Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator from Alabama, said he doesn’t think the border will be a central issue in the 2024 presidential election.
The former lawmaker appeared on “CNN This Morning” on Wednesday and argued that issues like the economy and the differing personalities of the Democratic and Republican candidates will be more important issues than the U.S. southern border under a Biden-Harris administration, even as illegal immigration hits record highs.
“Frankly, I don’t think this is going to be the defining issue of this race at the end of the day,” Jones said.
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Former U.S. Democratic Senator Doug Jones has declared that border security will not be a defining issue in the 2024 presidential election. (Screenshot/CNN)
Jones made the statement in response to new ad pitting the Trump and Harris campaigns against each other on immigration.
Former President Trump’s ad criticized Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, for failing to secure the southern border while she served as “border secretary” under the Biden administration, while Harris’ ad called for more Border Patrol agents and accused Trump of blocking legislation that would have increased the number of agents.
Jones first denied that the Trump campaign was trying to make the Biden-Harris administration’s border policy the centerpiece of the election, saying it was less important than other issues.
“There are too many other issues, including the economy. I think it’s also about character and integrity,” he said. “You look at the difference between Kamala and Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.”
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Trump and Harris’ 2024 presidential campaigns have run ads attacking each other over their policies on the southern US border. (Getty Images)
He harshly criticized the Republican vice presidential nominee’s old comments about “childless cat ladies” in the Democratic Party, saying, “J.D. Vance is essentially trying to create another three-fifths compromise in the Constitution for childless couples, where their votes count less than those of people with children.”
The lawmaker then criticized President Trump’s attack on the “border secretary” and denied that Harris had played such a role under the Biden administration.
“What Kamala Harris has done, and her role has not been to be a border agent. What she has tried to do is promote economic development and make sure that we don’t have a massive influx of people fleeing poverty and gangs in Central America in search of a better life,” Jones told the network.
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Jones’s claims echo those of major media outlets that have denied that Harris had any such role when she secured the Democratic presidential nomination, though some of those same outlets also referred to her as border secretary when Biden gave her a specific role in dealing with immigration issues in 2021.
