On night two of the second Democratic presidential debates, Gabbard attacks Harris on her record as California’s attorney general. She argues, “The people who suffered under your reign as prosecutor, you owe them an apology,” adding that Harris’ stance on the death penalty kept “innocent people” on death row and alleging that Harris “blocked evidence” that could have helped them. In a post-debate interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Harris dismisses Gabbard’s attacks. She shares that she expects to take hits as a top-tier candidate, adding, “especially when people are at zero or 1 percent or whatever [Gabbard] might be at.” She goes on to criticize Gabbard’s embrace of Syrian dictator Assad and say of Gabbard, “I can only take what she says and her opinion so seriously.”