Harris Co-Chair: Taxpayer-Funded Transition Surgery for Prisoners, Illegals Not ‘Central Issue’, It’s ‘Non-Issue’

On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Harris-Walz Campaign Co-Chair Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) responded to a question on 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’ past support of taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for federal prisoners and people in immigration detention by stating that “It’s not a central issue or an issue that she’s really focused on in this election.”

Co-host Boris Sanchez asked, “There was a moment where he attacked her for something that CNN reported on earlier this week, it was a position that she previously held when she was running for president in 2019, CNN’s KFile found that she wrote on this ACLU questionnaire that she supported taxpayer funding of gender transition surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners. The campaign declined to answer CNN’s questions about that. They have since said that she’s not running on that, that that’s not a part of her platform. Do you think she needs to clarify her position on that to neutralize it as an attack line?”

Garcia responded, “Look, I think she’s — I think the campaign’s been clear. It’s not a central issue or an issue that she’s really focused on in this election. She’s focused on lowering the price of insulin, a safe process along the border and for immigration, on working-class families, and on ensuring that we don’t have tax cuts to the uber-wealthy, which is what Donald Trump wants. So, that is a non-issue. What we do know about Vice President Harris is she’s actually a person, though, of values, that represents and actually supports everyone. And I think she spoke directly to the American people on that.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett