Five conclusions from the interview with Kamala Harris on ’60 Minutes’

() – Vice President Kamala Harris faced difficult questions about how he would pay for his economic plans, whether Democrats were too slow to enact border security measures, how he would confront Russia over its war in Ukraine and more in a wide scope interview on “60 Minutes” that aired this Monday.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s interview on CBS comes amid a media blitz that is also putting Harris in front of friendlier interviewers with more targeted audiences. His interview with Alex Cooper, host of the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast, was published Sunday. This Tuesday he will visit ABC’s “The View,” sit down with Howard Stern on his radio show and appear on CBS’ “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert. Then, this Thursday, she is scheduled to participate in a Univision forum.

With no more debates between Harris and former President Donald Trump currently scheduled, this slate of interviews could present the best opportunities for surprising and newsworthy moments in the final four week sprint until election day.

Below are five takeaways from Harris’ interview with “60 Minutes”:

Harris maintained that migration is a “long-standing issue” when asked about President Joe Biden’s administration’s approach to immigration policies and declined to answer whether officials should have cracked down sooner.

From the beginning, the Biden administration faced record migration in the Western Hemisphere, which was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. For the past three years, U.S. officials have dealt with waves of migrants at the southern border.

Asked why the administration didn’t crack down sooner, Harris cited an immigration bill proposed to Congress in early 2021 and criticized Republicans for rejecting a recent bipartisan border bill after Trump urged them to reject the measure.

CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker asked: “But there was a historic flood of undocumented immigrants crossing the border in the first three years of your Administration. In fact, arrivals have quadrupled since President Trump’s last year. Was it a mistake to relax immigration policies as much as they did?”

“It is a long-standing problem. The solutions are at hand. And from day one, literally, we have been offering solutions,” Harris said.

When pressed about the record number of crossings and whether more action should have been taken sooner, Harris declined to answer, focusing instead on recent measures that have led to a drastic reduction in crossings and put the responsibility to act in Congress.

“We need Congress to be able to act to really solve the problem,” he said.

Harris said she would not meet bilaterally with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a solution to end the war in Ukraine.

“Ukraine must have a say in the future of Ukraine,” he said.

Harris said that “there will be no success in ending that war without Ukraine and the UN Charter participating in what that success looks like.”

The vice president avoided answering whether she would support the effort to expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to include Ukraine, saying she would “take care of that if and when that point comes.”

“Those are all issues we will address if and when that point comes. Right now, we are supporting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against unprovoked aggression from Russia,” Harris said.

He said that if Trump were president, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now,” referring to the Ukrainian capital.

“He talks about, oh, he can finish it on the first day. Do you know what it is about? It’s about giving up,” Harris said.

Harris met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last month, where she reiterated her unwavering support for the country.

“As I have made clear in our six previous meetings and throughout Putin’s brutal aggression and war against Ukraine, my support for the people of Ukraine is unwavering,” Harris said. “I am proud to support Ukraine, I will continue to support it and I will work to ensure that Ukraine prevails in this war, so that it is safe, secure and prosperous.”

At one point, the interview showed Harris hanging out in Ripon, Wisconsin (said to be the birthplace of the Republican Party) with former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.

Cheney, who was ousted in a primary last year for her role in the House investigation into the attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, endorsed Harris and spoke at a rally at the key status last week.

“I hope that if you had told me four years ago, ‘Our Constitution is going to be threatened and it will be crucial for the parties to come together and support Vice President Harris because she will defend the rule of law,’ I know I would have said, ‘That’s exactly what What will I do?’” Cheney told CBS.

When asked if she had imagined campaigning alongside Cheney four years ago, Harris responded warmly.

“That would be great,” Harris said, as she and Cheney laughed.

“She’s really diplomatic,” Cheney joked.

Later, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also appeared, facing probing questions about past statements that had been scrutinized by Republicans and the press after becoming the vice presidential pick.

He acknowledged making false claims about his military record and about being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square riots. But he said those moments were “expressing emotion, telling a story, getting a date wrong,” rather than being “a pathological liar like Donald Trump.”

Still, Walz said Harris had encouraged him to choose his words more carefully.

“She said, ‘Tim, you know you need to be a little more careful about how you say things,’ whatever it was,” Walz said.

Harris criticizes Trump’s decision to abandon “60 Minutes” interview

Trump pulled out of his “60 Minutes” interview after his campaign accepted him and scheduled a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago estate, CBS correspondent Scott Pelley said Monday night at the start of the broadcast. the most viewed news magazine in the country.

Trump sat down with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl in October 2020 and abruptly ended the interview when she apparently objected to Stahl’s questions. Trump told reporters in Wisconsin last week that he would “like to receive an apology” for that interview before sitting down for another one.

The former president has largely only taken questions from friendly interviewers, including Fox News, in recent weeks.

“If you’re not going to give your viewers a chance to have a meaningful, thoughtful conversation, Q&A with you, then watch your rallies,” Harris told Whitaker.

“You will hear conversations about him and all his personal grievances. And what you won’t hear is anything about you, the listeners. “You won’t hear anything about how he’s going to try to unite the country, to find common ground,” he said. “And, Bill, that’s why I believe in my heart and soul that the American people are ready to turn the page.”

– ‘s Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.