Nikki Haley said Tuesday that fear was driving Vice President Kamala Harris to avoid traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Haley, who served under former President Donald Trump as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, joined Sandra Smith on “America Reports” to discuss the continuing crisis at the border and President Joe Biden’s strategy for handling it. (RELATED: ‘We’ve Been To The Border,’ Harris Says, Then Immediately Admits She Hasn’t Been To The Border)
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Smith began with video from Harris’ interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, in which Harris appeared to laugh off the fact that she had not yet visited the border.
“Why will she not commit to a date and time to visit the southern border?” Smith asked Haley after noting that Harris was placed in charge of managing the border situation 76 days earlier.
“Sandra, this is embarrassing. I don’t know what the problem is. Clearly, she is fearful. But Kamala Harris was given one job, one job, and that was to deal with the border and any leader knows you can’t fix what you can’t see,” Haley replied. “She hasn’t been on the ground, she hasn’t talked to border patrol, she doesn’t know what is happening there.”
Haley noted that, when Holt had challenged her, Harris had deflected by saying that she also hadn’t traveled to Europe.
“No one has given her the job of Europe, she’s got the job of the border and I appreciate that she’s going to Guatemala, I appreciate she’s going to Mexico, you know why? Because both of those leaders say that the Biden administration is the reason they are having all these problems of the border,” Haley continued.
Haley went on to point out the difference in Harris’ current policy — telling Guatemalan citizens not to come to the border — compared to her previous stance rejecting the idea that America could ever turn someone away.
“I don’t know what her fear is at the border, but clearly she has one. And I don’t know what Biden’s fear of the border is, but he has one,” Haley concluded. “What I would call it is flat out denial, they think that if they don’t go it won’t be real. It’s very real.”