Vice President Kamala Harris was decidedly underwhelming this week as she undertook her assigned task of dealing with U.S. immigration problems.
She traveled to Guatemala, home country of the majority of immigrants currently swarming U.S. borders.
“The goal of our work is to help Guatemalans find hope at home,” Harris said in a press conference with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei. “At the same time, I want to be clear to folks in the region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come.”
Not that her statement will make the least bit of difference. The U.S. has been saying “Do not come” for many years and it has fallen on deaf ears.
Then during an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt that aired Tuesday, Harris was pressed about the fact that she hasn’t yet visited the US-Mexico border. “Do you have any plans to visit the border?” Holt asked. (3:55 in the video)
“I’m here in Guatemala today. At some point, you know, we are going to the border. We’ve been to the border. So this whole, this whole, this whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.”
(There’s that conveniently confusing royal “we.” Also a pronoun that in today’s society she might want to stop using.)
Holt replied: “You haven’t been to the border.”
“I, and I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t — I don’t understand the point that you’re making,” Harris said with a laugh. She added: “I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”
(Famous female lawyer at a loss for words?)
Apologies for the long video. It was that or a concise edit from Fox News or the New York Post, with lots of editorial comments interspersed.
I wasn’t crazy about Kamala Harris being put on the Biden ticket in the first place, and to date she has fulfilled my lowest expectations rather admirably. Cue the Picard facepalm from my previous post because it was exactly my reaction as I watched her interviews this week.
For my money, she should have stopped at the border on her way to Guatemala. (Actually, I think she should have gone to the border as soon as Biden assigned her to immigration.) Now, of course, if and when she goes, it will be perceived as simply trying to defuse all the criticism.
She had a reputation as a pretty slick lawyer in California, and I’d say, “Let’s see her talk her way out of this,” but that’s precisely what got her into this predicament.