Vice President Kamala Harris stumbled through the Biden-Harris administration’s border and immigration policies when pressed about the border crisis during a CNN town hall moderated by Anderson Cooper.
“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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ASTON, PENNSYLVANIA – OCTOBER 23: Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks as CNN moderator Anderson Cooper looks on during a Presidential Town Hall event at Sun Center Studios on October 23, 2024 in Aston, Pennsylvania. With less than two weeks to Election Day, Harris spent the day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and made a visit to Famous 4th Street Delicatessen to greet supporters. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
“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,” she 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,” she responded.
Vice President Kamala Harris joined CNN for a town hall event Wednesday evening, speaking to Pennsylvania voters outside of Philadelphia. The town hall event kicked off at 9 pm on Wednesday from Chester Township, which is located less than 20 miles outside of Philadelphia.
Cooper asked Harris earlier in the town hall to explain why just weeks before the first presidential debate with President Biden was still in the race this summer, the administration instituted executive actions that curbed illegal border crossings and had not issued such orders sooner.
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ASTON, PENNSYLVANIA – OCTOBER 23: Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a CNN Presidential Town Hall at Sun Center Studios on October 23, 2024 in Aston, Pennsylvania. With less than two weeks to Election Day, Harris spent the day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and made a visit to Famous 4th Street Delicatessen to greet supporters. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
“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 responded.
Border Patrol picks up a group of asylum seekers from an aid camp at the US-Mexico border near Sasabe, Arizona, US, on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. During the first four months of fiscal year 2024, Border Patrol recorded more than 250,000 migrant apprehensions in the Tucson sector in Arizona, the most of any region patrolled by the agency, according to federal government statistics, reports CBS. Photographer: Justin Hamel/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Justin Hamel/Getty Images)
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“You couldn’t have done one and both at the same time,” Cooper noted.
Cooper went on to ask Harris if she wished she had “done those executive orders in 2022, 2023,” sparking Harris to say she believes the administration “did the right thing.”
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“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,” she responded.
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