Vice President Kamala Harris condemned Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s dropping busloads of migrants off outside her Naval Observatory residence as “political theater” Monday night.
Harris appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers for a convivial interview with a host that seemed more concerned with making his guest feel welcome than asking hard-hitting questions, as is the style of late-night television programming.
After a brief chat about how her life has changed, mainly communicating with her family and the high-class problem of the absence of emojis in her life as VP, Seth Meyers asked about the busloads of migrant families dropped off outside her D.C. residence, sent by the Texas governor as a means to bring attention to the surge of migrants at the southern border.
Meyers mentioned that “one of the downsides” of living at the Naval Observatory is her having to deal with the “political theater.”
“I don’t think that, you know, playing games with people’s lives is the solution to this problem. But based on the record amount of arrests at the border, it is a problem,” Meyers continued, adding, “I think we look to our leaders at times like these. What is the path forward?”
“We’re talking about people who have fled great harm,” the vice president replied. “And they are coming here seeking refuge and…talk about political theater. I
She then pivoted to answering Meyers’s question about a path forward to solve the problem.
“If we agree that we need to address it, then if you’re a leader, participate in a solution,” she offered. “When we first came into office, the first bill that we proposed was for a pathway for citizenship, which was to fix a broken immigration system, which was broken under the previous administration.”
Blaming the Trump administration for the border crisis will surely outrage conservative critics, as border crossings dropped during the previous administration. However, critics of draconian methods used at that time, including child separation, were deemed unnecessarily cruel by many.
Harris ended by encouraging GOP governors sending migrants to Northeast cities and vacation islands by saying, “Participate in the solution because we are offering solutions, but instead, this gamesmanship with real human beings who trust us.”
There have been a record number of arrests at the US Southern border this year, partly from a flood of migrants seeking a better life, refuge, or asylum in the United States. Harris was named the Border Czar by President Joe Biden and opted to focus on the root causes of migrants fleeing Central American countries,
“It’s a very it’s very haunting to watch human beings being used as props like that,” Meyers replied before then asking Harris how she can unwind from the daily pressure she feels from her job.
Watch above via NBC.