Border crisis head Vice President Kamala Harris defended her refusal to visit the U.S.-Mexico border, where an illegal crossing crisis rages on, by comparing it to her lack of presence in other foreign countries in Europe.
In her recent interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Harris said she didn’t understand why her refusal to visit the U.S.-Mexico border is such a big deal. At first, the vice president claimed the administration has “been to the border,” but when pressed by Holt, she diverted the conversation.
“You haven’t been to the border,” he noted.
“I haven’t been to Europe,” Harris said, shrugging off the implications of the question. “And I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”
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President Joe Biden tapped Harris to lead the White House response to the border crisis in March, but more than two months later, she still laughs off questions about traveling to the southern U.S. border and remains silent on the thousands of unaccompanied minors who are being housed in crowded government facilities.
“We are going to the border,” she repeated. “We have to deal with what’s happening at the border. There’s no question about that. That’s not a debatable point. But we have to understand that there’s a reason people are arriving at our border, and ask what is that reason and then identify the problem so we can fix it.”
“We’re going to see progress,” Harris recited instead of offering solutions. “The real work is going to take time to manifest itself.”
Harris is spending a portion of her week visiting Guatemala, one of the Northern Triangle countries, which she claims will give her more insight into the “root causes” of the influx of illegal border crossings. On Monday, she ignored Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei’s pleas for the administration to do something about the crisis to instead claim that the current problems stem from climate change and the economy.
“I’m in Guatemala because my focus is dealing with the root causes of migration,” Harris told Holt. “There may be some who think that that is not important, but it is my firm belief that if we care about what’s happening at the border, we’d better care about the root causes and address that and so that’s what I’m doing.”
Source: The Federalist
