Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) on Friday announced she would no longer take part in a criminal justice reform panel at Benedict College, a historically black college in Columbia, South Carolina. After receiving flak from President Trump and others, Harris decided maybe she should attend the event after all.
Badly failing presidential candidate @KamalaHarris will not go to a very wonderful largely African American event today because yesterday I recieved a major award, at the same event, for being able to produce & sign into law major Criminal Justice Reform legislation, which will..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2019
....greatly help the African American community (and all other communities), and which was unable to get done in past administrations despite a tremendous desire for it. This and best unemployment numbers EVER is more than Kamala will EVER be able to do for African Americans!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2019
My whole life I've fought for justice and for the people — something you'd know nothing about. The only part of criminal justice you can claim credit for is the “criminal” part. https://t.co/ykIoNI3Y0D
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 26, 2019
According to Mediaite, Harris is attending the event after all. She made the decision to attend after the sponsor that presented President Trump with an award for the FIRST STEP Act – the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center – was removed as an event sponsor.
"After the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center was removed as a sponsor for the criminal justice forum at Benedict College in response to her protests of the event, Senator Kamala Harris is announcing she will join students, Mayor Steve Benjamin and the broader Columbia community on campus at Benedict to discuss critical issues for the country’s justice system," her team said in a statement.
"Harris announced yesterday she would not participate in the event after hearing the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center excluded students from participating and gave Trump, who has spent decades exhibiting racist behavior and promoting injustice for African Americans, a justice award. Harris instead planned to host a separate forum on important justice issues in protest of this group’s involvement and the exclusion of HBCU [historically black colleges and universities] student participation in the event," the statement said. "As a result of her leadership, the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center has been dropped from the event, the event was made free and open to the public, and more HBCU students at Benedict have been included in the event. Because of these important changes, Harris will now participate in the conversation with Benjamin, Benedict and its students, and the broader Columbia community."
Harris is upset that Trump is being recognized for a bill that she supported before it was passed. She's just upset that a Republican beat the Democrats to the punch on criminal justice reform. It's an issue they've touted as being the campions of. When it came time to actually getting it done though, Trump put his money where his mouth is.
