Vice President Kamala Harris faced tough questions about the Biden-Harris administration's border policies during a CNN town hall with Anderson Cooper.
Cooper brought up a proposed compromise bill, mentioning the $650 million earmarked for the border wall. He pointed out that Harris had previously criticized the wall, calling it “stupid, useless, and a medieval vanity project.” He asked, "Is a border wall stupid?"
Harris laughed and deflected, saying, "Let's talk about Donald Trump on that border wall. Remember, he said Mexico would pay for it. They didn't. How much of that wall did he build? About 2%. And his photo op? In the part of the wall that President Obama built."
Cooper pressed further, noting her agreement to the funding in the bill. Harris responded, "I pledge that I am going to bring forward that bipartisan bill to further strengthen and secure our border. Yes, I am."
"We need a president grounded in common sense. Let’s just fix this thing. Why is there any ideological perspective on this?" she added.
"So you don't think it's stupid anymore?" Cooper followed up.
Harris clarified, "What he did and how he did it didn’t make much sense because he didn’t actually do much of anything."
The town hall event took place in Chester Township, just outside Philadelphia. Harris spoke to Pennsylvania voters, addressing pressing concerns about immigration.
Cooper questioned her about the administration's recent executive actions on immigration. He asked why they hadn’t acted sooner. Harris replied, "You're exactly right. We've cut the flow of immigration by over half."
Cooper pointed out that if it were that simple, they could have acted in 2022 or 2023. Harris explained, "We were working with Congress, hoping for a long-term fix instead of a short-term one."
"You couldn't have done one and both at the same time," Cooper remarked.
When asked if she wished they had implemented the executive orders earlier, Harris stated she believed they did the right thing. "The best thing is bipartisan work happening. I pledge to you, I will work across the aisle to fix this longstanding problem," she said.