Harris comment on destroying lives was warning, not brag | Fact check

An Aug. 30 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows video of Vice President Kamala Harris giving a speech.
“This video needs to be seen by everyone,” reads text alongside the video, which originally appeared in a post on X formerly Twitter. “Harris describes how she could WRECK YOUR LIFE ‘with the swipe of my pen.’ And she brags about it. And glorifies what she can do to you. She is a power hungry tyrant. This woman can not be allowed near power.”
The post was liked more than 300 times in two weeks. A similar post on Facebook was shared more than 25,000 times in two weeks. A post on X was shared thousands of additional times.
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The video leaves out the portion of Harris’ speech that makes it clear she is talking about using power responsibly, not bragging about abusing the power she had as a prosecutor.
The video shows Harris speaking at an event in New Hampshire on Sept. 6, 2019, when she was still a candidate in the Democratic presidential primary ahead of the 2020 election.
“I learned that with the swipe of my pen, I could charge someone with the lowest-level offense and because of the swipe of my pen that person could be arrested,” said Harris, talking about her work as a criminal prosecutor.
She continued, “They could sit in jail for at least 48 hours. They could lose time from work and their family, maybe lose their job. They would have to come out of their own pocket to help hire a lawyer. They lose standing in their community. All because of the swipe of my pen. Weeks later, I could dismiss the charges, but their life would forever be changed.”
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The social media clip abruptly ends in the middle of her next line, which begins, “So, I learned at a very young age, the power.”
But Harris’ full speech, available on C-SPAN, makes it clear she wasn’t bragging about abusing the power she wielded as a prosecutor. To the contrary, she went on to describe “the power to impact real human beings that we have when we hold these offices” and criticize then-President Donald Trump.
“We have a person in the White House who holds the office of president of the United States who does not fully or even partially understand what it means to have power,” Harris said. “He doesn’t understand what it means to be powerful, because when you truly understand what it means to be powerful, you understand that the greatest measure of your strength is not who you beat down – it’s who you lift up.”
As noted by PolitiFact, Harris used similar language in 2010 while on her way to becoming California’s attorney general. She followed her “swipe of my pen” comment by concluding, “It’s an incredible amount of power, and you want to make sure that the people who have this kind of power are taking seriously the responsibility.”
USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
AFP also debunked the claim.
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