Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance tore into NBC News host Kristen Welker for constantly attempting to defend Vice President Kamala Harris for her role in tackling the illegal immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
During an interview on “Meet the Press,” Vance and Welker discussed the issue of millions of illegal aliens crossing the border since Harris was charged with addressing the “root causes of migration” as the “border czar” to mitigate the crisis.
“Well, we have to start with the foundational issue here, which is we have 25 million illegal aliens in this country right now because Kamala Harris has refused to do her job,” Vance began.
Welker pushed back, saying, “I have, very quickly, DHS says it’s much lower, it’s closer to eight million. Where do you get the 25 million from?”
“Well, I think the 25 million are the people that should’ve been deported that maybe weren’t deported, plus you add another 12 to 15 million that have come in since Kamala Harris. Look, whatever the number is —” Vance tried again.
“DHS disputes that number, for the record. They say it’s closer to eight to ten million, but please continue,” Welker repeated her objection.
“Fair, but I think there are reasons to think that DHS is underestimating. Whatever the number is, it’s way too high, right?” Vance said of the ongoing crisis. “It’s millions upon millions of illegal immigrants that have come in just since Kamala became border czar a few years ago. The first thing —”
“She was put in charge of the root causes of migration,” Welker interrupted.
“Well, the root cause of migration, I would say, Kristen, is that Kamala Harris refuses to do her job as Border Czar,” Vance shot back.
