Vice President Kamala Harris again deployed the rhetoric Thursday when asked to detail plans to reduce rising costs.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, prices across the board have risen by about 20% on average.
“We'd love to know what your plan is to lower the cost of living,” a couple asked Harris during her fourth taped interview with Oprah Winfrey since joining the campaign.
She responded with a 90-word response consisting of two sentences beginning with a cliché about the “American Dream.” She acknowledged that the American Dream has become out of reach “for so many people these days” — in other words, under a Biden-Harris administration.
After disparaging about her own record, Harris acknowledged that prices are too high but offered no specific policies to reduce rising costs.
Harris said in her 90-word speech.
Yes. First, I want to thank you both for being here. Your story is a story that I hear as I travel across the country: the right to have aspirations and dreams and ambitions for your family, to work hard, and to realize that the American Dream is much more elusive for this generation and many recent generations than it was in the past, and we need to address that, and there are a couple of ways to do that. One is by lowering the prices of everyday items, including groceries.
During the show, an audience member asked Harris how she would strengthen the southern border, and she gave another three minutes of her response before Oprah interrupted her to cut her ramblings short.
“If you were president, what specific steps would you take to strengthen the border?” one person asked Harris.
Harris responded:
Yes, of course. What are the concrete steps to strengthen the border? This is a great and important question. I have a background as a prosecutor and was elected two terms as attorney general of a border state. So this is not a theoretical question for me. This is something I have actually worked on. I have prosecuted international criminal organizations on gun, drug and human trafficking charges. I take very seriously the importance of securing the border and ensuring the safety of the American people. Sadly, where we are now can be traced back most recently to the fact that the U.S. Congress, including some of the most conservative Republicans, came up with a border security bill. And what this border security bill was supposed to do, which was to put 1,500 border patrol agents on the border. Border patrol agents work around the clock. It would have been to give them some support and relief. That's probably why border patrol agents actually supported the bill. That would have helped stop the influx of fentanyl. I look at people here across the country, so I don't think I need to explain to people watching this what fentanyl has done to families and children in our country, and that we need to take the influx of fentanyl seriously and address this extraordinary, tragic problem in terms of its impacts. This bill would have increased resources to prosecute transnational criminal organizations and would have been part of the solution. But Donald Trump called those people and said, “Don't put this bill on the floor and put it on the floor for a vote.” He blocked the bill. Do you know why? Because he would rather run on the issue and run on the election than solve the problem, and he prioritized his own political, personal, political safety over border security. Because he knew what this bill did to give support to those who care about this issue, even in the last few months. And this also relates to the question of what leadership really looks like, and is it about you or is it about the people? Is it about running with the problem or solving the problem? My job and my career has always been about saying, “Let's solve the problem, let's address the need.” Because we know it's within our capabilities.
“So to answer Justin's question, since that bill died and didn't pass, are you going to reintroduce it?” Oprah asked, prompting Harris to respond.
“Absolutely. If I am elected president of the United States, I will ensure that this bill gets to my desk and that I sign it into law,” Harris replied.
Members of the mainstream media have been extremely frustrated that Harris has not provided any policy details in just four interviews since joining the campaign.
Harris is faced with a dilemma: campaigning on policies to improve crime, inflation and border security could undermine the policies of the Biden-Harris administration, but she must tout the administration's policies to justify her record and her candidacy.
Perhaps this conundrum is why Harris doesn't offer policy proposals, instead repeating evasive lines and slogans: Nearly half of Americans (48%) believe she simply says what people want to hear. economist/YouGov Poll Found Meanwhile, only 36 percent said Harris speaks for what she believes.
Wendell Fsebo is a political reporter for Breitbart News and a former war room analyst for the Republican National Committee. He is the author of: The Politics of Slave MoralityFollow Wendell “X” @WendellHusebø or The truth of society @WendellHusebo.
