“This is what Kamala Harris thinks about young Americans … ‘They are stupid!’”

“When I was at Howard University and we were in college, we were 18 through 24, and you know what we were called? College kids. But when you turn 18 and you’re in the system, you are considered an adult, period. Without any regard to the fact that, that is the very phase of life in which we have invested billions of dollars in colleges and universities knowing that is the prime phase of life during which we mold and shape and direct someone to become a productive adult. 

“What’s the other thing we know about this population? And it’s a specific phase of life, remember, age is more than a chronological fact. What else do we know about this population, 18 through 24? They are stupid (audience laughs). That is why we put them in dormitories, and they have a resident assistant. They make really bad decisions. So we focused on that age population.”

Harris was describing a recidivism reduction program for first-time, low-level offenders in Los Angeles. The initiative, modeled after the “Back on Track” program that Harris launched in 2005 in San Francisco, would provide services to young Americans who were convicted of nonviolent felonies. If they met certain education and career goals, they would have their cases dismissed.

Our ruling

A post on Facebook says Harris called young Americans “stupid.”

It’s a partial quote of something Harris said. Harris was speaking about initiatives to reduce recidivism rates for young, low-level offenders and wryly made a comment about how young adults often make bad decisions in order to illustrate the broader point that more empathy is needed for them within the criminal justice system.

Harris made the comment, but the post leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True.

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