee. In another interview, Harris praised Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for reallocating $150 million from the police budget to social services.
As Harris now campaigns to replace Biden following his decision to drop out of the 2024 race, the resurfaced interview could complicate her strategy. She has often highlighted her history as a tough-on-crime prosecutor, a stance that may clash with the sentiments she expressed in 2020. Before her Senate election in 2016, Harris served as San Francisco's district attorney and California’s attorney general.
In response to these revelations, Ammar Moussa, Harris for President rapid response director, stated, “Whether as a district attorney, attorney general, Senator, or as Vice President, Kamala Harris has led the way to keep our communities safe, take on violent crime, and helped lead the nation to a historic drop in violent crime to a 50-year low.”
After June 2020, Harris rarely mentioned the “defund the police” movement. The Biden campaign later clarified that she supported funding the police. However, during her June interviews, Harris maintained that the movement was correct to scrutinize police budgets and called for demilitarizing police departments. “We need to have this conversation and critically examine and understand this is not working,” she reiterated on "Ebro in the Morning."
On June 8, 2020, Harris appeared on "The View" and engaged in a discussion about reallocating police funds to other social programs, suggesting that in many American cities, over one-third of the city budget goes to police. She also praised Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti on "Good Morning America" for his budget reallocation, while clarifying that she did not support eliminating the police altogether.
Harris framed the “defund the police” movement as a call to rethink public safety by investing in education, mental health services, and affordable housing. “Defund the police, the issue behind it is that we need to reimagine how we are creating safety,” she said, noting that upper-middle-class suburban neighborhoods do not rely on heavy police presence for safety but benefit from well-funded schools, homeownership, thriving small businesses, and access to health services.
Despite the movement's traction, polls showed that reducing police budgets remained unpopular, even in 2020. A Pew Research poll indicated that only 25% of adults supported reducing police budgets that year, with support dropping to 15% by 2021, while 47% of adults favored increased police spending.
After Harris joined Biden's ticket in August 2020, the campaign clarified that she opposed defunding the police and supported increasing police funding.
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