Kamala Harris was composed, professional, and fully presidential when she appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes.
Journalist Bill Whitaker asked the right questions.
The problem for Harris is that the questions he asked are the ones on a lot of people's minds.
Here is the two-minute exchange, time well spent to watch Harris explain, correctly, that Trump tried the sabotage addressing the border problem. But Whitaker got to the real problem: Why did you let the problem fester for three years?
 |
| Click Here |
Here is some of the transcript:
Bill Whitaker: But I've been covering the border for-- for years. And so I know this is not a problem that started with your administration.
Vice President Kamala Harris: Correct. Correct.
Bill Whitaker: But there was an historic flood of undocumented immigrants coming across the border the first three years of your administration. As a matter of fact, arrivals quadrupled from the last year of President Trump. Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policies as much as you did?
Vice President Kamala Harris: It's a longstanding problem. And solutions are at hand. And from day one, literally, we have been offering solutions.
Bill Whitaker: What I was asking was, was it a mistake to kind of allow that flood to happen in the first place?
Vice President Kamala Harris: I think-- the policies that we have been proposing are about fixing a problem, not promoting a problem, okay? But the--
Bill Whitaker: But the numbers did quadruple under your-
Vice President Kamala Harris: And the numbers today--
Bill Whitaker: --under your watch--
Vice President Kamala Harris: --because of what we have done-- we have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half. We have cut the--
Bill Whitaker: But should you have done that--
Vice President Kamala Harris: --flow of fentanyl--
Bill Whitaker: --should you have done that. . .?
Good Harris "vibes" and Democrats' relief that a too-old Biden passed the torch does not make a significant policy problem go away. Biden let an immigration problem fester. Whitaker wouldn't let the subject drop because it exhausted not only the patience of a great many Americans, but his own. The Biden administration did not take visible action on the southern border until Florida and Texas governors weaponized the problem by busing migrants to blue-state cities. Republicans have a false, cynical, but effective explanations for the Biden policy failure. They claim that those "illegals" are somehow allowed to vote, and this is a way Democrats to rig elections. Or it was on-purpose preference for dark-skinned immigrants over the interests of White people who have to try to manage crowds of poor, homeless immigrants. Or it is another iteration of the "woke" double standard, in which illegal disorder by people in the Democratic tribe, be it in BLM protests or immigrants gaming the asylum system, is OK, but disorder by Whites, at January 6 for example, is prosecuted.
Meanwhile, Trump and Vance toss up racist tropes: criminals, rapists, murderers, pet-eaters, and as of yesterday, "bad genes." It is the good us against the bad them.
Democrats handled the immigration issue poorly. Harris is scrambling to get in front of the problem, but she is late to the game and Whitaker called her on it. Democrats wonder with dismay and amazement that so many voters seem to be willing to accept Trump-style crudeness, illegality, violence, and authoritarian language and policies. Trump sounds like a fascist, Democrats tell me, and yet voters accept that. Incredible! How can that possibly be?
David Frum warned about this problem in The Atlantic back in 2019 and explained it in one sentence:
"If liberals won't enforce borders, fascists will."
[Note: To get daily delivery of this blog to your emai go to: https://petersage.substack.com. Subscribe. Don't pay. The blog is free and always will be.]
9 comments:
The problem for Harris and the Democrats with the border crisis is analagous to the way they handled Biden's fitness for a second term: repeated full-throated, false-faced denial suddenly giving way to pat acknowledgement of the truth everyone with eyes and ears had known for some time.
Secretary Mayorkas, joined by Harris, assured America again and again that the Southern border was "secure" when it manifestly was not. Now they are credible on a solution? The much-bruited Lankford bill this spring primarily codified and streamlined an unacceptable flow.
You’re right, the border problem has been handled poorly. Responsibility for that lies with Congress and the Administration. Republicans have labeled Harris the “border czar” – just one of the countless lies they spew on a regular basis. As VP, she has zero authority over immigration policy or enforcement, and if she has any loyalty, she isn’t likely to criticize the President’s handling of it. But she has made it clear she takes it seriously and unlike Trump, she wouldn’t be telling Congress not to pass a border bill.
Which leaves the question of how people can rationalize supporting a monster like Trump. We’ve all heard him and his toadies spewing life-threatening lies about immigrants that have resulted in bomb threats and hate crimes. Trump knows he’s lying, they know he’s lying, yet still they cheer him on. They’re sick.
The Democrats seem to be “constitutionally“ incapable of handling issues like crime and illegal immigration.
When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When your only tool is compassion…
These are the highlights of what was in the Lankford bill:
https://www.lankford.senate.gov/issues/calling-out-bidens-chaos-at-the-southern-border-pushing-to-secure-the-us-from-bad-actors-around-the-world/
It certainly was not a bill that “codified and streamlined an unacceptable flow” of migrants. As Lankford’s colleague, Senator Sinema (R-OK) said: “Less than 24 hours after we released the bill, my Republican colleagues changed their minds. Turns out they want all talk and no action. It turns out border security is not a risk to our national security. It’s just a talking point for the election.”
The Question Is like to see asked of J. Deviate Vance is what kind of Civics did study at Yale which convinced him the Vice Presidency has any authority to set and enforce any Policies at all for the Federal Government ?
If Repubs cared about illegal immigration,, they would have passed the bipartisan immigration bill. If they care about crime, they'd have put Trump in jail instead of nominating him for president.
The bill purported to speed up handling of asylum claims, but with "targets" for limiting crossings becoming mandatory halts if crossings surpassed an average of 5,000 a day. Biden suddenly backed these helpful (compared with the previous, invited flow) but decidedly partial measures as the election loomed and immigration was clearly going to be a big issue.
republicans care about the border as much as they care about this country.
Don Old works for Putin, including giving Putin a list of American spies working in Russia.
Post a Comment