LAS VEGAS — Vice President Kamala Harris sidestepped a town hall question Thursday about how she would handle the border differently than President Joe Biden, instead pointing to her experience on the issue and pivoting to attack former President Donald Trump’s policies.
“Let me start with this, perhaps what distinguishes me from at least a couple of people: I was the top law enforcement officer of the biggest state in this country, California, that is also a border state,” she said at the Univision event set to air Thursday night. “I have taken on transnational criminal organizations. I have taken on transnational criminal organizations that traffic in guns, drugs and human beings, and I have prosecuted them.”
“I will put my record up against anyone in terms of the work I have always done and will always do to ensure we have a secure border,” she added, before pivoting to a criticism of Trump.
Harris’ response comes after the Trump campaign pounced on her comments Tuesday on ABC’s “The View” saying that “there’s not a thing that comes to mind” when asked what she would have done differently than Biden during his term. She later returned to the question, adding that she would have a Republican in her Cabinet.
The Trump campaign also cut a video interspersing Harris’ quote with news clips about the widely criticized Afghanistan withdrawal, crime connected to migrants, as well as inflation.
During the town hall, Harris sought to criticize her GOP rival by highlighting a February immigration and border bill that congressional Republicans killed after Trump voiced his opposition to it, despite members of his own party working with Democrats to craft the measure.
She said the legislation would have added 1,500 more border agents, “except Donald Trump got in the way of that bill.”
Harris also reiterated her intent to revive and sign the bill if she wins in November.
“I will sign it into law and do the work of focusing on what we must do to have an orderly and humane pathway to earn citizenship for hardworking people,” she said. “I think it is a false choice for people who would say you do one or the other. I believe we must do both. I believe we can do both.”
The vice president has previously outlined ways that a Harris administration would be different than Biden’s. She said in September that she would double resources for the Justice Department to crack down on drug cartels and combat fentanyl trafficking.
NBC News has also reported that Harris wants to tighten asylum restrictions, going further than a Biden executive action that said migrants crossing the border illegally cannot apply for asylum if border encounters rise above a 7-day average of 1,500. Harris wants to require a lower average for the restriction to begin, a senior campaign aide said last month.
Harris took nearly a dozen questions from audience members during Thursday’s town hall, moderated by journalist Enrique Acevedo, on issues ranging from abortion to the cost of living.
It’s the latest stop in Harris’ media blitz, where she’s sat for more interviews than usual over the past several days, with appearances on “The View,” Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show,” Howard Stern’s radio show and the Weather Channel, among others.
Nevada is proving to be a battleground state in 2024, much like it was in the previous two presidential elections. Biden won the state in 2020 with 50.1% of the vote to Trump’s 47.7%. Four years before that, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton carried the state with 47.9% of the vote, compared to Trump’s 45.5%.
Nnamdi Egwuonwu reported from Las Vegas, Megan Lebowitz reported from Washington.
Gabe Gutierrez and Kelly O’Donnell contributed.
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