As Democrats tangle over the re-election prospects of President Biden, Republicans at their national convention this week have trained some of their most intense criticism on Vice President Kamala Harris.
They have tied her to an administration that they say has led to increases in crime and inflation. They have cast her an enabler of an aging and ineffective president.
They have blamed her for record levels of migrant crossings at the border.
But perhaps no phrase has been deployed more than this one: “border czar.”
“Kamala Harris isn’t able to do any job. She was appointed border czar,” said Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida on Wednesday to a couple of snickers in the audience.
“Appointing Kamala Harris to oversee the border is like appointing Bernie Madoff to oversee your retirement plan.”
But Ms. Harris was not, in fact, appointed border czar, nor was she tasked with addressing the broader problems plaguing the border itself, where minors have at times slept on the floors of overcrowded facilities for days beyond the legal limit.
Rather she was deputized by President Biden with the diplomatic mission of solving the “root causes” of migration from countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, tackling the issues that spur people to flee in the first place, like drug violence and lack of economic opportunity.
It was the same politically unsavory task that former President Barack Obama delegated to Mr. Biden when he served as Mr. Obama’s vice president.
And it’s a task that has only become harder — and more politically polarized — since then, becoming perhaps the thorniest issue facing the Biden-Harris administration.
Brian Fallon, campaign spokesman for Ms. Harris, said former President Donald J.
Trump and his party have “resorted to lying about the vice president’s record,” after Mr. Trump tanked a bipartisan border deal earlier this year.
“As a former district attorney and attorney general, she has stood up to fraudsters and felons like Trump her entire career,” he said. “Trump’s lies won’t stop her from continuing to prosecute the case against him on the biggest issues in this race.”
But attacking Ms. Harris serves several functions, Republican and Democratic strategists said.
Republicans see her as a possible alternative to lead the Democratic ticket if Mr. Biden steps aside, with his campaign under pressure over concerns about his re-election bid.
And if that does not happen, as Mr. Biden has vowed to stay in the race, she remains a powerful figure with the potential to energize the parts of the coalition seen as up for grabs: women, young people and voters of color.
Some speakers like Nikki Haley, Mr. Trump’s one-time presidential rival, have long sought to convince Republicans that a vote for Mr. Biden will be a vote for Ms. Harris, arguing that Mr. Biden is too old to finish his second term even if he is re-elected.
Source : https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/17/us/politics/kamala-harris-border-czar.html
