Understanding Kamala Harris' modified stance on the border

WASHINGTON (TND) — Vice President Kamala Harris is out on the campaign trail, powered by momentum and a modified message.

During her speech at the Democratic National Convention, she said, “As President, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law," referring to Donald Trump's involvement in killing the border deal that was negotiated for months. It included $650 million to build new and fix existing portions of the border wall. It's a wall featured prominently in a recent campaign ad.

It’s a stance that’s changed drastically since she ran for president the last time.

In a 2020 Facebookpost, she called Trump’s border wall "a complete waste of taxpayer money" that "won’t make us any safer."

In a 2019 Town Hall-style interview with CNN, Harris criticized then-President Trump for his treatment of migrants.

“This Administration has decided to vilify them and to trade on them for the sake of this President’s medieval vanity project called a wall.”

Her opponent and his supporters assert she had no role in negotiating the border bill and accuse her of lying about her position to try to win more votes.

In an interview Tuesday on Fox News "Hannity," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. said. “Do you really believe she's going to build a wall? That's just bull****. She’s had four years to build a wall and she’s done nothing. For the last four years, they turned every Trump policy upside down that prevented illegal immigration and we’re being overrun with 10 million people.”

With a spotlight on migrant crime and a sharp increase in arrests of migrants on the terror watch list warnings about those large numbers of people now in the country have been mounting from top intelligence officials

"I see blinking lights everywhere I turn. I've never seen a time where all the threats or so many of the threats are all elevated all at exactly the same time that's what makes this environment that we're in now so fraught,"said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Those new threats, along with shifts in voter sentimentcould be among the reasons for the pivot.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., was the lead Democrat negotiator and also spoke at the DNC.

“We can be a nation of immigrants who love their country and a nation with a secure border," he said.

The Harris campaign insists while the border legislation is tough it’s also broad including new technology to catch drug smugglers. Her campaign website is still mostly absent of any official policy positions.