FLASHBACK: Kamala Harris praised ‘defund the police’ in 2020 amid George Floyd riots

During the Black Lives Matter riots and protests in the summer of 2020, then-Senator Kamala Harris voiced her support for efforts to "defund the police." In a New York radio interview, Harris stated that the BLM movement "rightly" criticized the allocation of substantial funds to police departments instead of social services such as education and housing.

Harris was asked about the "Defund the police" movement and said that the country needs to "reimagine how we are creating safety" with the police system and then claimed that "putting more cops on the street" in dangerous cities would not result in less crime. She added at the time that in suburban neighborhoods they have "access to public health and mental health services" among other resources.

“This whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities,” Harris said, suggesting that cities were "militarizing police."

“We need to have this conversation and critically examine and understand this is not working,” she continued. “It’s not working. So, this is an important conversation and not just a conversation – cause to your earlier point, can’t just be about talk. It has to be about forcing change.”

“And this is why, you know, I was out there with folks and we’ll, any movement, any progress we have gained has been because people took to the streets,” she added.

Harris' comments came only a few weeks after the death of George Floyd, which sparked immediate calls by activists, especially in Minneapolis, to "defund" the police and reallocate funds to social services. Harris also praised Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for his decision to cut $150 million from the police budget.

However, when Joe Biden selected Harris as his running mate for the 2020 presidential election, the campaign attempted to mitigate her previous comments and present her as supportive of law enforcement.

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris do not support defunding the police, and it is a lie to suggest otherwise,” the campaign press secretary stated in October 2020. “Throughout her career, Sen. Harris has supported increasing funding to police departments and boosting funding for community policing.”

Harris's past remarks on police funding are likely to resurface as she accepts the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. However, despite her continued support of the BLM movement, the organization denounced Harris rather than supporting her nomination. BLM criticized the party for installing Harris as the nominee without any public voting process after Biden announced he would no longer seek re-election.

“Installing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee and an unknown vice president without any public voting process would make the modern Democratic Party a party of hypocrites,” the group said in a statement.