Kamala Harris
politician, lawyer, prosecutor, writer, presidential candidate, jurist
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All Quotes by Kamala Harris
“We've got to keep our eye on what's happening with Russia and North Korea. We cannot lose sight of domestic policy, either. Healthcare. Immigration. Climate change.”
“DACA recipients risk a lot to come out of the shadows & sign up, but many will tell you the risk is worth being able to live and work in the only country they've ever known as home. DACA recipients serve in our military, work in Fortune 100 companies, and conduct important medical research.”
“When you achieve equality, and freedom, and fairness, it's not because I grant it to you. It's because you fought for it because it is your right. This is not about benevolence or charity; it is about every human being's God-given right.”
“I can imagine what can be, unburdened by what has been.”
“When you achieve equality, and freedom, and fairness, it's not because I grant it to you. It's because you fought for it because it is your right. This is not about benevolence or charity; it is about every human being's God-given right.”
“So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that's wrong, and it goes against everything that we stand for.”
“Being a leader means that you're going to have to make difficult calls. You have to have the courage to do what's right, even if it's not popular.”
“I always say this: I may be the first to do many things - make sure I'm not the last.”
“My mother had a saying: 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last.'”
“I understood that with the swipe of my pen as a prosecutor, I would have the decision in my pen to make a decision about someone's life.”
“We must demonstrate to the American people that in our system of justice all are equal under law, and that there are not two sets of rules, one for Donald Trump and another for everybody else.”
“There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me.”
“My grandfather was one of the original Independence fighters in India, and some of my fondest memories from childhood were walking along the beach with him after he retired and lived in Besant Nagar, in what was then called Madras.”
“California is not just the Golden State. We are also the Internet State.”
“If we do not lift up women and families, everyone will fall short.”
“Americans deserve a president who confronts the daily challenges facing working people with the same determination and steady leadership they apply to addressing the most serious crises facing our nation.”
“Many of us went to school on the yellow school bus, right? It's part of our experience growing up. It's part of a nostalgia, a memory of the excitement and joy of going to school to be with your favorite teacher, to be with your best friends and to learn. The school bus takes us there.”
“Doing nothing while the middle class is hurting. That's not leadership. Loose regulations and lax enforcement. That's not leadership. That's abandoning our middle class.”
“We don't have to let extremists define us.”
“I'm opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education, or public health, period.”
“Sexism is real in this country.”
“Here's the thing: every office I've run for I was the first to win. First person of color. First woman. First woman of color. Every time.”
“I believe in that old adage that 'as goes California, so goes the country.'”
“To change criminal justice policy in any meaningful way means to propose changing a very longstanding system. It's not realistic to think you can do it overnight.”
“That's what justice represents to me - it's about empowerment of the people.”
“We deserve a president with the knowledge and experience to reassure a nation weary of tweets, lies, and incompetence. And we deserve a president who speaks to the best of who we are and challenges us to live up to our ideals.”
“DACA recipients risk a lot to come out of the shadows & sign up, but many will tell you the risk is worth being able to live and work in the only country they've ever known as home. DACA recipients serve in our military, work in Fortune 100 companies, and conduct important medical research.”
“We don't have to guess what Mitt Romney would have done if he were president. Because he told us. He said we should let foreclosures - and I quote - 'hit the bottom' so the market could - I quote - 'run its course.'”
“Anti-Semitism is real in this country.”
“My mother understood the importance of taking care of people, especially when they are exposed to hurt or pain. And I was raised to feel that same way.”
“Who doesn't love a yellow school bus, right?”
“A family looks for ways to support and inspire one another.”
“I support Medicare for all. It is my preferred policy.”
“I'll be judged on the body of work and not the popularity of any one decision.”
“We deserve a president with the knowledge and experience to reassure a nation weary of tweets, lies, and incompetence. And we deserve a president who speaks to the best of who we are and challenges us to live up to our ideals.”
“Doing nothing while the middle class is hurting. That's not leadership. Loose regulations and lax enforcement. That's not leadership. That's abandoning our middle class.”
“I always start my campaigns early, and I run hard. Maybe it comes from the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco politics, where it's not even a contact sport - it's a blood sport. This is how I am as a candidate. This is how I run campaigns.”
“The American dream belongs to all of us.”
“Let's keep fighting for the America we believe in, an America free of injustice. An America that we know we can be unburdened by what has been.”
“It's time for us to do what we have been doing and that time is every day.”
“It's important to have people in your life who will applaud your ambition.”
“I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything.”
“I believe that a child going without an education is a crime.”
“My mother... would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, 'I don't know what's wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?' You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
“We were raised in a community where we were taught to see a world, beyond just ourselves. To be conscious and compassionate about the struggles of all people.”
“What we all want is public safety. We don't want rhetoric that's framed through ideology.”
“You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them.”
“Some people, frankly, are limited in their ability to understand what's possible. Some people just can't see what they've never seen. And that's okay. That's why we have people who break ground, break glass, break barriers.”
“These days, children can text on their cell phone all night long, and no one else is seeing that phone. You don't know who is calling that child.”
“Running for office is similar to being a trial lawyer in a very long trial. It requires adrenaline and stamina; it requires being in shape mentally and emotionally. It's a marathon.”
“I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies.”
“So many people trip in front of them because they're looking over there or up ahead.”
“I love Venn diagrams. I really do, I love Venn diagrams. It's just something about those three circles and the analysis about where there is the intersection, right?”
“If I'm cooking, I feel like I'm in control of my life.”
“I just think it's so important not to take yourself too seriously.”
“I have a difficult time sitting down for long periods.”
“My mother tells the story about how I'm fussing and she's like, 'Baby, what do you want? What do you need?' And I just looked at her and I said, 'Fweedom.'”
“And so I would not enforce a law that would reject people and turn them away without giving them a fair and due process to determine if we should give them asylum and refuge.”
“Culture is - it is a reflection of our moment in our time, right? And in present culture is the way we express how we're feeling about the moment.”
“Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.”
“My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero.”
“I am my happiest self when generations in my family are getting together and I'm cooking.”
“I believe that a child going without an education is a crime.”
“Let's be clear about this, and let's be clear: we should not be creating incentives to house people in prison. We should be creating incentives instead to shut the revolving door into prison.”
“I'm not a billionaire. I can't fund my own campaign.”
“I was born realizing the flaws in the criminal justice system.”
“Who of us has not had that situation where you've got to wait for approval, and the doctor says, 'Well, I don't know if your insurance company is going to cover this?' Let's eliminate all of that.”
“My mother instilled in my sister, Maya, and me the values that would chart the course of our lives. She raised us to be proud, strong Black women. And she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage.”
“We have to be smart on crime.”
“I'm a career prosecutor. I have been trained, and my experience over decades, is to make decisions after a review of the evidence and the facts. And not to jump up with grand gestures before I've done that. Some might interpret that as being cautious. I would tell you that's just responsible.”
“I think the vast majority of Americans, when presented with the facts, when presented with the truth, will agree we need to have reform of policing - and we need police officers!”
“In California, we have some of the strongest consumer protection laws in the country. While it is easy to conceive of innovation and regulation as mutually exclusive, California is proof that we can do both. We can innovate responsibly.”
“What we know is smartphones are everywhere and they are rich in data. What we know is that there are apps once downloaded by the consumer that will also in turn download the consumers' contact book. Most consumers don't want that to happen and don't know it's happening.”
“A family looks for ways to support and inspire one another.”
“We don't want to promote any system that treats the fact that an individual is LGBT as a personality disorder. And anything that perpetuates that perception is harmful - not only to that member of the community but the entire community.”
“I know that every trial requires fairness and truth. Any trial that abandons the pursuit of truth cannot be considered fair or just.”
“I remember when my mother, Shyamala Harris, bought our first home. I was thirteen. She was so proud, and my sister and I were so excited. Millions of Americans know that feeling of walking through the front door of their own home for the first time - the feeling of reaching for opportunity and finding it.”
“We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform, period.”
“One of the things that I do to relax at the end of the day is I read recipes.”
“I was standing on a ladder outside the Homestead juvenile immigrant detention center outside Miami, looking over the fence, and I saw children lined up like prisoners. They had been separated from their families and put in this private detention facility. It was horrible.”
“I want to use my position of leadership to help move along at a faster pace what I believe and know the Obama administration wants to do around the urgency of climate change.”
“I'm one of the luckiest people on earth.”
“DACA recipients risk a lot to come out of the shadows & sign up, but many will tell you the risk is worth being able to live and work in the only country they've ever known as home. DACA recipients serve in our military, work in Fortune 100 companies, and conduct important medical research.”
“I am so proud to be a daughter of Oakland, California.”
“I strongly believe that for serious and violent criminals, we must absolutely hold them accountable for their crimes and send them to prison.”
“Every day there are homeowners in California who will either receive relief so they can stay in their home, or will be in the foreclosure process and potentially lose their home. And that always weighed heavily on my mind.”
“My parents met when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. They were both active in the civil-rights movement.”
“People who work for me know that family comes first. And I'm fortunate to have a family that is very supportive of the work I do, so I don't have to live two separate lives.”
“I did not learn the flaws of the criminal-justice system in law school or college or by reading about it. I grew up knowing the flaws and how it was disproportionately impacting the black community. It's not academic for me.”
“The bells will ring and the marriages will begin. And it's a great day in our state for equal protection under the law for all people.”
“I often advocate that we look at many sides of an issue, walk in someone else's shoes, and identify and reject false choices.”
“My mother came from India to go to the University of California, Berkeley.”
“California has a special relationship with the Internet. Many of the core technologies that power the Internet were invented here. Many of the most successful online entrepreneurs and content creators - in business, the arts, and countless other endeavors - got their start here.”
“I believe a child going without an education is tantamount to a crime. So I decided I was going to start prosecuting parents for truancy.”
“Unlike other people, unlike others, I have never represented a corporation. I have never represented a special interest. I started my career fighting for the people.”
“I think Hillary Clinton could do whatever she puts her mind to. I really do. She's incredibly dedicated to public service, she is smart as a whip, and she's effective.”
“Lena Waithe won an Emmy for writing while starring on the Netflix show 'Master of None,' but it might be more accurate to call her a Master of Everything.”
“I convened the first-ever national training conference for prosecutors on how to promote and deal with hate crime issues in terms of prosecutions and also protocol for defeating the gay panic defense.”
“When I was 5, my parents split and my mother raised us mostly on her own. Like so many mothers, she worked around the clock to make it work - packing lunches before we woke up - and paying bills after we went to bed. Helping us with homework at the kitchen table - and shuttling us to church for choir practice.”
“I'm prepared to say that law enforcement should be allowed to seize the guns of those who are suspected to be involved in domestic terrorism.”
“As a former prosecutor, I understand the importance of holding powerful people accountable.”
“What's important for my daughter to know is that... if you are fortunate to have opportunity, it is your duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well.”
“As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know that the men and women of our intelligence community put their lives on the line every day, and they do very dangerous work to keep our country safe.”
“It was an act of patriotism when we worked to pass a law allowing the prosecution of federal hate crimes in the name of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd.”
“I want to use my position of leadership to help move along at a faster pace what I believe and know the Obama administration wants to do around the urgency of climate change.”
“I disagree with any policy that would turn America's back on people who are fleeing harm. I frankly believe that it is contrary to everything that we have symbolically and actually said we stand for.”
“We invested an additional $12 billion into community banks, because we know community banks are in the community, and understand the needs and desires of that community as well as the talent and capacity of community.”
“If you want to deal with an epidemic - crime or health - the smartest and most effective and cheapest way to deal with it is prevention first.”
“The bottom line on the Hyde Amendment is that it is directly, in effect, targeting poor women and women who don't have money.”
“If segregationists had their way, I would not be a member of the United States Senate today, I would not be a top contender to be president of the United States.”
“Over the course of my career in law enforcement, I have witnessed over and over again the selflessness and sacrifice of law enforcement who lay their lives on the line every day to protect people who they will never meet and people who will never know their names.”
“I grew up hearing stories about my grandmother - my mother's mother - who used to go to villages in India in her little VW bug. My grandmother would take a bullhorn and make sure women in these villages knew how to access birth control.”
“We've got to keep our eye on what's happening with Russia and North Korea. We cannot lose sight of domestic policy, either. Healthcare. Immigration. Climate change.”
“'Getting smart on crime' does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes.”
“Across our nation, we witness a full-on assault, state by state, on reproductive freedom. And understand who's to blame: former President Donald Trump.”
“The truth is that the vast majority of Americans are good, fair, and just, and they want their country to reflect those ideals.”
“As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know that the men and women of our intelligence community put their lives on the line every day, and they do very dangerous work to keep our country safe.”
“As children growing up here in the East Bay, we were raised by a community with a deep belief in the promise of our country - and, a deep understanding of the parts of that promise that still remain unfulfilled.”
“I've had the good fortune and blessing to run for the offices for which I really wanted to do the work.”
“When you achieve equality, and freedom, and fairness, it's not because I grant it to you. It's because you fought for it because it is your right. This is not about benevolence or charity; it is about every human being's God-given right.”
“I think I have every piece of music Bob Marley ever made.”
“I'm used to being in the executive branch and getting things done. And not having to ask permission. In fact, that's why I've run for most offices I have run for, because I'm not so good sometimes at asking for permission.”
“I am my happiest self when generations in my family are getting together and I'm cooking.”
“Instead of giving corporations a big tax cut, let's give the middle class a real, permanent tax cut.”
“I mean, I grew up in a community where people took care of each other. I grew up in a community where my mother, my parents, my extended family really wanted for children to be nurtured and challenged and not harmed.”
“History has proven that each generation of Howard graduates will forge the way forward for our country and our world.”
“My grandfather was one of the original Independence fighters in India, and some of my fondest memories from childhood were walking along the beach with him after he retired and lived in Besant Nagar, in what was then called Madras.”
“I have spent my career as a prosecutor. I've only had one client in my entire life, and that has been the people.”
“I believe that one of the benefits of having traveled the world and having known different cultures is that you really understand and see very clearly that people, whoever they are, whatever language they speak, have so much more in common than they do differences.”
“Everybody will make mistakes, and for some that mistake will rise to the level of being a crime.”
“Well, yeah, people are working in our country. You know what? They're working two and three jobs, and in our America, people should not have to work more than one job to be able to put food on the table and have a roof over their head.”
“I'm opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education, or public health, period.”
“My mother cooked like a scientist. She had a giant Chinese-style cleaver that she chopped with, and a cupboard full of spices.”
“Many of us went to school on the yellow school bus, right? It's part of our experience growing up. It's part of a nostalgia, a memory of the excitement and joy of going to school to be with your favorite teacher, to be with your best friends and to learn. The school bus takes us there.”
“I have loved to cook since I was a child in my mother's kitchen. If I don't have time to cook, I'll just read a cookbook.”
“A family shares hardships and a connected history.”
“I've had the honor of speaking at many commencements.”
“I mean, I grew up in a community where people took care of each other. I grew up in a community where my mother, my parents, my extended family really wanted for children to be nurtured and challenged and not harmed.”
“I believe you've got to do your due diligence.”
“Homophobia is real in this country.”
“I'm not good at talking about myself.”
“In this great country, we celebrate success. We don't want to penalize those who have done well.”
“Hate crime is not new in the United States.”
“When I was the Attorney General of California, running the second largest Department of Justice only to the United States Department of Justice, it meant taking on the biggest banks in the United States, who had engaged in predatory lending practices, and bringing back to the homeowners of my state $20 billion.”
“I love being in a courtroom.”
“I have never been in a courtroom where the accused can unilaterally block witnesses from testifying or prohibit prosecutors from asking witnesses questions. No court would allow a trial to proceed this way, and neither should any member of the Senate.”
“Generally speaking, the public appetite for criminal justice policy is just tough talk.”
“Part of my focus on what we need to do around smart gun safety laws is recognize we have to have more enforcement around gun dealers.”
“I've fought against transnational gangs. I took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges. I know a predator when I see one.”
“My father, Donald, came from Jamaica to study economics. My mother, Shyamala, came from India to study the science of fighting disease.”
“We're talking about in the Proposition 8 case fundamental rights, civil rights. I offer no apology for the position I took in Prop. 8.”
“In the world that Joe Biden and I believe can and should exist, people should only have to work one job.”
“If I've had a particularly crazy day, I try to squeeze in a nice hot bath before I go to bed. And I have a hot cup of tea, usually some kind of chamomile.”
“To be smart on crime, we should not be in a position of constantly reacting to crime after it happens. We should be looking at preventing crime before it happens.”
“Cheaters don't like getting caught.”
“With the advent of DNA, we know that people have been convicted and sentenced to death who later proved not to be guilty of the crime.”
“Across our nation, we witness a full-on assault, state by state, on reproductive freedom. And understand who's to blame: former President Donald Trump.”
“Racism is real in this country.”
“One of the most influential people in my life, in addition to my mother, was my grandfather P.V. Gopalan, who actually held a post in India that was like the secretary of state position in this country.”
“Listen, I think that people want a president who is going to be interested in the things that keep them up at night, the things that are weighing on them, the things that are debilitating and can be addressed.”
“You don't meet one line of division with another line of division. We believe that the vast majority of American people don't agree with that approach, don't accept it, and don't like it.”
“As a young prosecutor right out of law school at the Alameda County DA's office that Earl Warren once led, I started my work.”
“We need to incorporate that age-old concept of redemption into the work that we do in the criminal justice system in California.”
“My mother was very proud of her Indian heritage and taught us, me and my sister Maya, to share in the pride about our culture. We used to go back to India every couple of years.”
“We deserve a president with the knowledge and experience to reassure a nation weary of tweets, lies, and incompetence. And we deserve a president who speaks to the best of who we are and challenges us to live up to our ideals.”
“It's important to have people in your life who will applaud your ambition.”
“I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies.”
“I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies.”
“Many of us went to school on the yellow school bus, right? It's part of our experience growing up. It's part of a nostalgia, a memory of the excitement and joy of going to school to be with your favorite teacher, to be with your best friends and to learn. The school bus takes us there.”
“If you want to deal with an epidemic - crime or health - the smartest and most effective and cheapest way to deal with it is prevention first.”
“I'm opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education, or public health, period.”