#Kamala Harris’ political views and positions on issues as Biden’s VP pick

Joe Biden on Tuesday ended months of speculation and confirmed Sen. Kamala Harris of California would be joining his ticket as his running mate.

The 55-year-old lawmaker has embraced progressive policies since joining Congress in 2017 but has struggled to defend her tough-on-crime prosecutorial past.

President Trump’s reelection campaign on Tuesday described Harris as a “phony” who they claimed tried to bury her record to appease the Democratic Party’s increasingly-influential left flank.

This is where Harris stands on the major political issues:

Police

Harris has pushed for police reform in the Senate and helped pen sweeping legislation prohibiting the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants in drug cases.

With Democrat Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Harris has also recently pushed to make lynching a federal crime.

The lawmaker has not explicitly stated her support for the defund the police movement but in an interview with “The View” in June, said the nation needed to reimagine how it handles public safety.

“We have confused the idea that to achieve safety, you put more cops on the street instead of understanding to achieve safe and healthy communities,” Harris said.

She has, however, praised the mayor of Los Angeles for slashing the city’s police budget.

Gun control

As a presidential candidate, Harris called for near-universal background checks on all gun sales and an end to the “boyfriend loophole,” which allows individuals charged with domestic violence to purchase firearms.

The lawmaker also campaigned on reversing President Trump’s change to guidelines which allow people with outstanding arrest warrants to buy guns.

She has threatened to take gun manufacturers to court if they break negligence laws, introducing more stringent regulation, and wants to ban AR-15-style “assault weapons” from being imported into the US.

She proposed passing these measures with an executive order, bypassing Congress.

“There are people in Washington, DC, supposed leaders, who have failed to have the courage to reject a false choice which suggests you’re either in favor of the second amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away,” she told CNN in April.

Health care

As a presidential candidate, Harris struggled to articulate her views on health care but as a Senate freshman in 2017, she signed on Bernie Sanders’ single-payer health care bill, calling it “the right thing to do.”

During the Democratic debates, she said she supported “Medicare for All” before reversing her position and declaring her support for a tightly regulated private health sector while also allowing Americans to pick a public option.

The plan was torn apart by political pundits who said her proposal would require enormous tax hikes.

Abortion

Harris is a strong supporter of reproductive rights and was the first candidate to bring up the topic during this cycle’s Democratic debates.

She suggested strong measures to ensure abortion is protected in various states by proposing states or localities with a history of violating Roe v. Wade obtain approval from the Department of Justice before making changes to their abortion laws.

“People need to keep their hands off of women’s bodies and let women make the decisions about their own lives,” Harris said during a debate last October.

Criminal justice

No issue has dogged Harris as much as criminal justice, with critics of the former California AG asking her to defend her tough prosecutorial past which included punishing the parents of habitually truant children.

She touted herself as a “progressive prosecutor” and since joining Congress has pushed for marijuana to be legalized.

But for years, Harris called herself California’s “top cop” and defended the state’s death penalty in court after a judge ruled it unconstitutional.

Democratic primary opponent Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii lashed Harris’ record and during one debate, asking her to explain why she jailed more than 1,000 people on marijuana-related charges as attorney general.

Harris defended her record and said she was proud of her record.

“I did the work of significantly reforming the criminal justice system of a state of 40 million people, which became a national model for the work that needs to be done,” she said.

Reparations

The first black woman to be nominated for national office by a major party, Harris has called for reparations to help African Americans heal from the trauma of slavery.

“I think there has to be some form of reparations,” she told The Root in February.

“What kind of resources are we going to put in that? What kind of resources are we going to put in communities to help folks heal and be on an equal footing?” she continued.