Boebert takes cardboard cutout of Kamala Harris to the border, as VP takes heat for failing to visit

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Harris defends not visiting border, says focus won't be on 'grand gestures'

Vice President Kamala Harris defends her strategy to get 'real results' during her visit to Guatemala. National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto argues the border crisis cannot be fixed without witnessing the issue firsthand.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., on Tuesday released video of her taking a cardboard cutout of Vice President Kamala Harris to the border, as the vice president continued to take heat for failing to visit in more than 70 days since she was tasked with handling the migrant crisis.

"More than 70 days ago, Biden named cackling Kamala as border czar but she hasn't done a single thing to protect the American people," Boebert said in the video as she visited McAllen, Texas.

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She described how illegal crossings, as well as apprehensions of sex offenders and drug smuggling, are all up in recent months. 

"You can't just hear about what's happening, you have to come down here to see for yourself to understand the devastating reality at our southern border," the freshman congresswoman said, wielding a life-size cutout of the VP. "So I brought Kamala down to see exactly what this regime is responsible for with their man-made crisis."

In the video, Boebert sets up the cutout to stare at the incomplete border wall: "Now Kamala, I want you to stand here and look at what you’ve done."

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The video comes as Harris is facing renewed scrutiny for her failure to visit the border since she was appointed to lead diplomatic outreach to Mexico and Central America as part of an effort to stop the migrant crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of migrants hit the border in recent months.

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Critics have blamed the dramatic rollback of Trump-era border protections, while the Biden administration has instead pointed to "root causes" like poverty and climate change in Central America. While the White House has said Harris' role is not the border per se – but rather, the diplomatic talks – critics have said she needs to go to the border to be able to understand the crisis to which she is tasked with negotiating a solution.

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Harris, who is currently on a two-day trip to Mexico and Guatemala, was quizzed about her failure to visit the border on Monday, and dismissed such a move as a "grand gesture."

"The reason I am here in Guatemala as my first trip as vice president of the United States is because this is one of our highest priorities and I came here to be here on the ground, to speak with the leader of this nation around what we can do in a way that is significant, is tangible and has real results -- and I will continue to be focused on that kind of work rather than grand gestures."

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In an interview with NBC News that aired Tuesday, she laughed off a question about why she hadn’t yet been to the border.

"And I haven’t been to Europe," she laughed. "I don’t understand the point that you’re making."