In her first formal interview with Fox News, a 25-minute long sit down on chief political anchor Bret Baier’s show Special Report, Vice President Kamala Harris had trouble answering questions about what Americans find to be the most pressing electoral issues — including immigration, the economy, and President Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race.
The pair began by talking about immigration, a top issue for American voters. When Baier asked Harris how many illegal immigrants her administration has released into the United States, Harris dodged, and said, “Bret, let’s just get to the point. The point is that we have a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired.”
“We recognized from Day One that, to the point of this being your first question, it is a priority for us as a nation and for the American people, and our focus has been on fixing a problem, and from day one, then we have done a number of things, including to address our asylum system and put more resources getting more judges,” Harris said. “What we needed to do to tighten up penalties and increase penalties for illegal crossings, what we needed to do to deal with points of entry between border entry points. That’s the work we did, and we worked on supporting what was a bipartisan effort, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress, to actually strengthen the border.”
Baier pointed out that the Biden-Harris administration has let into the country roughly 6 million illegal immigrants, before specifically mentioning the cases of Rachel Nungaray, Laken Riley and Rachel Morin, three young women who were recently killed by illegal immigrants. Harris called the cases “tragic,” before criticizing her opponent Donald Trump for not supporting a border bill that Trump has said wouldn’t have improved border security.
“And I can’t imagine the pain that the families of those victims have experienced for a loss that should not have occurred,” Harris said. “So that is true. It is also true that if a border security [bill] had actually been passed nine months ago, it would be nine months we would have had more border agents at the border, more support for the folks who are working around the clock trying to hold it all together to ensure that no future harm would occur.”
Despite being commonly referred to as the “border czar,” Harris would not say whether she regretted pulling back the “Remain in Mexico” policy, a Trump-era program that pushed to Mexico the illegal immigrants who were awaiting immigration hearings.
Baier also asked Harris about a specific ad put out by the Trump campaign that shows video footage of her advocating taxpayer-funded sex-change surgeries for inmates, including illegal aliens. When asked whether she would support the policy as president, she said, “I will follow the law, and it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed.”
“You’re probably familiar with [that] now. It’s a public report that under Donald Trump’s administration, these surgeries were available to, on a medical-necessity basis, to people in the federal prison system. And I think, frankly, that ad from the Trump campaign is a little bit of, like, throwing, you know, stones when you’re living in the glass house,” she said, adding that “you’ve got to take responsibility for what happened in your administration.”
Baier also asked Harris why she hadn’t implemented her presidential platform during the three and a half years that she has been in the White House, spurring a heated exchange over Biden’s mental competence.
“Your campaign slogan is ‘a new way forward,’ and it’s time to turn the page. You’ve been vice president for three and a half years. So what are you turning the page from?” Baier asked.
“Well, first of all, turning the page from the last decade in which we’ve been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump that has been designed and implemented to divide our country and have Americans literally point fingers at each other, rhetoric and an approach to leadership that suggests that the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down instead of what we all know: The strength of leadership is based on who you lift up,” Harris said.
Seventy-nine percent of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, Baier pointed out, to which Harris said that the election for the president of the United States is “not supposed to be easy.”
“You called Donald Trump misguided, you say now he’s unstable—” Baier said.
“He is unstable, Bret,” Harris interrupted.
“Let me ask you this,” Baier interjected. “You told many interviewers that Joe Biden was on his game, that [he] ran around circles on his staff. When did you first notice that President Biden’s mental faculties appeared diminished?”
“Joe Biden I have watched in, from the Oval Office to the Situation Room, and he has the judgement and the experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf oof the American people,” Harris said. “Bret, Joe Biden’s not on the ballot. And Donald Trump is.”
“You met with him for at least once a week for at least three years. You didn’t have any concerns?” Baier pressed.
“I think the American people have a concern about Donald Trump,” Harris said.
Although Baier gave Harris the opportunity to distinguish her presidency from Biden’s, she said, “Let me be very clear. My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency.” When asked earlier this month whether she would do anything different from Biden, Harris said, “There is not a thing that comes to mind. I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.”