Unlike Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris has no problem appearing before an interviewer for the CBS news show 60 Minutes.
During the event, the Vice President repeated many of the same responses about her economic plans and voter perceptions of her that she had said on both the campaign trails and earlier interviews.
The one comment that stood out to me watching it was Ms. Harris, when questioned about immigration and the inflow of immigrants at the southern border at the beginning of the Biden/Harris Administration, rightly reminded the interviewer, twice, that their first legislative proposal to Congress was for...wait for it...immigration reform.
"The first bill we proposed to Congress was to fix our broken immigration system. Knowing that if you want to actually fix it, we need Congress to act. It was not taken up."
Personally, the 60 Minutes reporter erred by pointing out that crossings quadrupled during the first three years of the Biden/Harris Administration compared to the last year of the Trump/Pence one. COVID-19 Title 42 quarantine measures were in place that the Biden/Harris Administration initially continued. That is why border crossings seemed to explode until recent Biden Executive Orders.
Calling it "A long-standing problem and solutions are at hand," the Vice President reminded the interviewer "From Day One literally, we have been offering solutions...The policies we have been about fixing a problem, not promoting a problem."
She also rightly pointed out that crossings have dropped since President Biden had to resort to an Executive Order to cut down on illegal immigration and fentanyl border traffic.
She reaffirmed that Congress has a responsibility, rather than relying on Presidential Executive Orders, to pass a permanent solution to the problem and chastised Congressional Republicans for backing out of a border security bill at the behest of Donald Trump.
Late last month in an appearance at the Arizona/Mexico border in Douglas, the Vice President reminded the attendees that during his four-year term, Mr. Trump and his Republican supporters in Congress did nothing, other than Executive Orders (several of them found unconstitutional,) to pass immigration reform.
Why?
Because Republicans want the specter of illegal immigrants swarming the Southern Border (they have no problem with any illegal immigration coming from mainly White Canada) rather than passing meaningful legislation that solves the issue.
Harris accused Trump during the interview and before of "wanting to run on a problem rather than solving it."
She is right.
Most Republicans balked at Immigration Reform during the last four Presidential Administrations, two of whom were headed by Republican Presidents.
They pushed back on bipartisan attempts at immigration reform legislation in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama terms.
If voters want immigration reform, they need a Democratic President, a Democratic House, and a Senate with enough of a Democratic majority to get bipartisan Immigration reform secured.
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