VP Kamala Harris ducked most media for year after ‘disastrous’ sitdown

Vice President Kamala Harris steered clear of most one-on-one interviews for nearly a year after a “disastrous” appearance with NBC News’ Lester Holt in which she bumbled through an answer about the border crisis.

In the widely mocked June 2021 interview, Holt pressed Harris to explain why she had yet to visit the US-Mexico frontier three months into her appointment as President Biden’s “border czar.”

“We’ve been to the border,” Harris insisted. “So this whole thing about the border — we’ve been to the border.”

“You haven’t been to the border,” Holt responded.

“And I haven’t been to Europe,” Harris shot back with an awkward laugh to punctuate the apparent attempt at humor. “And I mean, I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”

referred to Harris as a “work in progress” early in his presidency.

Soon after the Holt interview, Harris’ public standing was further damaged by the first of several reports alleging a toxic work environment at her office, which has seen frequent staff turnover.

Harris’ notable TV appearances since the Holt interview have included a September 2021 hit on “The View” that was sitdown with Charlamagne Tha God that December in which the VP scolded the rapper after he asked whether Joe Biden or Sen. Joe Manchin was the real president.

In September of last year — 18 months into her tenure as America’s border czar — Harris again came under fire after insisting in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the southern border was “secure,” despite a record number of migrant arrests.

“The border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular, over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed,” Harris told moderator Chuck Todd.

When the NBC host pressed her on the issue, Harris delivered an incoherent response.

“We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration,” Harris said. “But there are still a lot of problems that we are trying to fix given the deterioration that happened over the last four years.”

Harris made history as the first woman, the first African American and the first Asian American to ever serve as a vice president, but her job performance so far has left many in the Democratic camp grumbling, with one prominent party fundraiser telling the Times, “I can’t think of one thing she’s done.”