"Simply not true": Harris denies record as prosecutor targeted Black men

• The Harris campaign is seeking to boost its support among Black men, as polling shows that former President Trump is making inroads with this demographic from 2020.
• When asked by a listener during the town hall-style show about her commitment to Black men year-round, not just during an election year, she doubled down.
• "This is about a long-standing commitment, including the work that I've done as vice president and before, when I was senator and before that," Harris said.

Driving the news: "One of the biggest pieces of misinformation, one of the biggest allegations against you, is that you targeted and locked up thousands of Black men in San Francisco for weed," Charlamagne said to Harris, asking her to explain "the facts."

• "It's just simply not true," Harris said.
• "What public defenders who were around those days will tell you is I was the most progressive prosecutor in California on marijuana cases and would not send people to jail for simple possession of weed," she added.

Flashback: Harris' record as a prosecutor drew significant criticism from the left during her first presidential bid in 2020.

• But she's tried to highlight her prosecutorial career more during her 2024 presidential bid, in part as a way to appeal to more centrist voters and counter Trump efforts to cast her as a San Francisco "liberal."

"The needs of the Black community are not just about criminal justice," Harris told Charlamagne.

• She highlighted other proposals she's rolled out as part of an economic "opportunity agenda" for Black men as she tries courting their votes. The agenda includes providing forgivable loans to Black entrepreneurs to start a business, among other proposals.
• She also spoke about Black Americans' disproportionately reduced access to homeownership in the U.S.
• She vowed to increase the child tax credit to $6,000 per child during the first year of a child's life.

She also nodded to her identity: "I am proud to be the first HBCU vice president United States. I intend to be the first HBCU President of the United States."

State of play: Harris is expected to win among Black men, but polls suggest that she may be short of hitting the numbers that past Democratic presidential candidates including President Biden and former President Obama have won to propel them win the White House.

• "Part of the challenge that I face is that they are trying to scare people away because they know they otherwise have nothing to run on. Ask Donald Trump what his plan is for Black America," Harris said.
• Obama in his first campaign rally for Harris in Pennsylvania last week bluntly suggested Black men might be hesitant to vote for a woman, and urged them to do so.

By the numbers: "The Breakfast Club" reaches almost six million people monthly on the radio, The New York Times reported earlier this year. It's also got a sizable YouTube following.

Zoom in: Harris also hit Trump over his vision of the country, saying that the former president is "about taking us backward."

• Harris also agreed with Charlamagne when he said Trump's vision "is about fascism. Why can't we just say that?" he said.
• "Yes, we can say that," Harris said.

The bottom line: "This is a margin of error race, it's tight," Harris told Charlamagne. "I'm gonna win, but it's tight. And you know, what is at stake is truly profound and historic."

Go deeper: Harris responds to Trump's town hall-turned "music fest": "Hope he's okay"