Vice President Kamala Harris avoided answering a question on Tuesday about when she will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border to see President Joe Biden’s border crisis firsthand, saying that nothing that the administration can do will quickly fix the problem.
“Can you help us understand how this trip in particular to Guatemala and Mexico helped shift your thinking on that position in particular?” a reporter asked. “And now that you’ve seen the root causes of migration and where that journey begins for many, how soon will you go to see where it ends for many of them as well?”
“The issue of root causes, is not going to be solved in one trip that took two days,” Harris responded. “This is an issue that is long standing, is in many cases generational. It is not a new issue for the United States, to feel the effects of those root causes on our shores. It is not new, for us to experience that people will come to the United States if they are fleeing situations where they cannot feed their children.”
“So this work is the work that must be done with a commitment to going deep and making the commitment over a period of time knowing that nothing that we can do will address it overnight,” she continued. “So that is my perspective on this issue. And I am committed to doing what is necessary in the time that we have to deal with the complexities of this. It will do a disservice to the issue itself, the issue at the border. It would do a disservice to the issue itself if that is the issue that that concerns some, to address the root causes as though it’s something that can be dealt with overnight.”
Harris was grilled earlier in the day during an interview with NBC News’s Lester Holt on the same issue.
WATCH:
WATCH:
VP Kamala Harris offers mind-numbing dodge to a direct question about when she will go to the border.
At least she didn't laugh at the question this time. pic.twitter.com/hWfs4MMZyQ
— Mark Bednar (@MarkBednar) June 8, 2021
TRANSCRIPT:
REPORTER: Madam Vice President, yesterday you said you didn’t want to focus on ‘grand gestures’ as it related to potentially visiting the U.S.-Mexico border. And today, just now, you’ve stated more definitively that you will be going. So can you help us understand how this trip in particular to Guatemala and Mexico helped shift your thinking on that position in particular, and now that you’ve seen the root causes of migration and where that journey begins for many, how soon will you go to see where it ends for many of them as well?
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT: The issue of root causes, is not going to be solved in one trip that took two days. This is an issue that is long standing, is in many cases generational. It is not a new issue for the United States, to feel the effects of those root causes on our shores. It is not new, for us to experience that people will come to the United States if they are fleeing situations where they cannot feed their children. So this work is the work that must be done with a commitment to going deep and making the commitment over a period of time knowing that nothing that we can do will address it overnight. So that is my perspective on this issue. And I am committed to doing what is necessary in the time that we have to deal with the complexities of this. It will do a disservice to the issue itself, the issue at the border. It would do a disservice to the issue itself if that is the issue that that concerns some, to address the root causes as though it’s something that can be dealt with overnight.