CNN
—
Vice President Kamala Harris turned questions on her practically 4 years in workplace into assaults on Republican rival Donald Trump’s document in a heated interview Wednesday on Fox Information, her first look on the conservative community, as she courts disaffected Republican and impartial voters.
Pressed on border crossings and violent crimes dedicated by undocumented immigrants throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, Harris repeatedly hammered Trump for opposing a bipartisan border safety invoice earlier this 12 months. Requested about Biden’s psychological acuity, she referred to as Trump “unstable” and mentioned “we should always all be involved.”
Harris additionally accused Fox Information of whitewashing Trump’s most incendiary rhetoric, together with the previous president calling political rivals “the enemy inside.”
“Right here’s the underside line: He has repeated it many instances, and also you and I each know that. And also you and I each know that he has talked about turning the American army on the American folks. He has talked about going after people who find themselves engaged in peaceable protest. He has talked about locking folks up as a result of they disagree with him,” a feisty Harris mentioned after Fox Information anchor Bret Baier performed a clip of Trump complaining about political persecution.
“It is a democracy,” she mentioned. “And in a democracy, the president of the US – in the US of America – must be keen to have the ability to deal with criticism with out saying he would lock folks up for doing it.”
The interview got here as Harris seeks to enchantment to small slivers of undecided voters who’ve supported Republicans up to now however are uneasy with Trump. Her marketing campaign has focused these voters in current days – with the vice chairman campaigning alongside former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, veterans of Trump’s administration and others within the social gathering who cut up with the previous president over his makes an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Harris held an occasion earlier Wednesday in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania – a website not removed from the place George Washington led 2,400 Continental troopers throughout the Delaware River on Christmas evening 1776, a symbolic second within the American Revolution – with greater than 100 Republicans who’re supporting her candidacy, together with former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.
Within the Fox Information interview – itself a window into how the vice chairman’s marketing campaign has sought to succeed in right-leaning audiences – Harris additionally differentiated herself from President Joe Biden extra clearly than she has up to now, telling Baier that she would carry new concepts and experiences to the White Home.
“My presidency won’t be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” Harris mentioned.
“I symbolize a brand new era of management,” she mentioned. “I, for instance, am somebody who has not spent the vast majority of my profession in Washington, DC. I invite concepts, whether or not or not it’s from the Republicans who’re supporting me who had been simply onstage with me minutes in the past, and the enterprise sector and others who can contribute to the selections I make.”
Baier requested Harris a few Trump marketing campaign advert that factors to Harris saying she supported offering gender-affirming care to prisoners in 2019, when she was a California senator and Democratic presidential candidate.
Pressed about whether or not she at present helps utilizing taxpayer {dollars} to fund gender-affirming look after transgender inmates, together with undocumented immigrants, Harris mentioned she would “observe the legislation.”
“I’ll observe the legislation, and it’s a legislation that Donald Trump really adopted. You’re most likely acquainted with, now it’s a public report that below Donald Trump’s administration, these surgical procedures had been obtainable to on a medical necessity foundation, to folks within the federal jail system,” Harris mentioned.
Harris was referencing a New York Instances report that outlined the Bureau of Prisons supplied gender-affirming companies below the Trump administration.
“I feel, frankly, that advert from the Trump marketing campaign is a bit of little bit of like throwing, you already know, stones once you’re residing in a glass home,” she mentioned.
Brian Hughes, a Trump marketing campaign senior adviser, advised the Instances: “Kamala Harris has forcefully advocated for transgender inmates to have the ability to get transition surgical procedures, President Trump by no means has.”
Pressed once more by Baier about whether or not she would advocate utilizing taxpayer {dollars} for “gender reassignment surgical procedures,” Harris once more mentioned she “would observe the legislation, simply as I feel Donald Trump would say he did.”
Harris repeatedly pivoted to the bipartisan border safety invoice blocked by congressional Republicans earlier this 12 months when requested concerning the Biden administration’s dealing with of the US-Mexico border, taking a extra hawkish stance whereas remaining obscure on a few of her beforehand held positions.
Baier pressed Harris on the Biden administration’s resolution early on to repeal Trump-era insurance policies, in what amounted to testy exchanges between the 2, at instances speaking over each other.
He requested what number of undocumented immigrants Harris would estimate the administration has launched into the US throughout Biden’s presidency.
“Only a quantity. Do you assume it’s 1 million, 3 million?” Baier requested.
“Bret, let’s simply get to the purpose, OK? The purpose is that we have now a damaged immigration system that must be repaired,” Harris mentioned.
Over a number of administrations, migrants have been launched from custody after vetting when sources are stretched as a result of border services usually are not outfitted to carry folks for lengthy durations of time. That was exacerbated lately amid a surge of migrants crossing the border.
Baier requested Harris about Laken Riley, the 22-year-old Georgia nursing scholar who was killed whereas jogging in February. The incident has typically been invoked by Republicans for example of the administration’s dealing with of border safety.
The suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was arrested in 2022 after coming into the US illegally however was launched for additional processing.
“To start with, these are tragic circumstances. There’s no query about that. There isn’t any query about that, and I can’t think about the ache that the households of these victims have skilled for a loss that ought to not have occurred,” Harris mentioned.
“It’s also true that if a border safety had really been handed 9 months in the past. It might be 9 months that we might have had extra border brokers on the border, extra assist for the parents who’re working across the clock making an attempt to carry all of it collectively,” she added.
Harris maintained over the course of the interview that the immigration system is damaged – a place held by Democrats and Republicans.
“I’ve no satisfaction in saying that this can be a excellent immigration system,” she mentioned. “I’ve been clear — I feel all of us are — that it must be fastened.”
Requested about coverage positions she held when operating for president in 2019, together with not excluding undocumented immigrants from advantages like well being care, Harris remained obscure, saying solely: “I’m very clear that I’ll observe the legislation.”
Harris additionally mentioned that she wouldn’t decriminalize unlawful border crossings if elected.
“I don’t consider in decriminalizing border crossings, and I’ve not performed that as vice chairman,” she mentioned. “I cannot do this as president.”
