Kamala Harris’s botched handling of the crisis at the border has been largely downplayed by the media. When it was announced on Wednesday that she would finally visit on Friday, ABC decided to keep hiding her role in the debacle. On Thursday night and Friday morning, World News Tonight and Good Morning America allowed NO coverage of the trip.
GMA skipped it on Thursday morning as well. The only coverage between the two ABC shows came on Wednesday's World News Tonight for a scant 15 seconds. This is the same network that previously ridiculously cheered Harris’s “clear” and “blunt” response to the border.
NBC’s Today, by contrast, allowed 1 minute and 34 seconds on Friday. Reporter Kelly O’Donnell at least underlined the political incompetence swirling around Harris: “Under political pressure, heat from Republicans and repeated questions about when the Vice President would come here to the U.S. southern border. Today is the day.”
O’Donnell continued:
Now, Harris’s role has been politically challenging from the start when President Biden asked to give her the tough job of overseeing the administration's response because there was a major surge in migrants shortly after they took office. There have been more than 900,000 apprehensions at the border through May. And that's twice what there was last year.
The journalist concluded, “Republicans have been hammering Harris for not coming here sooner. The White House has said her role was really just diplomatic, dealing with Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.”
That’s quite the contrast to the boring 20 seconds CBS This Morning allowed:
Meanwhile, this morning, Vice President Harris is on her way to the U.S./Mexico border for the first time since being tapped by the president to lead the response to the illegal immigration crisis. She along with the Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, will visit a Customs and Border Protection facility near El Paso and will meet with local advocates.
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Transcripts are below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS This Morning
6/25/2021
7:16 AM ETED O’KEEFE: Meanwhile, this morning, Vice President Harris is on her way to the U.S./Mexico border for the first time since being tapped by the president to lead the response to the illegal immigration crisis. She along with the Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, will visit a Customs and Border Protection facility near El Paso and will meet with local advocates.
Today
6/25/2021
7:17 AM ET
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Much more to get to this morning, including Vice President Kamala Harris making her first and a long-called for trip to the U.S./Mexico border today. NBC's White House correspondent Kelly O'Connell joins us from El Paso with the latest. Kelly, good morning.
KELLY O’DONNELL: Morning, Savannah. Under political pressure, heat from Republicans and repeated questions about when the Vice President would come here to the U.S. southern border, today is the day. The Vice President boarded Air Force Two early this morning for the flight to El Paso. She will be on the ground for a couple of hours and she will be touring a Customs and Border Protection processing center and talking with some of the migrants in the system, along with some experts.
Now, Harris’s role has been politically challenging from the start when president Biden asked to give her the tough job of overseeing the administration's response because there was a major surge in migrants shortly after they took office. There have been more than 900,000 apprehensions at the border through May. And that's twice what there was last year. Republicans have been hammering Harris for not coming here sooner. The White House has said her role was really just diplomatic, dealing with Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. But she has been under pressure and her trip here was announced only after former President Trump said that he would be coming to the southern border next week. Now, the White House says that Trump's decision was not a factor in her visit today and now is the time for her to see some of the progress that has been made. Savannah.
