Editorial: Kamala Harris’s menthol scheme

Kamala Harris is hiding. Again.

Vice President Kamala Harris owes the American people a simple answer: does she still want to prosecute Americans for the “crime” of smoking menthol cigarettes, thereby causing havoc in the black community and imposing a massive new burden on law enforcement? Or, as with some of her other positions, has she conveniently flip-flopped just weeks before the election? 

While this issue may have flown under the radar, Americans deserve an answer before early voting starts later this month. 

Here’s why this matters: in 2022, the Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a plan to criminalize menthol cigarettes, a type of cigarette that makes up about 40 percent of the market and is particularly popular among black Americans. Its original decision was lauded by Michael Bloomberg, a megadonor to both Biden and Harris’s presidential campaigns.

The administration received immediate backlash for this plan, first from conservatives, who pointed out that Congress has passed no law banning menthol cigarettes, and that the administration does not have the authority to do so.

Second, from law enforcement, which is universally opposed to creating a new crime — and make no mistake, what the FDA proposed would criminalize possession of menthol cigarettes under state laws — at a time when they are tackling issues like surges in violent crime. Police officers do not want to waste taxpayer resources arresting people for smoking cigarettes when there are far higher priorities — namely, criminals harming people. 

Finally came the backlash from black Americans and civil rights groups who pointed out the hypocrisy of targeting only one type of cigarette. As a conservative outlet, we are usually skeptical of claims of disproportionate impact. But how else can one explain the obsession with criminalizing menthol cigarettes? As Eric Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, said, “they are not targeting the other neighborhoods, they are targeting the black neighborhoods. If they were talking about banning all cigarettes, then we would have a different conversation.”

The pushback worked, and the Biden administration ultimately shelved the plan to ban menthol cigarettes.

But Congressional insiders tell us that Vice President Harris was one of the most active proponents of the ban. And she has yet to answer this simple question since becoming the nominee: does she still support criminalizing menthol cigarettes?

We understand why Vice President Harris might want to avoid this question before the election — after all, the Biden administration recently announced that it would conveniently delay any decision until after November. Singling out menthol cigarettes for a ban isn’t just bad policy; polls show it’s so unpopular that it could make the difference in swing states; we’ve previously covered how such a ban could tank Senate Democrats’ chances at holding the upper chamber next year. 

Regardless of whether it is convenient for the Harris campaign to clarify her stance of the day on this issue, the American people deserve an answer.