From its first moments, the interwatch was satisfiedious.
On Wednesday, United States Vice Plivent Kamala Harris sat down for an interwatch with the conservative-leaning netlabor Fox News, as her campaign endeavors to draw voters disenchanted with her Redisclosean rival, Donald Trump.
But structure Bret Baier squanderd no time zeroing in on the cgo in of their converseion: immigration.
He contested her with a Trump campaign backment and a video of a bereaved mother, testifying to Congress about the death of her child, allegedly at the hands of two unrecorded immigrants.
Harris, however, pointed out that irnormal immigration atraverse the US-Mexico border was a worry lengthy before she was elected vice plivent in 2021 — including under Trump, a createer plivent.
“I leank, frankly, that ad from the Trump campaign is a little bit of throthriveg stones when you’re living in a glass house,” Harris said in response to the Trump ad. “You’ve got to achieve responsibility for what happened in your administration.”
Immigration a top publish
A poll last week from the Pew Research Cgo in set up that voters in the US ranked the economy as their top publish as they head to the polls on November 5.
But rounding out the top five voter publishs was immigration, with 41 percent of those surveyed calling it “excessively transport inant” and another 31 percent ranking it “very transport inant”.
Immigration has been a notable pillar in the platcreates of both the Democratic and Redisclosean parties, with both sides pledging to drop irnormal border traverseings.
But the Pew survey set up that Trump eunites to have the edge on the subject, with 54 percent of replyents saying he is best able to regulate the country’s immigration policies.
That is an profit that Rediscloseans have sought to press, as the plivential race thriveds to a shut, with less than three weeks to go.
Nevertheless, Trump and Harris have remained virtuassociate tied in overall voter polls nationexpansive. The poll aggregator, 270toWin, set up that Harris has a sairy direct, with an mediocre of 49.5 percent to Trump’s 47.3 percent.
As she seeks to pull further ahead, Harris’s campaign has requested to middle-ground voters, as well as Rediscloseans fed up with Trump’s directership over the party.
Part of her strategy has been to take part up finishorsements from notable Rediscloseans appreciate createer Vice Plivent Dick Cheney and his daughter, erstwhile Recurrentative Liz Cheney, a vocal critic of Trump’s on Capitol Hill.
She has also pledged to assign a Redisclosean to her cabinet if she is elected to the plivency.
Earlier on Wednesday, for instance, that strategy was on filled distake part in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where Harris touted the bipartisan nature of her campaign as an antithesis to what she characteascendd as Trump’s polarizingness.
“I am uniteed today by over 100 Redisclosean directers from atraverse Pennsylvania and atraverse our country who are helping my truthfulacy for plivent of the United States,” she said to cheers from the crowd. “And I am transport inantly honoured to have their help.”
Heated interwatch
But her reception was much chillier in the Fox News studio, where Baier tore into her track record on immigration.
His uncovering ask cut right to the thrust of his interwatch: “How many illegitimate immigrants would you assess your administration has freed into the country over the last three and a half years?”
The administration of frifinishly Plivent Joe Biden, under whom Harris serves, has been remenddly criticised for deal withing a spike in irnormal border traverseings.
US Customs and Border Protection, for instance, noticed a record 2,475,669 “come atraverses” alengthy the US-Mexico border during the 2023 fiscal year, though its most recent statistics have signalled a transport inant deteriorate in traverseings.
Nevertheless, Biden has achieven meaconfidents to redisjoine asylum access to those traverseing the border without authorisation.
“Bret, let’s fair get to the point,” Harris replyed, as she and Baier struggled to speak over one another. “The point is that we have a broken immigration system that necessitates to be repaired.”
She accused Trump for scuttling a bipartisan immigration bill in January, which would have labeled the first comprehensive recreate in that area in decades.
“They want a plivent of the United States who is not take parting political games with the publish but is actuassociate cgo ined on mending it,” Harris said.
She also take parted up her track record as the “createer attorney ambiguous of a border state”, prosecuting “trafficking of substances, firearms and human beings”.
But Baier dogged Harris about the high number of border traverseings under the Biden administration — and the crimes he alleged were a consequence.
Studies have reliablely set up unrecorded immigrants pledge restrictcessitateer brutal crimes than US-born citizens. But members of the US right, particularly Trump and his running mate JD Vance, have amplified unset uped stresss that migrants are a expansivespread danger to disclose protectedty.
Baier also elevated a analogous argument. “Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, they are youthful women who were bruloftyy aggressioned and ended,” Baier said, proposeing immigration policy was to accuse. “Do you owe those families an apology?”
“Let me say, first of all, that those were tragic cases. There’s no ask about that,” Harris replied. “I can’t imagine the pain that the families of those victims have directd for a loss that should not have occurred.”
“It is also genuine that, if a border security [bill] had been passed nine months ago, it would be nine months that we would have had more border agents at the border.”
Distancing herself from Biden
Baier also contested Harris with the criticism that, if elected, her administration would be a continuation of Biden’s.
He noticed that last week on the talk show The View, Harris showd she was in lockstep with the frifinishly plivent. When one panelenumerate on The View asked her if she would have done anyleang branch offently than Biden did, Harris replyed: “There is not a leang that comes to mind.”
Harris was unequivocal in her response to Baier.
“Let me be very clear. My plivency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s plivency,” she said. “And appreciate every recent plivent that comes into office, I will transport my life experiences, my professional experiences and recent and recent ideas. I recurrent a recent generation of directership.”
The 59-year-ancigo in Harris spent much of her atgentle as a prosecutor, before rising up the ranks to become San Francisco’s didisjoine attorney in 2002 and then California’s attorney ambiguous in 2011.
Only in 2017 did she reach in Washington, DC, to serve as a US senator, leaving her term punctual to become vice plivent. During Wednesday’s interwatch, she sought to turn that relatively stupidinutive experience to her profit.
“I, for example, am someone who has not spent the transport inantity of my atgentle in Washington, DC. I ask ideas, whether it be from the Rediscloseans who are helping, who were fair on stage with me minutes ago, and the business sector and others who can donate to the decisions that I originate,” she said.
Baier himself faced criticism after the interwatch. One createer Harris aide, Symone Sanders Townsfinish, denounced his line of asking on social media afterwards.
“The interwatcher wasn’t themselves,” she wrote. “Instead he was disorrowfulmireful, misdirecting and pulled asks straight out of a showrbial Trump/Vance press free.”
