Harris is trying to turn the tables on Trump by embracing the border as a key issue

By Eric Bradner, CNN

(CNN) — Making an aggressive move to close Donald Trump’s lead on immigration, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to the southern border for the first time as a Democratic candidate on Friday to outline her plans to tackle what she described as a long-standing problem yearned to tackle. decades.

During her trip to the key state of Arizona, Harris blasted Trump for his role earlier this year in pushing through a border security law that was the result of months of bipartisan negotiations.

It was one of Harris’ more specific policy speeches since she became the Democratic nominee, in which she tried to use her past as California’s attorney general to prove she has what it takes to attack Trump on his signature issue.

“It was the strongest border security law we’ve seen in decades. It was endorsed by the Border Patrol union. And it should be in effect today and deliver real-time results for our country,” she said at a rally in Douglas, a city on the US-Mexico border.

“But Donald Trump messed up. He picked up the phone, called some friends in Congress and said, ‘Stop the bill,'” she said. “He prefers to tackle a problem rather than solve a problem. And the American people deserve a president who cares more about border security than about playing political games and their personal political future.”

The former president responded to Harris’ border trip by tightening his own rhetoric on immigration. Highlighting the violent crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, Trump told a crowd in Walker, Michigan, that Harris “created these horrors.”

“She has unleashed these atrocities and there is blood on her hands at a level that probably no one has ever seen in this country,” he said.

Trump also falsely accused Democrats again of allowing people to enter the country illegally because “they want the votes.” Non-citizens cannot vote in US elections – a reality ignored by Trump, who has lied for years about widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

The Democratic offensive on immigration and border security is an attempt to intervene in one of Trump’s clearest political advantages. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS published this week found that 49% of likely voters trust immigration authorities, while Harris is trusted by 35%.

Harris also laid out proposals Friday to strengthen restrictions that have largely barred migrants from seeking asylum in the United States. And she said she would seek paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

“They are American in every way. Yet they have no earned path to citizenship. And this problem has been unsolved for decades at this point,” Harris said.

The 2024 race is taking a backseat

The battle over immigration and border security comes at a rare moment so late in a presidential race where the focus has shifted from both parties’ nominees.

Dozens of people were killed when Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast, causing massive flooding. Meanwhile, Israel escalated its battle with Hezbollah with an attack on a building in Lebanon that it said was storing rockets.

And both parties’ vice presidential candidates are preparing to take center stage next week, as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance meet Tuesday night for their one and only debate.

Less than six weeks after Election Day, the 2024 presidential map remains in disarray — with seven battleground states coming into focus.

A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS on Friday found Harris with a comfortable lead for a single Electoral College vote in Nebraska that could have outsized consequences.

Nebraska awards one electoral college vote to the winner of each congressional district. The poll from the Omaha-based 2nd District showed Harris leading in the state’s most liberal region, with 53% support to Trump’s 42%.

That one electoral vote could be crucial if Harris sweeps away the “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin but loses the four Sun Belt swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. That could give her 269 Electoral College votes — and one more from Nebraska could give her the 270 needed to win the White House.

Another CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released Friday found the two candidates in North Carolina tied at 48% each. Trump has limited options for victory if he fails to hold North Carolina — the state where he achieved his narrowest margin of victory in 2020. And the CNN poll shows the scandal-plagued Republican candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, far behind. his Democratic rival, as the party faces questions about whether Robinson could hurt the overall Republican ticket there in November.

GOP Highlights Crime of Undocumented Immigrants

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee held a press call Friday ahead of Harris’ visit to Arizona, in which three mothers of those killed by undocumented immigrants or an accidental fentanyl overdose blamed the vice president for what they described as as a lack of responsibility in border security. .

“This is not a safe time for Americans. Kamala Harris has not acknowledged the death of my daughter,” said Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who was raped and murdered by a 23-year-old citizen of El Salvador. Rachel Morin was herself a mother of five children.

“She’s coming up late on this. She could do anything at any time,” said Anne Fundner, a Southern California mother whose 15-year-old son Weston died of a fentanyl overdose.

The call was an attempt to cast doubt on Harris’ proposals to address border security, as Trump claims she and President Joe Biden have had four years to do so and failed.

After a dramatic drop, border crossings are currently at their lowest levels since 2020. U.S. officials have touted low border crossings for months, citing recent executive actions to curb access to asylum at the southern border.

Republicans have called Harris the Biden administration’s “border czar,” exaggerating the president’s narrower 2021 mandate for Harris to address the root causes of migration in Central America.

Harris tried Friday to leverage another part of her resume: her time as California attorney general. She highlighted efforts to prosecute members of transnational criminal organizations, including traveling to Mexico City with other attorneys general to share intelligence on gangs and cartels.

“Stopping transnational criminal organizations and strengthening our borders is not new to me, and it has long been a priority of mine,” she said. “I have done that work and I will continue to consider it a priority.”

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, Ali Main, Ariel Edwards-Levy and Kit Maher contributed to this report.

The CNN Wire
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