‘Thread that needle’: Kamala Harris’ criminal justice policies in California angered progressives and police

As the new Democratic standard bearer, Vice President Kamala Harris has described her contest with former President Donald Trump in blunt terms — tough prosecutor versus civil and criminal defendant.

“I took on perpetrators of all kinds, predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own game,” Harris said at a rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday. “So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.”

But critics say that Harris’ record as a prosecutor, first as the district attorney in San Francisco and later as the California attorney general, reveals a political chameleon rather than a tough-on-crime top cop, according to interviews with current and former law enforcement leaders across the state, civil rights advocates and politicians.

In a statement, the White House said, “Vice President Harris has spent her career working to make the criminal justice system more just. Her work as San Francisco District Attorney, California Attorney General, a U.S. Senator, and now Vice President, has focused on protecting vulnerable communities; creating a fair and equal system; and ensuring accountability of law enforcement.”

For more on this story, tune in to NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT or check your local listings.

Harris has written two books about her time as a prosecutor and attorney general. In her 2009 book, “Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer,” published near the end of her tenure as DA, Harris described herself as a prosecutor who was “tough on crime by being Smart on Crime,” said she promoted programs to fix recidivism and made “improving my office’s felony conviction rates my number one priority.”

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