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From the primary moments, the interview was controversial.
On Wednesday, US Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for an interview with the conservative-leaning community Fox Information as her marketing campaign tries to draw voters disenchanted together with her Republican rival, Donald Trump.
However host Bret Baier wasted no time in specializing in the main target of their dialogue: immigration.
He confronted her with a Trump marketing campaign advert and a video of a grieving mom testifying earlier than Congress concerning the demise of her baby, allegedly by the hands of two undocumented immigrants.
Nonetheless, Harris identified that irregular immigration throughout the US-Mexico border was a priority lengthy earlier than she was elected vp in 2021 — together with below Trump, a former president.
“I actually assume that Trump marketing campaign advert is a bit like throwing stones in the event you stay in a glass home,” Harris mentioned in response to the Trump advert. “You must take duty for what occurred in your administration.”
Vice President Kamala Harris waves at Trenton-Mercer Airport in Mercer County, New Jersey, earlier than departing for Milwaukee on Wednesday (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Picture)
Immigration is a prime drawback
A Pew Analysis Middle ballot final week discovered that US voters see the financial system as their most essential difficulty once they go to the polls on November 5.
However the prime 5 voter points had been rounded out by immigration, with 41 p.c of respondents calling it “extraordinarily essential” and one other 31 p.c calling it “essential.”
Immigration has been a distinguished pillar of each the Democratic and Republican events’ platforms, with each events pledging to scale back the variety of irregular border crossings.
However the Pew ballot reveals that Trump seems to have an edge on this space, with 54 p.c of respondents saying he’s finest positioned to implement the nation’s immigration insurance policies.
That is a bonus Republicans have tried to emphasise because the presidential race involves a detailed with lower than three weeks to go.
Nonetheless, Trump and Harris have remained just about tied in nationwide voter polls. The ballot aggregator, 270toWin, discovered Harris has a slight lead, with a median of 49.5 p.c to Trump’s 47.3 p.c.
Because it tries to maneuver ahead, Harris’ marketing campaign has appealed to mid-level voters, in addition to Republicans fed up with Trump’s management of the occasion.
A part of her technique has been to indicate help for distinguished Republicans similar to former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, a vocal critic of Trump on Capitol Hill.
She has additionally pledged to nominate a Republican to her Cupboard if she is elected president.
Earlier on Wednesday, for instance, that technique was on full show in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the place Harris touted the bipartisan nature of her marketing campaign as an antithesis to what she characterised as Trump’s divisiveness.
“I’m joined immediately by greater than 100 Republican leaders from throughout Pennsylvania and throughout our nation in supporting my candidacy for president of the USA,” she mentioned to cheers from the group. “And I’m deeply honored by their help.”
Heated interview
However her reception was a lot cooler within the Fox Information studio, the place Baier ripped her file on immigration.
His opening query matched the gist of his interview: “What number of unlawful immigrants do you estimate your authorities has launched into the nation over the previous three and a half years?”
Outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration, below which Harris serves, has been below fixed criticism for overseeing a spike in unlawful border crossings.
For instance, US Customs and Border Safety recorded a file 2,475,669 “encounters” alongside the US-Mexico border throughout fiscal yr 2023, though the latest statistics point out a big decline in border crossings.
Nonetheless, Biden has taken steps to restrict entry to asylum to those that cross the border with out authorization.
“Bret, let’s get to the purpose,” Harris replied, as she and Baier struggled to speak over one another. “The purpose is, we’ve a damaged immigration system that must be fastened.”
She blamed Trump for scuttling a bipartisan immigration invoice in January that might have marked the primary complete reform in that space in a long time.
“They need a president of the USA who would not play politics with the difficulty, however really focuses on fixing it,” Harris mentioned.
She additionally performed up her file as “former lawyer normal of a border state,” prosecuting “the trafficking of medicine, weapons and other people.”
However Baier continued to go after Harris concerning the excessive variety of border crossings below the Biden administration — and the crimes he alleged had been a outcome.
Analysis has constantly proven that undocumented immigrants commit fewer violent crimes than U.S.-born residents. However members of the US proper, particularly Trump and his operating mate JD Vance, have strengthened unfounded fears that migrants pose a widespread risk to public security.
Baier additionally made an analogous argument. “Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, these are younger ladies who had been brutally attacked and murdered,” Baier mentioned, suggesting immigration insurance policies had been in charge. “Do you owe these households an apology?”
“Let me first say that these had been tragic instances. There isn’t any doubt about that,” Harris replied. “I can not think about the ache that the households of those victims have skilled due to a loss that ought to not have occurred.”
“Additionally it is true that if a border safety legislation had been handed 9 months in the past, it could have taken 9 months earlier than we’d have had extra border brokers on the border.”
Distancing your self from Biden
Baier additionally confronted Harris with criticism that her administration, if elected, could be a continuation of Biden’s.
He famous that Harris indicated final week on the discuss present The View that she was aligned with the outgoing president. When a panelist on The View requested her if she would have carried out something otherwise than Biden, Harris replied, “Nothing involves thoughts.”
Harris was unequivocal in her response to Baier.
“Let me be very clear. My presidency won’t be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” she mentioned. “And like several new president who involves energy, I’ll carry my life experiences, my skilled experiences and contemporary and new concepts. I characterize a brand new era of management.”
Harris, 59, spent a lot of her profession as a prosecutor earlier than changing into San Francisco’s district lawyer in 2002 and California’s lawyer normal in 2011.
It wasn’t till 2017 that she arrived in Washington, D.C., to function a U.S. senator, leaving workplace early to turn out to be vp. Throughout Wednesday’s interview, she tried to make use of that comparatively brief expertise to her benefit.
“For instance, I’m somebody who has not spent most of my profession in Washington DC. “I invite concepts, whether or not from the Republicans who help me, who had been on stage with me simply minutes in the past, and the enterprise group and others who can contribute to the choices I make,” she mentioned.
Baier himself was criticized after the interview. A former Harris aide, Symone Sanders Townsend, denounced his questioning on social media afterward.
“The interviewer was not himself,” she wrote. “As an alternative, he was impolite and deceptive and lifted questions straight from a proverbial Trump/Vance press launch.”
Kamala Harris spars with Bret Baier over immigration in Fox Information interview | Information about US elections 2024
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