During Wednesday night’s Democratic primary debate, CNN’s Jake Tapper knew exactly what he was doing when he queued up a question for Tulsi Gabbard about her past criticisms of Kamala Harris’s approach to racial issues and her attack on Joe Biden.

Gabbard went off.

Tulsi takes down Kamala Harris over her record on criminal justice reform, the death penalty, and the war on drugs -TULSI2020 #DemDebate #Tulsi2020 https://t.co/7XQoiqHThu pic.twitter.com/epf58iQNYI — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) August 1, 2019

.@TulsiGabbard on @KamalaHarris’ record as California AG: Says she kept inmates in prison past their sentences to use them as “cheap labor for the State of California." — Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 1, 2019

Clearly, Gabbard had done her homework, and she absolutely dragged Harris for her abysmal record as California attorney general. During her time in office, Harris took draconian stances on issues of criminal justice, enforcing such merciless policies and displaying such ruthless ambition that “Kamala the cop” has become a common criticism of the candidate.

Gabbard attacked Harris for having locked up thousands of people for mere marijuana possession and laughing about it when asked whether she had smoked pot herself. The congresswoman piled onto Harris, adding on a reference to her office’s shameful move to keep people locked up to preserve "cheap labor for the state of California."

This is all true, and here are the receipts . But Gabbard didn’t stop there.

The Hawaii congresswoman also called out Harris for the fact that while attorney general, she fought to keep people incarcerated despite exonerating evidence and fought to preserve the unfair system of cash bail.

True and true .

And according to the New York Times, “Ms. Harris also championed state legislation under which parents whose children were found to be habitually truant in elementary school could be prosecuted, despite concerns that it would disproportionately affect low-income people of color.”

So Gabbard was spot-on when she said, to Harris’ face, that “when you were in a position to make a difference, you did not. The people who suffered under your reign as a prosecutor, you owe them an apology.”

As the Washington Examiner’s own Tiana Lowe summed it up blogging in real time , “Tulsi just stabbed Kamala where it hurts, focusing on the California Senator's history of threatening the mothers of truant children, sex workers, and a disproportionately crew of color. Shots fired.”

Shots fired, indeed.