-Has the president or anyone at the White House ever asked
or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone?
Yes or no, please, sir.
-The president or anybody else.
-Seems you'd remember something like that
and be able to tell us.
-Yeah, but I'm trying to grapple with the word "suggest."
I mean, there -- -I think she has a very powerful
slogan when she says, "I am the best person
to prosecute the case against Donald Trump."
And there's all these viral moments
of her questioning senators
and questioning politicians and making them wilt.
-Senator Kamala Harris has made a name for herself
as a tough prosecutor.
-Did you have any communication with any Russian businessmen
or any Russian national?
-Oh, we all know that look.
The look that made Jeff Sessions nervous --
we all know that look.
-Sir, I have just a few -- -Will you let me qualify it?
If I don't qualify it, you'll accuse me of lying,
so I need to be correct as best I can.
-I do want you to honest.
-I'm not able to be rushed this fast.
It makes me nervous.
-Kamala suffers no fools.
My grandmother used to use that term, and it's --
she doesn't play a lot of games.
So when it's time to work, you're working.
-Did you watch Doctor Ford's testimony?
-I did not. I planned to.
-Thank you. -I planned to.
-Civil rights advocate Lateefah Simon
was 23 years old when she met Harris.
-I got a call one day from a woman who said
she was a prosecutor in Oakland,
but she had gotten a new job in San Francisco
working with the city attorney,
and that she wanted to start a task force for girls
who were in the sex trade.
And in that five-minute phone call,
I was like, "Who is this woman?"
And it was Kamala Harris.
-In 2003, Oakland prosecutor Kamala Harris
was running for her first political office,
and she was up against her former boss
and then San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan.
-He was not just her former boss,
but he sort of represented old San Francisco,
so he was established San Francisco left.
-Rebecca Prozan was Harris' campaign manager.
-And in those days, we had a general election in November
and a runoff in December.
I looked at her, and I was like, "You're at 8%."
I'm like, "How are you going to pull this off?"
And she was like, "You just need to get me into the runoff.
If you get me into the runoff, I know I can win."
-38-year-old Kamala Harris came out of nowhere.
-It didn't take long for Harris to raise her profile.
-Kamala was running right up the middle,
and so she was able to bridge
a lot of the different parts of San Francisco together.
-She won, becoming California's
first African-American district attorney.
-Repeat after me. "I, Kamala Harris."
-I, Kamala Harris. -"Do solemnly swear."
-Do solemnly swear. -"That I will support."
-My first day working for her,
I went down the hall into the front office.
I saw pictures of, you know, there was like 40 white men,
and then there was Kamala Harris.
-And seven years later, Harris once again broke barriers,
becoming California's first female
and first Black attorney general.
-I thank California, and now let's get to work.
-As DA and later as attorney general of California,
Harris' career was difficult to define.
She refused to pursue the death penalty
in a high-profile killing of a police officer
but also defended California's death penalty in federal court.
She called for racial-bias training for police
but did not support legislation that would have required
her office to investigate fatal police shootings.
She implemented reentry programs for felons,
but also refused to review wrongful-conviction cases.
-In Calistoga and out that area. -Marisa Lagos,
now a political correspondent at KQED,
covered Harris' career as DA and attorney general.
-This is a place where everyone's a shade of Democrat,
and because of that, I think politics get really personal.
-The 2004 murder of San Francisco police officer
Isaac Espinoza put the new DA at odds with her fellow
Democrats when Harris refused to seek
the death penalty against the officer's killer.
-Moving forward after that,
she was a lot more aware of the potential
for any political decision or position
she took to be used against her.
And so I think that that was really a learning moment
for her that has, I would argue, kind of informed
a lot of what she's done since then politically.
-When they don't receive the benefit
of a good public education -- -To her supporters,
Harris was a force for change.
-We're talking 2004, 2005, 2006, and I have the elected DA,
young Black woman, telling me,
"Create a program where we get 300 to 400
or 500 young people
who the state says to put in jail for 20 years
for 5 grams of crack, get them jobs."
-Scared and facing a felony conviction for selling cocaine.
But the single mother caught a break
when she was diverted to Back on Track.
-It's about, yeah, you did commit a crime.
Accept it, own up to it, and then let's talk about
what we can do to change the circumstances going forward.
-Especially in those early days, I think she made way
for a lot of progressive prosecutors.
-I did it in San Francisco.
As attorney general, I can do it across California.
-She's not a progressive prosecutor.
-Lara Bazelon is a law professor
at the University of San Francisco.
-There is such a thing as a progressive prosecutor,
and you believe that you're not just a tool
to cement further this wall of mass incarceration
and, instead, you're gonna be making decisions that are
about dismantling the system of mass incarceration.
So, for example, you're not going to prosecute
low-level drug offenses or prostitution in some cases.
You are not going to seek cash-money bail.
So there's kind of a laundry list
that progressive prosecutors
check off in their campaign platforms.
She neither made made those promises nor fulfilled them.
-I am proud, that being said,
of the fact that we have the highest conviction rates
that we've had in San Francisco in over 15 years.
I'm proud of the fact that we have sent twice
as many serious and violent felons to state prison.
-Where I think my biggest concern is,
it's in the area
that's been described as wrongful-conviction cases,
or actual innocence cases.
And then when she was AG,
she didn't use the power of the AG
to basically tell the county prosecutors,
"You screwed up here, and I'm not gonna back you."
-It's a complicated past, and all of that makes her
messaging all the more important as she tries to sort of harness
what I think is a genuine interest
on members of the Democratic Party
in what she has to offer.
-I am so proud to represent this beautiful, diverse state.
-When Harris won California's Senate seat in 2017,
she used her prosecutor skills to ask tough,
pointed questions in Washington.
-Have you had any conversation about Robert Mueller
or his investigation with anyone at that firm?
Yes or no?
-Well, is there a person you're talking about?
-I'm asking you a very direct question, yes or no?
-Moments like these got the most attention
while she was running for the Democratic nomination.
Among the most memorable
was this one on the debate stage as she took on Joe Biden.
-You also worked with them to oppose bussing.
And, you know, there was a little girl in California
who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools,
and she was bussed to school every day.
And that little girl was me.
-Harris never broke into the top tier of candidates,
dropping out weeks before the first primary.
-So to you, my supporters, my dear supporters,
it is with deep regret but also with deep gratitude
that I am suspending our campaign today.
-But on August 11th, she became the first Black woman
and Asian American to run for vice president,
on the same ticket as the candidate she fiercely debated.
-This is a fight that is for the soul of our country,
that is born out of love of country,
and this is a fight we will win!