5 takeaways from Kamala Harris’ one-on-one interview with ‘60 Minutes’

CNN
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Vice President Kamala Harris confronted robust questions on how she’d pay for her financial plans, whether or not Democrats have been too gradual to enact border safety measures, how she’d confront Russia over its conflict in Ukraine and extra in a wide-ranging “60 Minutes” interview that aired Monday.

The Democratic presidential nominee’s sit-down with CBS comes amid a media blitz that can be placing Harris in entrance of friendlier interviewers with extra focused audiences. Her interview with Alex Cooper, host of the favored “Name Her Daddy” podcast, went reside Sunday. On Tuesday she’ll go to ABC’s “The View,” sit down with Howard Stern and seem on CBS’ “The Late Present” with Stephen Colbert. Then, on Thursday, she’s set to take part in a Univision city corridor.

With no extra debates between Harris and former President Donald Trump at the moment scheduled, this slate of interviews might current one of the best alternatives for astonishing and news-making moments within the remaining four-week dash to Election Day.

Listed here are 5 takeaways from Harris’ sit down with “60 Minutes”:

Harris maintained migration is a “longstanding drawback” when requested about President Joe Biden’s administration’s strategy to immigration insurance policies and refused to reply whether or not officers ought to’ve cracked down sooner.

From the outset, the Biden administration confronted report migration within the Western Hemisphere, which was arduous hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Over the past three years, US officers grappled with migrant surges on the southern border.

Requested why the administration didn’t crack down earlier, Harris cited an immigration invoice proposed to Congress in early 2021 and slammed Republicans for tanking a current bipartisan border invoice after Trump urged them to reject the measure.

CBS correspondent Invoice Whitaker requested: “However there was an historic flood of undocumented immigrants coming throughout the border the primary three years of your administration. As a matter of truth, arrivals quadrupled from the final yr of President Trump. Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration insurance policies as a lot as you probably did?”

“It’s a longstanding drawback. And options are at hand. And from day one, actually, we now have been providing options,” Harris stated.

Pressed on the report variety of crossings and whether or not extra motion ought to’ve been taken sooner, Harris refused to reply, focusing as an alternative on current motion that has resulted in a drastic drop in crossings and placing the onus on Congress to behave.

“We’d like Congress to have the ability to act to truly repair the issue,” she stated.

Harris stated she wouldn’t meet bilaterally with Russian President Vladimir Putin to barter an answer to finish the conflict in Ukraine.

“Ukraine will need to have a say in the way forward for Ukraine,” she stated.

Harris stated that there “will likely be no success in ending that conflict with out Ukraine and the UN constitution taking part in what that success seems like.”

The vp prevented answering whether or not she would assist the hassle to increase the North Atlantic Treaty Group, or NATO, to incorporate Ukraine, saying she would “cope with if and when it arrives at that time.”

“These are all points that we are going to cope with if and when it arrives at that time. Proper now, we’re supporting Ukraine’s skill to defend itself in opposition to Russia’s unprovoked aggression,” Harris stated.

She stated if Trump have been president, “Putin could be sitting in Kyiv proper now,” referring to the Ukrainian capital.

“He talks about, oh, he can finish it on day one. You already know what that’s? It’s about give up,” Harris stated.

Harris met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the White Home final month, the place she reiterated her unwavering assist for the nation.

“As I’ve made clear on our six earlier conferences and all through Putin’s brutal aggression and conflict in opposition to Ukraine, my assist to the folks of Ukraine is unwavering,” Harris stated. “I’ve been proud to face with Ukraine – I’ll proceed to face with Ukraine, and I’ll work to make sure Ukraine prevails on this conflict, to be protected, safe and affluent.”

Harris and Cheney’s alliance on show

The interview at one level featured Harris collectively in Ripon, Wisconsin – claimed to be the birthplace of the Republican Celebration – with former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.

Cheney, who was ousted in a major final yr over her function within the Home’s investigation into Trump supporters’ January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol, endorsed Harris and spoke at a rally in the important thing swing state final week.

“I hope that in the event you had stated to me 4 years in the past, ‘Our Structure goes to be beneath risk and it’s gonna be essential for the events to come back collectively and to assist Vice President Harris as a result of she’ll defend the rule of regulation’ — I do know I might’ve stated, ‘That’s precisely what I’ll do,’” Cheney instructed CBS.

When requested if she’d imagined campaigning alongside Cheney 4 years in the past, Harris responded warmly.

“That’d be nice,” Harris stated, as each her and Cheney laughed.

“She’s actually diplomatic,” Cheney joked.

Later, it additionally featured Harris’ operating mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has confronted probing questions on previous statements that had been dissected by Republicans and the press after he turned the vice presidential decide.

He acknowledged making false claims about his army report and about being in Hong Kong throughout Tiananmen Sq. unrest. However he stated these moments have been “expressing emotion, telling a narrative, getting a date unsuitable,” versus being “a pathological liar like Donald Trump.”

Nonetheless, Walz stated Harris had inspired him to decide on his phrases extra rigorously.

“She stated, ‘Tim, , it’s essential be just a little extra cautious on the way you say issues,’ no matter it is likely to be,” Walz stated.

Trump backed out of his “60 Minutes” interview after his marketing campaign had agreed to it and scheduled a sit-down at his Mar-a-Lago property, CBS correspondent Scott Pelley stated Monday evening in the beginning of the nation’s most-watched newsmagazine’s broadcast.

Trump sat down with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl in October 2020 and abruptly ended the interview when he apparently objected to Stahl’s questions. Trump instructed reporters in Wisconsin final week that he’d “prefer to get an apology” for that interview earlier than sitting down for one more one.

The previous president has largely solely taken questions from pleasant interviewers, together with Fox Information, in current weeks.

“If he’s not going to present your viewers the power to have a significant, considerate dialog, query and reply with you, then watch his rallies,” Harris instructed Whitaker.

“You’re going to listen to conversations which can be about himself and all of his private grievances. And what you’ll not hear is something about you, the listener. You’ll not hear about how he’s going to attempt to convey the nation collectively, discover widespread floor,” she stated. “And, Invoice, that’s the reason I imagine in my soul and coronary heart, the American persons are prepared to show the web page.”

CNN’s Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.