Katie Couric tells VP Kamala Harris she's not in charge of the border, presses her on immigration criticisms
Vice President Harris sat down with Katie Couric for an interview published on Wednesday and Couric asked the vice president to address criticisms of the administration's handling of the border, despite not being ‘in charge’ of it.
Katie Couric sat down for an interview with Vice President Harris on Wednesday and told her that she is "not in charge" of the southern border.
"I want to talk to you about immigration, because I think nearly everyone agrees that the system is broken, and that we need comprehensive immigration reform. Early on, I know you were tasked with understanding the root causes of the immigration crisis, but you’re not in charge of the border, which I think is important to point out," Couric began.
Couric asked Harris about how she would address criticisms of the administration on the border crisis, adding, "Sixty-eight percent of Americans disapprove of the way the Biden administration has handled the border."
"There’s no question our immigration system is broken and it needs to be fixed. And as with any problem, leaders will participate — true leaders — in the solution. So I’m going take you back to about three years ago, I think the day after our inauguration, when Joe Biden came in as president and me as vice president. The first bill that we offered was a bill to fix the immigration system," Harris responded.
Katie Couric, left, sat down with Vice President Harris for an interview published on Wednesday and told the vice president she was not in charge of the border. (Screenshot/KatieCouric)
Couric noted that Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House at the time.
"This is, first of all, not a new issue. But sadly, it has become so deeply partisan and the subject of political gamesmanship, when in fact the solutions are at hand. And we offered a solution early on and invited bipartisan work to fix this," the vice president said, adding that the Biden administration proposed a $14 billion funding request that would aid its efforts in combating the ongoing crisis at the border.
Harris claimed the GOP wanted something to run on in November and said, "We want to fix it and they want to run on it."
Couric, who seemed to agree, said it was "working."
Vice President Harris tours a U.S. Border Patrol Station in El Paso, Texas, on June 25, 2021. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
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Harris, who has made several recent media appearances, told Couric that she didn't think it was working.
"The situation is such that the system is broken and it needs to be fixed. And we have offered a solution and real leaders ought to lead on this, meaning not play politics with it, but work with us to fix the problem," she continued.
Harris declared the border was "secure" during an interview with former "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd in 2022.
"We're going to have two million people cross this border for the first time ever. You're confident this border's secure?" Todd pushed back.
"We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration," Harris replied. "But there are still a lot of problems that we are trying to fix, given the deterioration that happened over the last four years."
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Fox News' Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
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