ATLANTA — Vice President Harris used the biggest event of her campaign thus far to take on one of her biggest political liabilities: the reoccurring surges in migration at the southern U.S. border during the Biden administration.
Republicans have attacked Harris as a failed "border czar" who did little to stop migration, even though President Biden had asked her to find ways to address the root causes of migration from Northern Triangle countries early on in her time as vice president. Former President Donald Trump had made border security one of his signature issues, building a wall on the southern border and using various restrictions to try to cut back on immigration.
On Tuesday, Harris tried to turn the tables on this narrative, painting herself as a hard-charging attorney general of a border state who had walked underground tunnels between Mexico and California with law enforcement.
"I went after transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers that came into our country illegally. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won," Harris said. "Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been talking a big game about securing our border, but he does not walk the walk," she said.
Harris pledged to bring back border security bill
Harris was only a few months into her time as vice president when Biden gave her a politically treacherous assignment: to find ways to deal with the deep-seated economic and societal problems driving tens of thousands of Central American people to try to seek asylum in the United States.
Her first foreign trip was to Guatemala and Mexico, and Republicans slammed her for not first visiting border communities grappling with increased numbers of people. And then she became irritated in an NBC interview, fueling Republican criticism back home.
Harris didn't mention her work on the root causes of migration during her Tuesday night speech. Instead, she picked up a strategy that Biden was also seeking to use in his campaign — focusing on a tough border security bill that Biden had agreed to sign, that would give him the authority to, in his words, "shut down the border" when migrant numbers surge.
Republicans in Congress backed away from that bill, after some in the Senate had initially supported it. Harris, like Biden, blamed Trump for tanking the bill, because the issue of immigration played well for him. Biden later took executive action to try to accomplish some of the same goals, though it is being challenged in court.
"Donald Trump does not care about border security — he only cares about himself," Harris said. “As president, I will bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump killed, and I will sign it into law, and show Donald Trump what real leadership looks like," she said.
Harris also addressed inflation concerns
For the first time in her nascent campaign, Harris also sought to put some details around her economic policy platform, responding to another issue that voters say they are concerned about: the high cost of living.
Harris acknowledged that while many economic indictors show the U.S. economy is strong, people aren't feeling it. "Prices are still too high: you know it and I know it," she said.
She said taking on price gouging would be a "Day One" issue, and talked about banning hidden fees and banks' "surprise late charges." She vowed to "take on corporate landlords" and "cap unfair rent increases," as well as cap prescription drug prices. Harris also mentioned the importance of affordable health care, child care and paid leave policies.
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