Republicans to Vice President Harris: Uh, that’s the wrong border, Kamala.
The veep — charged early on in their administration by President Biden with tackling the US border crisis — will travel to the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea on Thursday, part of her trip to Asia where she attended the funeral for former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
The White House confirmed Harris’ visit to the border that separates the rival Koreas after South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo inadvertently disclosed the vice president’s upcoming plans.
“Your visit to the DMZ and Seoul will be very symbolic demonstrations of your strong commitments to the security and peace to the Korean Peninsula, and we are working with you and US in dealing with North Korea,” Han said Monday in a meeting with Harris.
The White House scrambled to confirm the trip afterward.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was one of the first Republicans to point out that Harris seems to be going to the wrong border.
“@KamalaHarris will travel anywhere in the world but our US southern border that is under invasion every day by thousands of unknown people & deadly poisonous fentanyl. Here she goes to South Korea & Japan, 2 countries that would never allow the same,” Greene of Georgia said on Twitter.
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) said the administration is taking an “AMERICA LAST” approach.
“Kamala is going to the Korean DMZ to review their border security. Would it be too much to ask for her to visit OUR BORDER!?,” Jackson said on Twitter.
“Our country is being invaded, and Kamala’s biggest concern is to visit other nation’s borders. Kamala & Democrats are AMERICA LAST!!,” he continued.
The vice president will “tour sites at the DMZ, meet with service members and receive an operational briefing from US commanders,” the White House said in a statement.
Harris will also “reflect on the shared sacrifice of tens of thousands of American and Korean soldiers who fought and died together” in the war that ended with an armistice in 1953.
Harris, tapped by President Biden to be administration’s border czar, has been hammered by Republicans for her failure to focus attention on the southern border, where arrests have surpassed 2 million for the first time this fiscal year.
So far, she visited the border once, traveling to El Paso, Texas, in June 2021.
Harris drew heat earlier this month when she insisted in an interview that the border is “secure.”
“The border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular, over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed,” Harris said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Republicans responded in outrage.
“Nearly 5 million illegal aliens have crossed our border under Biden’s watch,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said on Twitter. “This is the largest figure in American history. The border is not secure.”
“When VP Harris says our border is secure, she’s lying on behalf of this White House,” added Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
With Post wires
