Senator and 2024 Trump running mate JD Vance sounded off and fired back when the host on the show on which he appeared, Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” attempted to defend the role that Vice President Kamala Harris has played in the illegal immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border, one of the recurrent problems of the Biden Administration.
That came when Sen. Vance appeared on the show for its broadcast on Sunday, August 25, for a wide-ranging interview. The contentious moment came when Sen. Vance addressed the fact that VP Harris had been made the administration official in charge with addressing the the “root causes of migration” in order to mitigate the crisis.
Sen. Vance, broaching the subject of illegal immigration and what he characterized as “the foundational issue” at the root of concern, along with VP Harris’ role in the matter, said, “Well, we have to start with the foundational issue here, which is we have 25 million illegal aliens in this country right now because Kamala Harris has refused to do her job.”
Ms. Welker tried pushing back on Sen. Vance and argued that his numbers were inaccurate. Particularly, she argued that the Department of Homeland Security has said that “only” eight million illegal immigrants have entered, not 25 million. She said, “I have, very quickly, DHS says it’s much lower, it’s closer to eight million. Where do you get the 25 million from?”
Sen. Vance noted that he was speaking about the illegal immigrants already in the country and that the number who have entered the country under the Biden-Harris Administration adds to the scope of the issue. He said, “Well, I think the 25 million are the people that should’ve been deported that maybe weren’t deported, plus you add another 12 to 15 million that have come in since Kamala Harris. Look, whatever the number is —”
Welker again repeated the same objection, telling Sen. Vance, “DHS disputes that number, for the record. They say it’s closer to eight to ten million, but please continue.” Responding, he told her that the DHS number is far too low, saying, “Fair, but I think there are reasons to think that DHS is underestimating. Whatever the number is, it’s way too high, right? It’s millions upon millions of illegal immigrants that have come in just since Kamala became border czar a few years ago. The first thing —”
Welker again interrupted Sen. Vance, saying, “She was put in charge of the root causes of migration.” Firing back and decimating Welker’s attempt to defend VP Harris’s role in the illegal immigration crisis, Sen. Vance shot back, “Well, the root cause of migration, I would say, Kristen, is that Kamala Harris refuses to do her job as Border Czar.”
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Watch their tense spat here:
Former President Trump, sounding off on Kamala’s border position on Truth Social. Beginning, he introduced the subject and said, “I just saw Comrade Kamala Harris’ answer to a very weakly-phrased question, a question that was put in more as a matter of defense than curiosity, but her answer rambled incoherently, and declared her ‘values haven’t changed.’”
He then argued, “On that I agree, her values haven’t changed – The Border is going to remain open, not closed, there will be Free Healthcare for Illegal Aliens, Sanctuary Cities, No Cash Bail, Gun Confiscation, Zero Fracking, a Ban on Gasoline-Powered Cars, Private Healthcare will be abolished, a 70-80% tax rate will be put in place, and she will Defund the Police. America will become a WASTELAND!”