Vice President Harris speaks during a campaign rally in Atlanta on July 30, 2024.
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John Bazemore / AP
ATLANTA – Vice President Harris used the biggest event of her campaign so far to take on one of her biggest political responsibilities: the resurgence of migration at the southern US border during the Biden administration.
Republicans attacked Harris as a failed “border tsar” who did not act on migration, even as President Biden asked him to find ways to address the causes of migration from Northern Triangle countries during his vice presidency. Former President Donald Trump has made border security one of his signature issues, building a wall along the southern border and using various restrictions to try to reduce immigration.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., made a tweet by Vice President Harris at a press conference at the Capitol on July 30, 2024.
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Kent Nishimura/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
On Tuesday, Harris tried to turn the tables on this narrative, portraying himself as the attorney general of a border state who has walked the tunnel between Mexico and California with law enforcement.
“I went after transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers who came to our country illegally. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won,” said Harris. “Donald Trump, on the other hand, has talked a big game about securing our border, but he hasn’t walked the walk,” he said.
Harris promised to bring back the border security bill
Harris was only a few months into his vice presidency when Biden gave him a dangerous political task: finding a way to solve the economic and social problems that have caused tens of thousands of Central Americans to seek asylum in the region. United States of America.
His first foreign trips were to Guatemala and Mexico, and Republicans slammed him for not first visiting the growing border community. Then he became angry in an NBC interview, prompting criticism from Republicans at home.
Harris did not mention his work on migration causes during his speech Tuesday night. Instead, he chose a strategy that Biden also wants to use in his campaign – focusing on the border security bill that Biden has struggled to sign, which would authorize, in a word, “border shutdown”. when the number of migrants increases.
Republicans in Congress backed away from the bill, after some in the Senate initially supported it. Harris, like Biden, blamed Trump for stalling the bill, because the immigration issue has been good for him. Biden then took executive action to try to accomplish some of the same goals, despite being challenged in court.
Vice President Harris speaks at a campaign event at the Georgia State Convocation Center on July 30, 2024 in Atlanta.
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Megan Varner/Getty Images
“Donald Trump doesn’t care about border security — he only cares about himself,” Harris said. “As president, I’m going to bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump killed, and I’m going to sign it into law, and show Donald Trump what real leadership looks like,” he said.
Harris also addressed the issue of inflation
For the first time in his recent campaign, Harris also sought to elaborate on some of the details of his economic policy platform, responding to another concern voters have raised: the high cost of living.
Harris acknowledged that while many economic indicators show the US economy is strong, people don’t feel it. “The price is still too high: you know it and I know it,” he said.
He said taking prices would be a “Day One” issue, and talked about banning hidden fees and banks’ “surprise late fees”. He vowed to “take on corporate landlords” and “stop unfair rent increases,” as well as lower the price of prescription drugs. Harris also cited the importance of affordable health care, childcare and paid leave policies.
