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‘Last Thing She Should Do’: Former Clinton Adviser Says Harris’ Border Visit ‘Plays Right Into’ Trump’s Hands

'Last Thing She Should Do': Former Clinton Adviser Says Harris' Border Visit 'Plays Right Into' Trump's Hands

Former Bill Clinton adviser Mark Penn on Tuesday characterized Vice President Kamala Harris’ planned visit to the southern border as a politically unwise decision.

Harris is slated to go to the southern border while in Arizona on Friday, according to two individuals briefed on the plans, The New York Times reported. Penn, on “America’s Newsroom,” argued that Harris should not be drawing attention to the border, as it is a key issue that benefits former President Donald Trump.

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“I think that’s the last thing she should do. She is trying to avoid the issue of the border as much as possible. She’s actually gaining steam by pushing the economic issue and bringing that to the fore, and she’s put out a few economic plans that have been more or less unchallenged,” Penn said. “I don’t think her going to the border makes any sense at all. Frankly, that plays right into Donald Trump, who wants to make the border the number one issue.”

Harris has only visited the southern border once during her vice presidency thus far, going to El Paso, Texas, in June 2021 after facing mounting pressure to do so. There have been more than 10 million nationwide migrant encounters while she has been vice president, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

President Joe Biden appointed Harris to lead their administration’s efforts to address the border crisis in early 2021, with specific instructions to mitigate the root causes of irregular migration from Central America, widely being recognized as the U.S.’ “border czar.” However, Harris’ office began to distance her from the job description soon after the announcement, according to CNN, and corporate media has also attempted to reverse this characterization since she launched her presidential bid on July 21.

Harris rambled for nearly three minutes on Thursday when she faced an audience question about how she would address illegal immigration during a forum hosted by Oprah Winfrey. She discussed her background as attorney general of California and a prosecutor before focusing on the demise of a bipartisan border bill, which Winfrey eventually prodded her to state that she would “make sure that bill gets to my desk and I will sign it into law.”

Voters in the key sunbelt states of Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina trust Trump to handle immigration more than Harris, as he leads her 54% to 43% on this key issue, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday.