Staff Reports
Vice President Kamala Harris finds herself in quite the pickle, trying to polish her credentials on border management while dodging the inevitable barbs thrown by former President Donald Trump. Trump has made her handling of the southern border a focal point of his critiques, and Harris is now frantically attempting to juggle a narrative that hasn’t exactly been in her favor recently.
Speaking before a crowd of enthusiastic supporters in Glendale, Arizona, Harris attempted to wield her past experience as the attorney general of California— a state that shares a border with Mexico—as her golden ticket to credibility. She highlighted her history of prosecuting transnational gangs, drug cartels, and human traffickers, implying that her record somehow equips her to tackle the current chaos at the border. However, many may find it curious that she’s suddenly so keen on acting like a border hawk when just a few short years ago her 2020 presidential campaign suggested that illegal border crossings shouldn’t even be prosecuted.
In a brazen pivot, Harris not only avoided taking responsibility for her administration’s border blunders but also took shots at Trump for not “walking the walk” on border security. She pinned the blame on Congress for failing to pass border legislation—eluding the fact that for the better part of the last two years, her party had control of both chambers. It seems that Harris is desperately trying to rewrite her own history as her previous stances suddenly appear more unpopular than a measles outbreak at a hipster festival.
In a surprising move, she claimed the immigration system is “broken” and asserted the need for “comprehensive reform.” This reform, she insists, should include strong border security alongside a pathway to citizenship, conveniently gliding over the fact that the border has been little more than an afterthought in Democratic discussions. While Democrats tiptoe around the immigration issue, Harris is trying to dust it off like an old trophy in an attempt to show voters that she can talk tough while avoiding accountability.
To further bolster her position, a new campaign ad was unveiled, showcasing Harris as a fearless champion of border control while exaggerating her past actions. The ad depicted her as nothing short of a superhero with a mission to crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking. Yet, as Trump pointed out at his rallies, the reality of Harris’s tenure as “border czar” has resulted in millions of undocumented immigrants flooding into the U.S., often without facing any legal repercussions. Given this dubious track record, it’s clear that the only thing tougher than Harris’s stance on border control is the laughter resonating through conservative circles as they witness her scramble to change the narrative.
How Harris will try to flip the script on border concerns on the campaign trail – The Trump campaign shouldn't let her get away with it https://t.co/Kwdw4fHGss via @dcexaminer
— Lois Levine Fishman (@FishmanLevine) August 10, 2024
Arizona, a key battleground state, could serve as the ultimate test of whether Harris can convince voters that her newfound urgency regarding border security is genuine or just a last-minute effort to salvage her reputation. Polling numbers reveal Trump leads by five points in Arizona as of late July, leaving Harris with a monumental challenge—proving to voters that her commitment to border security isn’t just talk, and that she’s ready to own up to the consequences of the policies she has previously championed. For now, it seems her attempts are eliciting more eye-rolls than applause.
