Kim Kardashian returned to the White House to express her appreciation to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for their continued work on criminal justice reform, four years after she first advocated for clemency during Donald Trump’s presidency.
Kardashian met with Vice President Harris and White House public engagement director Steve Benjamin on Thursday, along with four individuals who recently received clemency from the Biden administration. With cameras rolling, Harris thanked Kardashian for her ongoing advocacy:
“I want to thank Kim for your advocacy and for using your platform in a way that has really lifted up the importance of talking about and being dedicated to second chances.”
In response, Kardashian shared her journey from her initial clemency meeting at the White House to her commitment to promoting criminal justice reform:
“It was actually this very room that I was in years ago, my first clemency meeting, that really inspired me to take a journey of really helping to figure out how I can be helpful and how I can tell the amazing stories that I would hear from, the success stories from individuals like yourself. And I didn’t know a whole lot, and I was inspired to go to law school and really further my education to see what I can do to help.”
Kardashian’s work in criminal justice reform began in 2018 when she joined a group advocating for clemency for nonviolent offenders, including Alice Johnson, who eventually received a pardon from Donald Trump. Despite facing backlash for appearing with Trump, Kardashian stated in a 2019 interview with The View that her focus has always been on the people impacted by policies, not the politics, and she felt it was crucial to engage with those in power to bring about change.
