Vice President Kamala Harris has gone 41 days without a press conference addressing the southern border crisis since accepting command of the issue from President Joe Biden.
“I can think of nobody who is better qualified to do this,” Biden said of Harris’ new responsibility at the White House on March 24. But since then, Harris seems to be hesitant to draw the press’ attention to the issue.
The White House has defended Harris’ lack of public attention with press secretary Jen Psaki saying on April 7, “I don’t have any trips to outline or preview,” she said. “What our focus is on is solutions.”
Those solutions may include Harris’ announcement on April 25 to “hold a virtual meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on May 7 to discuss ‘migration’ but that will not be the main focus of the discussion,” Breitbart News reported. Instead, she will hold talks about planting trees.
Harris, who has a lower approval rating than former VP Mike Pence in their respective first 100 days, visited the eastern border of the United States on April 26 to promote Biden’s infrastructure package in which there is no border wall funding. When Harris was asked when she might visit the southern border, she ignored the question.
Harris also had a phone conversation with the President of Finland on April 27 “about addressing the surge of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, a Central American region known as the Northern Triangle,” Breitbart News reported.
And despite Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) promise to “urge Vice President Harris… to visit the border” on May 1, no plans seem imminent.