Fact Check: Kamala Harris Did NOT Say She Listened To Snoop And Tupac In College

Fact Check

  • by: Alan Duke
Fact Check: Kamala Harris Did NOT Say She Listened To Snoop And Tupac In College After School

Did Kamala Harris say that when she was in college she listened to Snoop and Tupac, although their music was not released until six years after she graduated? No, that's not true: Sen. Harris did tell a radio show host that she listened to Snoop and Tupac when she got high on marijuana, but she did not specifically say it was while she was in college.

The claim appeared as a meme in a post (archived here) shared on Facebook on February 12, 2019, under the title "This is why we don't vote for Kamala Harris! That's all it takes for me! Bye bye πŸ‘‹πŸ½". It opened:

Kamala Harris was on the Breakfast Club & she said while she was in college, she smoked weed and listened to Snoop and Tupac.. Snoop & Pac didn't release records until 1991-92. Kamala graduated from college in 1986.

This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:

Facebook screenshot

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Aug 14 00:13:05 2020 UTC)

In case this meme is taken offline, this is a screenshot:

Harris graduated from Howard University in 1986 and then attended law school in California, graduating from there in 1989. Her college days came up when the then-presidential candidate was interviewed on iHeart Radio's The Breakfast Club morning show in February 2019. About 38 minutes into the interview, Harris was asked about her experiences with marijuana:

Host: Have you ever smoked?

Harris: I have, and I inhaled. I did inhale It was a long time ago, but yes. I just broke loose.

Host: Was it in college?

Harris: Uh huh (yes)

Host: See I like stuff like that, that's a real honest answer. Was it a blunt or a joint?

Harris: It was a joint.

Host: Do you remember the high?

Harris: I do.

Host: So, if it was legalized all throughout the country, and medicinal would you do it?

Harris: Listen, I think that it gives a lot of people joy and we need more joy.

You can see that exchange here:

After a brief discussion about if Harris took political contributions from big banks, the conversation turned to music choices:

Host: What were you listening to when you were high? What was on? What song?

Harris: Oh, my goodness. Oh, yeah, definitely Snoop, uh huh, Tupac, for sure, for sure.

Host: Who's your favorite hip hop artist

Harris: You know who I really love is Cardi B. I really do. I really do.

You can see that exchange here:

If Harris had said she ONLY smoked marijuana while in college, this meme would be accurate. But she never said that. Her reference to Snoop and Tupac was about music choices when she was "high," not specifically about when she was "high in college."

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Alan Duke

Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke co-founded Lead Stories after ending a 26-year career with CNN, where he mainly covered entertainment, current affairs and politics. Duke closely covered domestic terrorism cases for CNN, including the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the UNABOMBER and search for Southeast bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. CNN moved Duke to Los Angeles in 2009 to cover the entertainment beat. Duke also co-hosted a daily podcast with former HLN host Nancy Grace, "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and hosted the podcast series "Stan Lee's World: His Real Life Battle with Heroes & Villains." You'll also see Duke in many news documentaries, including on the Reelz channel, CNN and HLN.

Read more about or contact Alan Duke

Different viewpoints

Note: if reading this fact check makes you want to contact us to complain about bias, please check out our Red feed first.

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion