World Courant
Days after Vice President Kamala Harris answered questions on her shifting coverage views, her marketing campaign staff despatched out a memo criticizing Donald Trump for his “shameless U-turn,” together with on marijuana reform. She accused the previous president of “simply making stuff up” within the run-up to the election.
In a social media publish Saturday morning, Trump indicated his assist for a poll measure in Florida, the place he lives, that might legalize marijuana for leisure use. Calling on the state legislature to “ban its use in public locations in order that we do not scent marijuana in all places we go,” Trump mentioned, “somebody should not be a felony in Florida when it is authorized in so many different states.”
“We needn’t destroy lives and waste taxpayer {dollars} arresting adults who have been carrying private portions. And nobody ought to mourn a cherished one who died from marijuana laced with fentanyl,” Trump added.
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA – AUGUST 29: Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a marketing campaign rally at Enmarket Enviornment on August 29, 2024 in Savannah, Georgia. Harris has been campaigning in southeast Georgia for the previous two days. (Picture by Win McNamee/Getty Photos)
Win Mcnamee/Getty Photos
In keeping with a memo dated Saturday, first obtained by ABC Information, the Harris marketing campaign views Trump’s assist for the measure as one other in an extended line of “blatant coverage shifts.”
“As of this morning, Trump has been suggesting he helps legalizing marijuana, however as president, his personal Justice Division has taken a harder stance on marijuana crimes,” Ian Sams, a Harris communications adviser who joined the marketing campaign earlier this month after a stint on the White Home as authorized counsel, mentioned within the memo.
ABC Information has reached out to the Trump marketing campaign for remark.
Trump’s report on marijuana has been blended. Throughout his time in workplace, his Justice Division introduced it could rescind an Obama-era coverage that restricted federal prosecutions for some marijuana gross sales in states the place it’s authorized, however Trump retracted that coverage months later. He additionally supported a bipartisan invoice in 2018 to guard states’ pro-marijuana legal guidelines, however in 2019 he used a part of his wage to fund a promotional marketing campaign highlighting the detrimental results of marijuana use.
The memo emerged simply two days after Harris gave her first prolonged interview with CNN, greater than a month after she launched her presidential marketing campaign following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he was giving up his re-election marketing campaign.
Harris’ function as vp naturally required her to undertake Biden’s agenda and platform, however since taking workplace it has been unclear how her coverage views will differ from Biden’s — and from her 2019 marketing campaign.
“My values have not modified,” Harris mentioned repeatedly in an interview with CNN on Thursday when requested about her change in fact on sure coverage points, notably in comparison with what she did within the 2020 primaries.
Harris’s staff argues that her report displays her personal growth in some areas, however that Trump’s doesn’t.
“As quickly as Trump is criticized for his unpopular agenda and report,” Sams mentioned, referring to Challenge 2025, “he rushes to say that he would truly do the other. It’s a determined transfer by a candidate together with his again in opposition to the wall working in opposition to Vice President Harris.”
“But it surely bears scrutiny,” Sams argued. “He was president for 4 years, and the way he wielded his energy on these points is the most effective measure of how he’ll do it once more if given the prospect. What he is saying now could be simply determined flattery from a scared man who’s afraid he’ll lose.”
