What Was Said

Jake Tapper, CNN anchor: “When you were attorney general, you opposed legislation that would have required your office to investigate fatal shootings involving police officers. Why did you oppose that bill?”



Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California: “So, I did not oppose the bill. I had a process when I was attorney general of not weighing in on bills and initiatives, because as attorney general, I had a responsibility for writing the title and summary. So I did not weigh in.”

— at a CNN town hall in Iowa on Monday

This is misleading.

Mr. Tapper was referring to Assembly Bill 86, introduced in the California Legislature in 2015, which would have required the attorney general’s office to appoint a special prosecutor to examine fatal shootings by the police.

Ms. Harris, who formally entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination this week, did not take a public position on the legislation in question. But she had expressed a general disagreement with its aims, and the bill’s sponsor said she declined to support it.

A spokeswoman for her campaign acknowledged on Wednesday that Ms. Harris “expressed that she had concern about taking discretion away from local district attorneys who are held accountable by their constituents.” Ms. Harris made statements to that effect in 2014 and 2016, and could have repeated this rationale during the CNN appearance.

In an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle before the police shooting bill was introduced, Ms. Harris said, “I don’t think it would be good public policy to take the discretion from elected district attorneys.”