When asked about the border situation during a CNN town hall moderated by Anderson Cooper, Vice President Kamala Harris struggled to explain the Biden-Harris administration’s border and immigration policy.
“Let’s talk about this compromise bill that you want to pass if you are elected. You said that’s going to be a priority. It includes $650 million in funding for the border wall. That’s something Republicans wanted that was part of the compromise.
“Under Donald Trump, you criticized the wall more than 50 times. You called it ‘stupid, useless, and a medieval vanity project.’ Is a border wall stupid?,” Cooper asked Harris Wednesday.
“Let’s talk about Donald Trump on that border wall,” Harris said while laughing. “So remember, Donald Trump said Mexico would pay for it. Come on, they didn’t. How much of that wall did he build?
“I think the last number I saw was about 2%. And then when it came time for him to do a photo op, you know, where he did it? In the part of the wall that President Obama built.”
“But you agreed to a bill that would earmark $650 million to continue building that,” Cooper pressed.
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“I pledge that I am going to bring forward that bipartisan bill to further strengthen and secure our border. Yes, I am, and I’m going to work across the aisle to pass a comprehensive bill that deals with a broken immigration system,” Harris responded.
“We need a president who is grounded in common sense and practical outcomes, like, let’s just fix this thing. Let’s just fix it. Why is there any ideological perspective on this? Let’s just fix the problem,” the Vice President continued.
“So you don’t think it’s stupid anymore?” Cooper continued.
“I think what he did and how he did it was, did not make much sense because he actually didn’t do much of anything. I just talked about that wall, right? We just talked about it. He didn’t actually do much of anything,” Harris answered.
Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on CNN for a town hall event Wednesday evening, interacting with Pennsylvania voters outside Philadelphia. The town hall session began at 9 p.m. on Wednesday in Chester Township, less than 20 miles outside of Philadelphia.
Cooper asked Harris earlier in the town hall why, just weeks before the first presidential debate with President Biden this summer, the administration launched executive actions to reduce illegal border crossings and why such orders had not been issued earlier.
“You’re exactly right, Anderson. And as of today, we have cut the flow of immigration by over half. In fact, the numbers I saw most recently, illegal immigration,” Harris told Cooper.
“If it was that easy without executive action, why not do it in 2022, 2023?” Cooper pressed.
“Because we were working with Congress and hoping that actually we could have a long term fix to the problem instead of a short-term fix,” Harris answered.
“You couldn’t have done one and both at the same time,” Cooper noted and asked Harris if she wished she had “done those executive orders in 2022, 2023,” to which Harris said she believes the administration “did the right thing.”
“I think we did the right thing. And but the best thing that can happen for the American people, is that we have bipartisan work happening. And I pledge to you, that I will work across the aisle to fix this longstanding problem. I think the American people are demanding it, on both sides of the aisle,” the Vice President added.
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