During an interview with CNN after Wednesday’s CNN Democratic debate, 2020 presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) responded to criticisms of her criminal justice record from fellow 2020 candidate Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) by stating that Gabbard “has been an apologist” for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and “I can only take what she says and her opinion so seriously.”

Harris said she expected she would “take hits tonight. Because there are a lot of people that are trying to make the stage for the next debate.”

She added, “I think that this coming from someone who has been an apologist for an individual, Assad, who has murdered the people of his country like cockroaches, she who has embraced and been an apologist for him in a way that she refuses to call him a war criminal, I can only take what she says and her opinion so seriously. And so, you know, I’m prepared to move on.”

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