Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump attacked rival Vice President Kamala Harris over immigration policy in Austin, Texas, on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. In this photo, Trump looks on during a campaign event on Dec. 19, 2023 in Waterloo, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump in Austin, Texas, on Friday attacked Vice President Kamala Harris over her approach to immigration and border security, while echoing several false claims.
The respective GOP and Democratic presidential candidates spent one of the final days leading up to the election in the heavily red Lone Star State — not regarded as a battleground in the presidential race — at dueling campaign events.
Polling continues to depict the two in a deadlock nationally, as Nov. 5 rapidly approaches.
While Trump focused on the border and crime, Harris was slated to speak in Houston on Friday night underlining her support for reproductive rights — a key issue for Democrats — in a state with one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
“We’re here today in the great state of Texas … which, under Kamala Harris, has been turned into ground zero for the largest border invasion in the history of the world,” Trump said during a campaign stop at an airplane hangar.
Trump baselessly claimed that “over the past four years, this state has become Kamala’s staging ground to import her army of migrant gangs and illegal alien criminals into every state in America.”
The former president also knocked Harris’ actions surrounding border security, calling her approach “cruel,” “vile” and “absolutely heartless.”
He also again incorrectly dubbed Harris “border czar.” President Joe Biden tasked Harris with addressing the “root causes” of migration in Central America in 2021, but he never gave her the title of “border czar.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security heads border security.
Trump also echoed his recent rhetoric, saying the U.S. is “like a garbage can for the rest of the world to dump the people that they don’t want.”
Speaking to reporters in Houston on Friday, Harris said this rhetoric is “just another example of how he really belittles our country.”
“The president of the United States should be someone who elevates discourse and talks about the best of who we are and invests in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump, who’s constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are,” Harris said.
Trump also reiterated his commitment, if reelected, to launching “the largest deportation program in American history” immediately upon taking the oath of office.
“We have to get all of these criminals, these murderers and drug dealers and everything — we’re getting them out, and we’ll put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell out of our country, and we’ll get them out,” he said.
During a NewsNation town hall in Michigan on Thursday, Trump’s running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, fielded a series of questions on topics such as immigration, housing and abortion.
One of those questions came from Trump himself.
“How brilliant is Donald J. Trump?” the former president asked Vance over the phone.
Laughing, Vance replied: “Well, first of all, sir, this is supposed to be undecided voters — I would hope that I have your vote, of all people but … sir, of course, you’re very brilliant.”
The Ohio Republican proceeded to talk about his wife, Usha, and Trump speaking with each other.
Trump, who said he watched the CNN town hall with Harris the night prior, then asked Vance: “How brilliant is Kamala?”
“That’s a very tough one, sir,” Vance said. “I’m supposed to say something,” he added, hesitating.
Vance also defended the baseless claims he’s amplified in recent weeks regarding legal Haitian migrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.
“Well, what I said then, and I’ll say now is, you’re hearing a lot of things from your constituents. They’re telling you things, and I think it’s important for me to listen to the people that are coming to me with their problems,” Vance said.
“Now, do I think that the media certainly got distracted on the housing crisis and the health crisis and the crisis in the public schools by focusing on the ‘eating the dogs and the cats’ things? Yeah, I do, and do I wish that I had been better in that moment? Maybe,” he said.
“But it’s also people in my community, people that I represent, are coming to me and saying, this thing is happening. What am I supposed to do? Hang up the phone and tell them they’re a liar because the media doesn’t want me to talk about it?”
The debunked claims surrounding legal Haitian migrants have prompted a series of bomb threats and closures in Springfield.
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