House Republicans approved a resolution Thursday that condemns Vice President Harris as the Biden administration’s “border czar,” the latest move by GOP lawmakers to criticize Harris as she mounts a bid for the White House after President Biden withdrew from the race.
The resolution — spearheaded by Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the GOP conference chair — cleared the chamber in a 220-196 vote. Six Democrats voted “yes.”
House GOP leaders added the resolution to the vote schedule Monday, one day after Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Harris to be the new nominee, a decision that shook the political landscape and forced Republicans to recalibrate their messaging in the presidential race.
The resolution offers a sense of how Republicans plan to campaign against Harris.
The measure, which spans four pages, takes aim at Harris’s handling of the situation at the southern border, referring to her as the Biden administration’s “border czar.” Biden in 2021 selected Harris to lead the administration’s efforts to address the root causes of migration, a matter that was top of mind when Democrats entered the White House that year. He did not, however, formally give Harris the title of “border czar.”
The focus on Harris’s handling of the southern border comes as several polls indicate voters are most concerned about the border and immigration this election cycle.
“No matter what congressional district you go to, the No. 1 issue facing Americans is Kamala Harris’s open border crisis,” Stefanik said during debate on the House floor Thursday. “And by every metric, Kamala Harris has failed to secure our borders, instead advancing far left Democrats’ failed open border policies and the needs of illegal immigrants over the safety of Americans.”
“Kamala Harris has failed in overseeing American safety by refusing to secure the border,” she later added. “She has proved that she is unfit to lead.”
The resolution says it took Harris “93 days as the border czar before finally visiting the southern border on June 25, 2021,” and cites former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, who told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he did not have a conversation with Harris or Biden during his time in office.
“President Biden’s and Border Czar Harris’s far left Democrat open border policies are to blame for this historic crisis,” the legislation argues.
The White House has dismissed the attacks by Republicans on Harris, defending the administration’s handling of the southern border and dinging GOP lawmakers for rejecting the bipartisan border deal senators struck earlier this year.
Former President Trump urged Republicans to oppose the legislation, torpedoing the effort.
“As we speak, congressional Republicans continue their months-long blockade of critical resources for ICE and the Border Patrol in the tough bipartisan border security agreement supported by the Biden-Harris Administration,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement earlier this week.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris are leading on border security, while congressional Republicans sabotage it by disgracefully siding with Donald Trump, fentanyl traffickers, and human smugglers over our national security,” he added.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) accused Republicans of being disingenuous by calling Harris the “border czar.”
“The Vice President was not a border czar,” he said Thursday morning. “They are making that up because they have no affirmative agenda, vision, or track record for the American people.”
The focus on Harris’s handling of the southern border comes after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) urged his members to steer away from attacks focused on diversity, equity and inclusion politics, which some Republicans utilized in the immediate aftermath of Biden’s decision.
“This election … is going to be about policies, not personalities. This isn’t personal with regard to Kamala Harris,” Johnson said. “Her ethnicity, her gender, has nothing to do with this whatsoever.”