Harris on Crimes Where Suspect Entered Before Senate Border Bill Existed: There’d Be ‘No Future Harm’ if Bill Passed

During an interview with the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” on Wednesday, 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris responded to a question on crimes allegedly committed by people who entered the country before the Senate border bill existed by stating that “if border security had actually been passed nine months ago, it would be nine months that we would have had more border agents at the border, more support for the folks who are working around the clock, trying to hold it all together to ensure that no future harm would occur.”

Host Bret Baier asked, [relevant exchange begins around 4:25] “Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, they are young women who were brutally assaulted and killed by some of the men who were released at the beginning of the administration, well before a negotiated, bipartisan bill. Former President Clinton actually referred to Laken Riley, Sunday, campaigning for you in Georgia, saying if those men had been properly vetted, Laken Riley probably would not have been killed. So, if it wouldn’t have happened, this is well before any negotiation, this is well before Donald Trump got involved in the politics, this is a specific policy decision by your administration to release these men into the country, so what I’m saying to you, do you owe those families an apology?”

Harris responded, “Let me just say, first of all, those are tragic cases. There’s no question about that. There is no question about that. And I can’t imagine the pain that the families of those victims have experienced for a loss that should not have occurred. So, that is true. It is also true that, if border security had actually been passed nine months ago, it would be nine months that we would have had more border agents at the border, more support for the folks who are working around the clock, trying to hold it all together to ensure that no future harm would occur.”

Harris added that she is “sorry” for the losses of the families of the victims.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett