On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Harris-Walz Campaign Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks responded to questions on whether 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris supports building a border wall in light of her previously denouncing one as un-American by stating that she supports the Senate bill that has wall funding in it, but “the Vice President is going to make sure that she is putting the American people first in her policy when it comes to the border and the border wall. And I think that, obviously, is going to take congressional — her working with congressional leadership to do it.” And asking if she supports more funding after the money from the Senate bill dries up is “putting the cart before the horse. We have to get the Vice President elected. And that’s where our focus is.”
Host Blake Burman asked, “The Senate bipartisan bill that was negotiated, Democrats, a Republican, the White House, that Donald Trump eventually killed, as we know, or at least had huge sway over it. Kamala Harris says that she would — that she supports that. Part of that includes funding for the border wall that was already put into law, right? So, the money’s being spent. It was mandated. But when that money runs dry, does the Vice President believe that more border wall should be built or is…her position what she said in 2018, where she called the border wall ‘un-American’?”
Fulks responded, “Look, I think that the Vice President has a very humane approach to the border, and that’s in stark contrast with Donald Trump. I think that that border wall portion of that bill is included in there because it was needed to build consensus to get both Republicans and Democrats to agree to that bipartisan deal, which, you alluded to, Donald Trump killed. And so, I think that the Vice President is very focused on making sure that we get more Border Patrol agents there, that we’re not separating kids from their mothers at the border and their parents, which is Donald Trump’s policy on it. And so, I think that the Vice President would support that bill, because it is the strongest, most bipartisan border bill that this country could have had, and it does not happen because [of] Donald Trump.”
Burman followed up, “And what about the possibility of more wall, or does she believe going further with that is still ‘un-American’?”
Fulks answered, “Look, I think that the Vice President is going to make sure that she is putting the American people first in her policy when it comes to the border and the border wall. And I think that, obviously, it’s going to take congressional — her working with congressional leadership to do it. And what I can say is that the Vice President really cares about making sure that our border is secure. And so, she is going to work with Congress, and so, I think that those conversations are going to have to take place when the bills are being negotiated with Congress. But, as you mentioned, the bill now, as it stands, does have that funding for border walls. And so, I think that she said she would have supported that bill. But when [the] resources in that bill dry up, she’s going to have to work with Congress to either get it renewed or not, and that’s where that will be, but I think that that’s putting the cart before the horse. We have to get the Vice President elected. And that’s where our focus is.”
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