wilkes

Harris replied with a 441-word answer:

"Yeah, of course, what would be specific steps to strengthening the border? So, it's a wonderful and important question. I, you know, my background was as a prosecutor, and I was also the elected Attorney General for two terms of the border state. So this is not a theoretical issue for me. This is something I've actually worked on. I have prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs and human beings. I take very seriously the importance of having a secure border and ensuring the safety of the American people. Sadly, where we are now can be traced most recently, back to the fact that when the United States, Congress, members of Congress, including the most conservative Republicans, came up with a border security bill. And here's what that border security bill would have done. It would have put 1,500 more border agents at the border. Let me tell you, those border agents are working around the clock. It would have just been about giving them some support and relief, which is probably why the border agents actually endorsed the bill. It would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl. And I'm looking at people from all over the country here, so I don't need to tell the folks who are watching this what fentanyl has done to families, to kids in our country, and the need to take seriously stemming the flow coming into our country and addressing that extraordinary and tragic issue in terms of its effect, the bill would have allowed us to have more resources to prosecute transnational criminal organizations, and it would have been part of the solution and Donald Trump called up those folks and said, Don't put that bill on the floor for a vote. He blocked the billing. You know why? Because he'd prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem, and he has put his political, personal, political security before border security, because understand, even in the intervening months, what that bill would have done to give support to folks who care about this issue. And this again, gets to the point about what does leadership really look like, and is it about you or is it about the people? Is it about running on problems or fixing problems? My work and my career has always been about saying, let's fix problems, let's address the needs, because we know it's within our capacity to do that."