By Jim Geraghty
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
The Questions Kamala Harris Is Unlikely to Ever Answer
Domestic Affairs*
Vice President Harris:
We are told, through your campaign staff, that you no longer hold the positions you espoused when seeking the
Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. Back then, you supported banning
fracking, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defunding the police,
instituting mandatory buybacks of assault weapons, eliminating private health
insurance, and guaranteeing federal jobs.
In 2019, you said you were open to expanding the size of the Supreme Court. Now, a spokesman
says you no longer hold that position.
You spent much of your time in the U.S. Senate and
presidential campaign arguing, “We are not going to treat people who are undocumented and cross
the border as criminals,” and “an
undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.” Now, according to your staff,
your position is that “unauthorized border crossings are illegal.” What caused
you to change your mind on these issues? Did you learn more that convinced you
that your old positions were wrong, unfeasible, or ill-informed? Or is it that
those were the positions that you felt were most popular in a Democratic
presidential primary, and now you’re running in a general election? What
guarantee does any voter have that your new positions won’t be as quickly and
quietly abandoned as the old ones once you’re elected?
Your allies insist you were not the “border czar,” even though in March 2021, President Biden announced you
would “lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries
that help — are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks,
stemming the migration to our southern border.” Stipulating that your allies
prefer the term “migration czar,” where were all those migrants headed toward?
Wasn’t it the U.S.–Mexico border? How can you or anyone else contend that you
could be the administration’s point person for “migration” without having any
role in, or responsibility for, our policies and the enforcement of them at the
border? Just what did you do in this position?
In June 2021, you traveled to Guatemala and during a press
conference said to those contemplating attempting to enter the U.S. illegally,
“Do not come.” Is there any evidence that anyone in Guatemala or anywhere else
listened to you and heeded your instructions? Was there any way to mitigate the
effects of those migrants attempting to enter the country without better border
security?
Do you still oppose any new border wall or fence
construction? Why do you think the United States has 700 miles of primary barriers along our southern border?
When the Biden administration built 20 miles of new wall in October 2023, declaring, “There is presently an acute and immediate need
to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the
United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States,” and
waiving more than 20 federal laws and regulations to allow for the construction
of the barriers, what was your reaction?
If fences don’t work, why did your administration build
more of them? And if they do work, why have you staunchly opposed additional
construction?
Here are the charts for southwest border encounters from January 2021 to June 2024.
Note that just about every month was substantially higher than that month in
preceding years. Please point to the part that you feel indicates you did a
good job as the administration’s “migration” czar.
In September 2022, you went on Meet the Press and
claimed, “The border is secure” and “we have a secure border.” Had you
recently suffered a concussion? Do you have any vision problems that the
American public should be aware of?
How would you rate the performance of Homeland Security
secretary Alejandro Mayorkas? In a Harris administration, can we expect cabinet
appointments of similar caliber and effectiveness?
You keep saying, “On Day One,” as in, “On
Day One, I will take on price gouging and bring down costs.” What is your
current job title?
If, as has been widely reported, you are indeed the
current vice president of the United States, why are you unable to enact any of
these policies right now? Have you mentioned these ideas to President Biden?
Does President Biden oppose any of these ideas you’re proposing?
Speaking of President Biden, when did you notice that old
age was starting to impede his ability to do his duties? What did you do? Whom
did you tell? Earlier this year, Axios reported that “from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Biden is dependably engaged.” How
would you characterize the president outside of those hours? Does that sound
like an acceptable number of hours for the president of the United States to be
of sound mind each day? Was the administration’s plan to hope that all crises
requiring presidential attention and decisions would occur between late morning
and mid afternoon?
In June 2022, White House Press Secretary Karine
Jean-Pierre went on CNN to rebut reports that the president’s age or stamina
might pose a challenge for his reelection bid and said, “I can’t even keep up with him.” Does that sound like an
accurate description to you? Do you feel it is acceptable for White House
officials to mislead the public about the president’s health and abilities?
What caused the U.S. inflation rate to spike from 1.4 percent in
January 2021 to 9.1 percent in June 2022? Is your contention that roughly $24 trillion in federal spending and $6
trillion in new public debt have nothing to do with the high inflation of
recent years? What happens when the supply of money increases dramatically, but
the supply of goods and services does not increase at a similar rate?
In 2020, U.S. oil-refinery capacity was 18,662,000
barrels per day. As
of May 2024, it was 18,326,000 barrels per day. How, exactly, is the U.S.
supposed to bring down oil prices if we never increase our capacity to turn oil
into the stuff that runs our cars?
Hey, what fuel does your motorcade run on? What fuel does
Air Force Two run on? When was the last time you pumped your own gas?
You now say you want to exempt tips from federal taxes.
Why? Aren’t tips income? Why did this idea not occur to you until you were
running for president and needed to win Nevada, and after Donald Trump had
proposed it? Why should anyone see this proposal as anything but a desperate
ploy to win a key swing state and/or lock down the stripper vote?
Foreign Affairs
Layla Elabed, the co-chair of the Uncommitted National
Movement, a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel group, met with you in Michigan
shortly before you went on stage for a rally and described the meeting this way:
You know, when I mentioned that our
community members are losing tens of hundreds of their family members, she
said, “It’s horrific.” And when I said, “Will you meet with us to talk about an
arms embargo?” she said, “Yes, we’ll meet with you.”
Whether or not you intended to leave her with the
impression you were open to an arms embargo, you did so. Your
national-security adviser later went on Twitter and stated you “will always
ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist
groups. She does not support an arms embargo on Israel.”
But the Biden administration has paused indefinitely the delivery of a
shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs. You look
like you’re trying to have it both ways. So, are you going to restrict any arms
sales to Israel or not? Would you un-“pause” the delivery of those bombs or
not?
In 2019, you promised to “protect the gains that have been
made for Afghan women and others, and [ensure] that [Afghanistan] never again
becomes a safe haven for terrorists.” How’s that going lately?
Reports this year declare al-Qaeda is “thriving” in Afghanistan. Isn’t that a
clear sign that the country is, once again, a safe haven for terrorists, which
is exactly what you promised to prevent? The Taliban is getting access to roughly $40 million per week
that the United Nations is sending to keep the Afghan economy going, and
the largest donor to those U.N. efforts is the U.S. taxpayer. Please explain
how this arrangement serves the interests of Americans and represents a
foreign-policy triumph of the administration you serve.
In mid February 2022, roughly a week before Russia
launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, you attended the Munich Security
Conference and met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president “urged the U.S. to impose
preemptive sanctions against Russia, arguing that would force Vladimir Putin to
rethink his decision to invade. . . . If the attack was indeed unavoidable,
Zelensky argued, the U.S. should flood weapons into Ukraine, including the
anti-aircraft systems, fighter jets and heavy artillery needed to prevent
Russian forces from overrunning the country.” You said no to both requests.
Why? Knowing what you know now, would you give the same answer again?
Knowing what you know now, would you give the same
answer?
Should the Ukrainians be allowed to use U.S. weapons to
target Russian forces in pre-war Russian territory, and if not, why not? Should
they be allowed to use U.S. weapons to target Russian oil refineries? Would you
be more open to the idea if the Ukrainians characterized the drone strikes on
the refineries as an effort to reduce the use of fossil fuels?
Biden administration officials said they moved at “lightning speed” to decide to allow the
Ukrainians to strike targets within a limited portion of Russian territory.
This took 17 days. Can we expect similar “lightning speed” decisions during
your presidency?
Speaking of “lightning speed,” President Biden announced the U.S. would provide Ukraine 31 Abrams tanks
in January 2023, and they weren’t delivered until mid October. It took more than a
year to deliver F-16 fighter jets. Do you consider this a good job? Is there
any reason to think that when you’re in the Oval Office, this process will move
any faster or more smoothly?
What would your administration do to prevent or deter a
Chinese invasion of Taiwan that the Biden administration is not already doing?
The backlog of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan grew in June 2024 to $20.5
billion. These are weapons systems and ammunition that the Taiwanese
government has already paid for, but that we have failed to deliver — tanks,
missiles, torpedoes, fighter jets, ammunition, spare parts, drones, you name
it. Why does this administration keep saying it wants to deter a Chinese
invasion but refusing to take actions to do so?
In 2020, you said, “I unequivocally agree with the goal of reducing the defense
budget” and added you wanted to send that money to “communities in need.”
What is it about the current geopolitical circumstances that makes you think
the U.S. needs to spend less on defense rather than more? Note the high
inflation rate of the past three years. Note that under President Biden, the
U.S. Navy has shrunk from 306 ships to 296 ships.
The Navy calculates that to adequately perform its duties it needs 381 ships.
*You thought there would be a Willie Brown joke in there,
didn’t you?
ADDENDUM: Over in that other place I write for, I point out that
Biden managed to run a basement campaign and be the least-accessible president
in four decades, and Harris has avoided any interviews or formal press
conferences for a month, because Democrats don’t care. They don’t actually want
their leaders to be asked questions or challenged.
A reminder:
She wants to get an interview scheduled
before the end of the month — about three weeks from now.
For perspective, early voting begins in Pennsylvania on Sept. 16. In Minnesota, Vermont and Virginia, early voting begins around Sept. 20.
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