Vice President Kamala Harris was told by CBS News' Bill Whitaker that it was a “mistake” for the Biden administration to be soft on border policy during a tense exchange on Monday's election special “60 Minutes.” I was asked whether or not it was.
“You recently visited the southern border and embraced President Biden's recent crackdown on asylum seekers, and that crackdown resulted in an almost immediate and dramatic drop in the number of border crossings,” Whitaker said. “If that’s the correct answer now, why didn’t the administration take those steps in 2021?”
“The first bill we introduced to Congress was to fix our broken immigration system, and we knew that if we were going to actually fix it, we needed Congressional action, and that wasn't taken up,” Harris said. ” he responded. “Think of the moment a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate, came together and introduced a border security bill.
“Well, guess what happened? Donald Trump received information that this bill was in the works and could be passed. And instead of solving the problem, he decided to So he told his colleagues in Congress, “Repeat the bill, stop it.'' Don't let it move forward. ”
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Vice President Kamala Harris raged in an interview on “60 Minutes” about why the Biden administration was allowing a “flood” of migrants from the southern border. (Screenshot/CBS News)
“I've been covering the border for years, so I know this is not a problem that started with your administration,” Whitaker said. “But the first three years of your administration have seen a historic flood of illegal immigrants cross our border. In fact, the number of arrivals has quadrupled compared to the last year of President Trump.”
“Was it a mistake to relax immigration policies this much?” Whitaker then asked.
“This is a long-standing problem, a solution is at hand, and we've been providing a solution literally since day one,” Harris responded.
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Vice President Kamala Harris has been criticized for suddenly taking a hard-line border stance after seeing record border crossings under the Biden administration. (Rebecca Noble/AFP via Getty Images)
“What I wanted to ask was whether it was a mistake to allow that flood to happen in the first place,” asked the veteran CBS News reporter.
“I think the policies that we've been proposing are designed to solve problems, not promote them,” Harris responded.
“But on your watch that number has quadrupled,” Whittaker interjected.
As Whitaker attempted to ask the question a third time, Harris continued: “Thanks to our efforts, today's numbers show we have cut the flow of illegal immigration in half.” “We've cut the flow of fentanyl in half, but we need Congress to act to actually solve the problem.”
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Bill Whitaker, a veteran CBS News correspondent, repeatedly asked Harris whether it was a “mistake” for the administration to loosen border policies at the beginning of Biden's presidency. (Screenshot/CBS News)
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