{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=2EE4EFA1-F9A6-48C1-A153-F07EB1C7F800", "McConnell: \u201cBorder Czar\u201d Can\u2019t Escape Far-Left Record", "2024-09-19", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 record:\n\n\u201cI spoke yesterday about how working Americans are having a tough time figuring out where Vice President Harris stands on left-wing climate policy. She\u2019s played both sides of issues that carry real consequences for their livelihoods and family budgets.\n\n\u201cAnd unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t stop at the Green New Deal. Voters consistently report that border security is among their top concerns. And with good reason.\n\n\u201cIn the last four years, humanitarian chaos and a security crisis at the southern border has set all the wrong records. Since the Biden-Harris Administration took office, CBP has recorded more than 9.9 million encounters with illegal aliens. And this doesn\u2019t include the nearly 2 million known gotaways.\n\n\u201cIn the past fiscal year alone, CBP have encountered 2.3 million people attempting to illegally enter the country. And the Democratic nominee for President also happens to be the current administration\u2019s point person responsible for this exact issue.\n\n\u201cYou might expect the border czar to have taken command and left a clear idea of where she stands on the issue. Think again.\n\n\u201cBack in 2020, she described President Trump\u2019s border wall as \u2018a complete waste of taxpayer money\u2019 that, \u2018won\u2019t make us any safer.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut recently, she said that she would sign Senator Lankford\u2019s border bill into law if it landed on her desk. Remember, this is the bill that would\u2019ve unlocked hundreds of millions of dollars to fund construction of the wall.\n\n\u201cIn 2019, when she first ran for President, our former colleague expressed support for decriminalizing illegal border crossing. Apparently this was a longstanding view \u2013 in her maiden speech in the Senate she proclaimed, 'I know what a crime looks like, and I will tell you: an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut according to her campaign, she no longer believes this.\n\n\u201cOn other aspects of border policy, her campaign has declined to say whether her earlier commitments still hold true.\n\n\u201cVice President Harris has bragged that she was \u2018one of the first Senators after President Trump was elected to advocate for a decrease in funding to ICE.\u2019 Is she still proud of that stand? The Harris campaign won\u2019t say.\n\n\u201cThis is especially puzzling given her stated support for the Lankford border bill which increased funding for ICE. Does she not know what\u2019s in the legislation she says she now endorses?\n\n\u201cIn this body, she introduced legislation to decrease detention by at least 50% and end funding for new detention facilities. Would she sign a bill like that today? Her campaign is mum on the issue.\n\n\u201cAnd they\u2019re similarly tight-lipped on the Vice President\u2019s 2019 statement of support for taxpayer-funded gender transition treatment for persons in immigration detention facilities.\n\n\u201cThis isn\u2019t to say that the American people are at a total loss for clues on where Vice President Harris stands. She\u2019s repeated often on the campaign trail that, \u2018My values have not changed.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s useful to note who\u2019s taken her word for it. The executive director of a progressive immigration group recently put it this way, \u2018We all know and trust Harris to make the right decisions when she's in office.\u2019\n\n\u201cWhen it comes to campaign strategy, some of our Democratic colleagues are even saying the quiet part out loud. The senior Senator for Vermont, a self-described democratic socialist, said \u2018I don\u2019t think she\u2019s abandoning her ideals. I think she\u2019s tried to be pragmatic and doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe senior Senator for Hawaii reiterated this point. He\u2019s said, \u2018I certainly don\u2019t think we should be demanding that she take unpopular positions in key states.\u2019\n\n\u201cSitting Democratic Senators are calling it like it is: Our former colleague is saying what needs to be said to appeal to independent voters. But when it comes to her progressive agenda, she\u2019s dyed in the wool. She just needs to wait until the election to let the mask come off.\n\n\u201cSo for voters trying to make sense of where the Vice President stands, it comes down to this:\n\n\u201cIf Washington Democrats\u2019 left-wing base isn\u2019t afraid of her flip-flops\u2026\n\n\u201c\u2026then it\u2019s safe to say that working Americans probably should be.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=2EE4EFA1-F9A6-48C1-A153-F07EB1C7F800"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4164310414344072, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}