On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) responded to 2024 Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris abandoning multiple stances on immigration that she took when she ran for president in 2020 by stating that the GOP ticket of former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance has reversed on several issues, and so, there’s “Tons of flip-flops everywhere.” And said that “Democrats try to please the far left too often.”
Suozzi said, “I think she’s doing the right thing right now. The fact that she came out with this commercial, the fact that she’s been speaking about it at her rallies, and she’s been talking about the need to secure the border. The best politician, the best elected official is the one who says what the people are thinking already, and people are talking about the border. That’s a real issue. It’s much better than it was just a few months ago, before the president’s executive order. But people are still very concerned about the border.”
Later, host Kaitlan Collins said, “Well, the other thing, and you know this well, politicians, everyone’s always looking at your past statements, your past positions on something. In the 2020 Democratic primary, it was remarkable because it was just this race to the left. Biden was really the candidate who was stuck in his position. He obviously — it fared well for him, but what Republicans have continued to look at is what she said during that primary about several border issues, just a reminder of several of the stances that she took.”
Collins then played video of Harris vowing to close immigration detention centers, calling for a reexamination of ICE’s role, and promising to decriminalize crossing the border illegally.
Collins then asked, “So, when she addresses reversals on several of those issues that we’ve heard from her campaign, how do you articulate that as a politician?”
Suozzi responded, “Well, the first thing is, if you’re the Republicans, if you’re Donald Trump and JD Vance talking about a reversal of positions, let’s look at their records and all the things that they’ve reversed. As you’ve said before on your show, JD Vance said that Trump was the Hitler of America. So, that talk about a reversal –.”
Collins then cut in to say, “A lot of flip-flops to go around here.”
Suozzi responded, “Tons of flip-flops everywhere. And one of the big problems in America these days is everybody panders to the base. They’re trying to please the base. The Republicans try to please the far right. The Democrats try to please the far left too often. And I think the American people are sick of that. They want us to talk about the things that they care about and the people are somewhere in the middle, can’t you just work together to solve the problem? And I think that Vice President Harris, in this campaign, is making it clear that she wants to bring people together to find compromise, to find common ground, to solve the problems we face, like the border. There [are] two sides of that. We have to secure the border, and we have to treat people like human beings. You can do both those things. That’s what the American people actually want us to be doing.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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