Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that Vice President Kamala Harris might go to the US-Mexico border eventually, maybe.
“About the vice president’s trip, why is it that when the vice president is asked if she has plans to visit the border, she says ‘we’ve been to the border,’ even though she has not, as the vice president,” asked Fox News’ Peter Doocy.
“Well as the vice president she does speak for the actions of the people of the administration she certainly helps oversee. I expect that sometime she may go to the border, Peter, but as you know her focus has been on what the assignment is specifically, to work with leaders in the Northern Triangle, she’s on a trip doing exactly that, doing exactly what the president asked her to do,” Psaki said.
Harris has been in Guatemala, telling migrants not to come north, much to the dismay of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
“Her main focus is to address the root causes of migration. Did somebody decide here that it would not be helpful for her to go to the border and talk to people who just migrated here?” Doocy asked.
Harris has said that root causes of migration include violence against LGBT people and climate change. Her team last week said that the border was not her task.
“Again,” Psaki replied, “I think at some point she may go to the border, we’ll see. But she’s in the Northern Triangle now to have discussions with leaders, with community leaders, with civil society leaders, with the embassy, about how we can work together. And obviously she’s made a couple of announcements already, probably more to come before she comes back to the United States.”
“You said she might go to the border,” Doocy replied, “she described a trip to the border, yesterday, as a ‘grand gesture.’ Why?”
“Look Peter, again, I think that her focus of this trip is meeting with leaders, have a discussion about how to address corruption, how to address the root causes, how to work together to address humanitarian challenges in these countries. That’s exactly what she’s doing on the ground and I’m sure she’ll report back to the president when she returns,” Psaki said.
