Did Kamala Harris lie about listening to Snoop and Tupac? Nope, and the truth isn't complicated.

The 2020 presidential race has gotten so stupid, so early that we should all be retreating into caves and rocking back and forth in the fetal position. Witness: the “controversy” over whether Sen. Kamala Harris lied about listening to Tupac and Snoop Dogg in college. 

It goes like this, and bear with me, because it’s really stupid. During an interview, radio show host Charlamagne tha God asked Harris if she had ever smoked marijuana. Harris said yes, “a long time ago.” Later in the interview, his co-host, DJ Envy, asked her what music she listens to. At that point, Charlamagne tha God interjected to make the question what Harris listened to while smoking in college, but when Harris responded, it was to a follow-up question from DJ Envy. A video of the interaction clearly shows that she’s looking at DJ Envy as she answers.

So Harris’ answer to the question of what music she listens to was “definitely Snoop” and “Tupac for sure.” This was not an answer to the interjected question about what she listened to at the specific time she was smoking marijuana in college. But in the lunatic gotcha culture of the internet and American politics, people began screaming that Harris must be lying because those artists had not yet released their first albums when she was in college. This reaction started on Twitter, but it didn’t end there—Fox News actually ran the headline “Chronic Memory Problem.”

Even the New York Times article by Astead Herndon, which includes the video and dissects who said what when, came under the headline and was tweeted as “Kamala Harris was accused of lying about listening to Tupac and Snoop Dogg. The truth is more complicated.” What nonsense! Cross talk is not a complicated truth; it’s a thing that happens in virtually every conversation involving multiple human beings.

I will stipulate that I do not have personal knowledge of Kamala Harris’ taste in music, but since she’s been consistent on the record about listening to these artists and gave a consistent answer in this case, while looking at the person who had asked her about her general taste in music and not at the person who asked her about her specific taste in music in college, this looks like the kind of rank stupidity to which Democrats—and especially Democratic women and people of color—are constantly subjected on the campaign trail. The media should know better than to buy in even to the extent of pretending it’s complicated. We don’t need to know the exact date at which Harris smoked marijuana and/or listened to Tupac, and we don’t need to know how Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand eats chicken. 

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2N3dM3b