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Fact Check: Kamala Harris Once Said She Listens to Snoop Dogg and Tupac and Admitted To Smoking Weed in College
By Taija PerryCook,
11 hours ago
As the 2024 presidential race gained momentum, social media users resurfaced a rumor from 2019 that Democratic candidate Kamala Harris once said she listened to Snoop Dogg and Tupac while smoking cannabis in college.
In late July, one X user ( archived ) posted a video and partial audio clip of Harris allegedly making the claim. The footage, which featured The Washington Post's branding, was captioned: " Just casually remembering the time Kamala Harris claimed that she used to smoke weed and listen to Tupac and Snoop Dogg while in college even though she went to school in the 80s before they made music."
The post had amassed more than 3.2 million views and 30,000 likes as of this writing.
A similar post appeared in March 2024, when one TikTok user uploaded another video that featured a discussion of the claim on Fox News. The TikTok user captioned the video: "When VP Kamala Harris said she listened to Snoop Dogg and Tupac while smoking marijuana in college in 1986."
Fox News did indeed state that Harris listened to Snoop Dogg and Tupac while smoking weed in college. The headline of a 2019 article discussing the rumor read: "Kamala Harris says she listened to Snoop Dogg, Tupac while smoking weed in college years before they made music."
Other posts and outlets also ran with the claim , pointing out that it would not have been possible for Harris to have listened to Snoop Dogg and Tupac while enrolled in university because she graduated from Howard University in 1986 , whereas Tupac and Snoop Dogg did not release their debut albums until 1991 and 1993 , respectively.
We looked into the rumor and found that while Harris did admit to smoking marijuana in college and did say she liked listening to Snoop Dogg and Tupac, she did not claim to have listened to the two rappers while smoking weed in college.
The claim stems from an interview Harris gave in February 2019 with morning radio show The Breakfast Club. Co-host Charlamagne Tha God asked the then-senator whether she had ever smoked cannabis, to which she admitted she had while in college ( minute 36:36 ).
A couple of minutes later, co-host DJ Envy asked her what kind of music she listened to. Charlamagne Tha God chimed in, asking her what music she listened to when she was high ( minute 38:10 ). Harris laughed in response to Charlamagne Tha God's question, but she looked at DJ Envy while speaking, telling him that she listened to Snoop Dogg, Tupac and Cardi B.
It would be reasonable to assume Harris was answering the question about her musical preferences while high if one only listened to the audio or read the transcript. However, the footage showed Harris ignored Charlamagne Tha God's question and responded to DJ Envy instead.
DJ Envy later went on MSNBC to clarify what really happened. MSNBC anchor Ari Melber asked him: "DJ Envy, did Fox News lie on your interview?" to which the DJ responded ( minute 6:36 ):
Absolutely positively lied. I mean, we wanted to humanize her, not just talk about politics; talk about what she likes, what she does, and I asked what she listens to, and she said she listens to Snoop Dogg and Tupac. At the same time, my co-host was still talking about the marijuana and it was just a funny exchange, but she was actually answering me and people took it that she was answering Charlamagne and said she was lying which is not true.
Harris' own campaign also denied that she claimed to have listened to Snoop Dogg and Tupac while smoking marijuana in college. Ian Sams, Harris' spokesperson at the time, said on X : "T his really isn't that complicated."
The Washington Post video featured in the X post from July 2024 was clipped, and therefore inaccurately used. In the full footage, The Washington Post made the point that "if you're just listening to this piece on the radio, it sounds like Harris's memory is mixed up. Or maybe she lied about what her stoner jams were in an attempt to sound cool … but when you watch Harris's whole interaction on camera, the situation plays out very differently."
In sum, Harris did say she smoked weed in college and listened to Snoop Dogg and Tupac, but she did not say she listened to Snoop Dogg and Tupac while smoking weed in college.
Earle, Geoff. 'Harris Says She Listened to Snoop and Tupac While Smoking in College'. Mail Online , 12 Feb. 2019, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6697089/Kamala-Harris-says-listened-Snoop-Tupac-smoking-pot-college.html.
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