Donald Trump’s campaign is seizing on the apparent contradiction between Kamala Harris’s support for a failed bipartisan deal to tighten immigration policy that would have included money for border wall construction, and her opposition to constructing the barrier when Trump was in office.
“Kamala’s RECORD proves she is pro-open border,” the former president’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “As a senator, Kamala tried to block President Trump’s construction of the border wall. As Border Czar, Kamala Harris halted construction of the border wall. Kamala’s ACTIONS speak much louder than the WORDS of the anonymous staff she is cowering behind.”
Republicans often say that Harris was appointed “border czar”, but such a position does not exit. Joe Biden did task Harris with addressing the “root causes” of migration from three Central American countries, a job at which she had mixed success:
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Kamala Harris has attacked Donald Trump for interceding earlier this year to kill a bipartisan deal in Congress that would have tightened immigration policy to stem the flow of migrants crossing the southern border. But, as the Guardian’s Robert Tait reports, the GOP is accusing the vice-president of supporting a deal that would have restarted construction of a Trump-era border wall that Harris says she opposes:
Republicans have accused Kamala Harris of a policy flip-flop after she embraced an immigration crackdown that would involve expanding the controversial US southern border wall, which she once called “un-American” and “a medieval vanity project”.
Harris committed to reviving a bipartisan immigration deal that collapsed in the Senate earlier year at last week’s Democratic national convention.
The agreement, a compromise worked out between Joe Biden’s administration and congressional Republicans, would have represented the toughest clampdown on illegal immigration in years. It unravelled after GOP members withdrew support under pressure from Donald Trump, the former president and Republican nominee for November’s election, because he did not want Democrats to win credit for a potentially vote-winning issue.
Reviving it means Harris is committing to spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the border wall, one of Trump’s pet projects during his presidency, said James Lankford, a Republican US senator for Oklahoma, one of the deal’s architects.
“It requires the Trump border wall,” Lankford told Axios. “It is in the bill itself that it sets the standards that were set during the Trump administration: here’s where it will be built. Here’s how it has to be built, the height, the type, everything during the Trump construction.”
JD Vance is on his way to make a speech about the economy in Big Rapids, Michigan, this afternoon, and is being joined by his mom, the vice-presidential candidate’s press secretary tweets:
.@JDVance en route to Big Rapids, Michigan with his mom! pic.twitter.com/dmVF4EnAoz
— Taylor Van Kirk (@taylorvankirk) August 27, 2024
Vance is billed to hit out at Kamala Harris for the inflation that occurred over the past three years of Joe Biden’s administration, which is seen a major liability for the vice-president and Democratic candidates nationwide.
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Kamala Harris’s campaign is meanwhile focused on drawing attention to her plans to lower housing costs.
Here’s the television ad that will start airing in battleground states promoting the vice-president’s plans to drive down rents, and help first-time home buyers:
My mother saved for years to buy a home. I was a teenager when that day finally came—I remember how excited she was.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 27, 2024
Right now, home ownership is out of reach for too many Americans.
When I am President, we will end the housing shortage by building 3 million homes and rentals. pic.twitter.com/PHVaSt5OCe
Vance says Harris 'wants a promotion but refuses to interview for the job'
Republicans are trying to make the most of the bubbling controversy over Kamala Harris not doing any interviews since launching her presidential bid, with Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance yesterday joining the pile-on:
Kamala Harris wants a promotion but refuses to interview for the job. https://t.co/Vv4Hr0ZoWT
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 26, 2024
Vance has lately adopted the unusual practice of taking questions from reporters attending his speeches in front of the crowd. Most other politicians schedule press conferences separately from their speeches, or gaggle with reporters after leaving the podium.
Trump campaign hits Harris for lack of interviews as vice-president rolls out plan to lower housing costs
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Kamala Harris has campaigned across the country, selected a running mate and clinched the Democratic presidential nomination ever since Joe Biden dropped out of the race in late July. But one thing the vice-president has not done is give a media interview, or even a press conference, much to the consternation of journalists who argue Harris should be willing to answer questions about her plans. While she says she intends to get one scheduled (but not necessarily conducted) before the end of August, the Trump campaign this morning criticized her for “dodging the press”, saying, “She doesn’t want to talk about her radical agenda.” We’ll see if there’s any news today about when this much-anticipated interview might happen, and with which outlet.
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign this morning announced plans to hold events and air television ads in battleground states promoting her plan to lower housing costs, which includes the construction of up to 3m new units of housing in four years, and providing $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. The vice-president will also rally voters in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday, the campaign just announced, as she seeks to clinch victory in the swing state that could be crucial to her path to the White House.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Harris has no public events today, but will deliver a video message to the African Methodist Episcopal church general conference in the afternoon.
Joe Biden remains on vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Donald Trump will on Thursday hold a town hall in La Crosse, Wisconsin, moderated by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who yesterday endorsed him.
JD Vance is due for a campaign visit in Big Rapids, Michigan, around 1.30pm ET today.
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