Kim Kardashian Joins Vice President Harris for a Criminal Justice Roundtable Featuring Formerly Incarcerated Black and Brown Citizens

Vice President Kamala Harris hosted a roundtable on criminal justice reform on Thursday that included Kim Kardashian and 4 Black and brown individuals who were recently pardoned by President Joe Biden.

The vp invited Kardashian to listen to from former inmates Bobby Lowery, Jesse Mosley, Beverly Robinson and Jason Hernandez, who shared their personal stories of how they turned their law enforcement backgrounds into purpose as entrepreneurs and community leaders.

“I believe very much in the power of redemption,” Harris said within the Roosevelt Room on the White House. “Everyone makes mistakes. For some it may be a crime, but isn’t it a sign of a civil society that we enable people to make a living and give them the support and resources they need to do it?”

The vp’s convocation marks the ultimate days of Second Chance Month, a holiday that raises awareness of the results of incarceration and promotes the importance of making second-chance opportunities for those that have served their time to re-enter society as contributing residents.

Kardashian, a reality star and longtime criminal justice advocate, said she got here to the White House to listen to from the 4 pardonees about their journeys through the criminal justice system and to learn more about what it could be like helpful” and “amplify” their stories.

“There are a lot of people in your position who could use some inspiration,” the 43-year-old star said. “I’m honored to be here to continue this fight and learn more every day. Every visit. Every administration.”

Kardashian is not any stranger to the White House. The star has visited President Donald Trump quite a few times to defend prisoners and formerly incarcerated people, including Alice Smith, who was released from prison after serving a life sentence. During Thursday’s remarks, she said her visit to the Trump White House inspired her to go to law school to learn more about how she will help others.

In her remarks, Harris highlighted actions taken by the Biden-Harris administration to make criminal justice reform more equitable for Americans, especially Black and brown people.

The vp announced the completion of Small Business Administration regulations that will remove most restrictions on loan eligibility based on a person’s criminal history. She also highlighted the administration’s expansion of Pell Grants for people currently in prison.

Sitting next to Haris and Kardashian, Lowery, Mosley, Robinson and Hernandez explained how they first learned about their recent pardon. Everyone spoke with joy, some with tears of their eyes, about what the relief meant for them and their families.

Mosley, a real estate investor, described the strategy of filling out the paperwork to use for a pardon, saying it “wasn’t a difficult process.” He revealed that he eventually desires to change into a curator. Mosley even suggested to the vp that he help him make his aspirations a reality, to which Harris jokingly said, “I caught what you dropped!”

Robinson, who owns an academic facility that academically prepares children ages 14 months to five years old, said that when she learned her pardon had been approved, she needed to go to the playground to “scream at the top of her lungs.”

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden marked Second Chance Month by announcing pardons for 11 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes, including 4 who joined Harris on Thursday. Biden also commuted drug-related sentences for five other people.

“Many of these individuals received disproportionately longer sentences than would be possible under current law, policy and practice,” Biden said in a statement. “Individuals who have received clemency have demonstrated their commitment to improving their lives and positively transforming their communities.”

The president added: “Those who received commutation have shown that they deserve forgiveness and a chance to build a better future for themselves outside prison walls.”

Biden said his clemency actions, including pardons issued in October 2022 and December 2023 for nonviolent marijuana convictions, reflect his “overarching commitment to eliminating racial disparities and improving public safety.”

The president promised to proceed to review clemency requests and “enact reforms in a way that advances equal justice, supports rehabilitation and re-entry, and provides meaningful second chances.”

Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist, said the Biden-Harris administration’s criminal justice reform efforts represent a possibility to inform the American public a “good story” because the president and vp run for re-election in November.

Biden and Harris’ historic victory in 2020 followed nationwide Black Lives Matter protests through which as many as 26 million Americans took part in demonstrations calling for police accountability and criminal justice reform following the police-involved deaths of unarmed Black Americans, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Since taking office, President Biden has sought to take executive motion on criminal justice reform within the absence of laws from a divided Congress.

“Some of the elements of Biden’s criminal justice reform they would have touted included steps to decriminalize marijuana use and possession, executive orders to reform police procedures like chokeholds, and an attempt to end the use of private federal prisons,” said Payne, the previous staffer campaign for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In the months leading as much as the 2024 presidential election, Payne said Biden and Harris must ensure their message and record on crime reform, in addition to other essential issues essential to Black voters, are “clear and enduring.”

“Cooperation with such a famous messenger as Kim Kardashian will help them in this,” he noted.

“It’s important to remind voters who’s fighting for whom,” Payne said. “At a time when Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are calling those convicted of January 6 crimes ‘hostages,’ the vice president meeting with someone as prominent as Kim Kardashian to discuss criminal justice reform is a helpful split-screen contrast.”

Payne said Vice President Harris’ Wednesday roundtable also helps her “make a statement” on “an issue of great importance in many communities across the country.”

Kardashian thanked Harris for her “deep commitment to second chances” and also thanked President Biden for “all the commutations and pardons that are taking place.” She said creating pathways to make life easier for formerly incarcerated people, similar to providing access to small business loans, is “life-changing.”

At the tip of the roundtable, the vp admitted that there remain “many aspects of the system that create obstacles and barriers that prevent people from realizing” their dreams and aspirations.

She added: “We need to help people earn a living and invest in their potential.”

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