‘We’re dealing with the real world’

Kamala Harris whiffed on an attempt to explain how she’d help boost small businesses and repeatedly deflected when asked about the “historic flood” of migrants crossing illegally into the US since she’s been vice president in a  “60 Minutes” interview that aired Monday.

Harris, 59, was unable to describe how her fiscal policies would work in “the real world,” including passing both chambers of what is likely to be a divided Congress, after CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker accused her of being unrealistic.

“My plan is about saying that when you invest in small businesses, you invest in the middle class and you strengthen America’s economy,” Harris told Whitaker during the sit-down.

A CBS correspondent pressed Vice President Kamala Harris in a “60 Minutes” interview on specifics about her plan to invest in small businesses. CBS

“Small businesses are part of the backbone of America’s economy,” she restated.

“Pardon me, Madam Vice President, the question was, ‘How are you going to pay for it?’” Whitaker interrupted.

“Well, one of the things I’m gonna make sure,” Harris began, blinking repeatedly in apparent surprise at the questioner’s pushback, “that the richest among us — who can afford it — pay their fair share in taxes.”

“It is not right that teachers and nurses and firefighters are paying a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations. And I plan on making that fair,” she went on.

“But we’re dealing with the real world here,” Whitaker interjected. “How are you going to get this through Congress?”

“You know, when you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress, they know exactly what I’m talking about ’cause their constituents know exactly what I’m talking about,” the vice president said before repeating herself yet again. “Their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses.”

Harris, 59, was unable to describe how her fiscal policies would work in “the real world.” CBS

Harris’ economic agenda — which includes increasing the amount in tax deductions offered for startups to $50,000 — is estimated to add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to a nonpartisan analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released Monday, even while raising taxes on corporations, the ultra-wealthy and others to the tune of $4.25 trillion.

Billionaires and other high-income earners also do not pay lower tax rates than teachers, nurses or firefighters, according to analyses by both the US Treasury Department and the Congressional Budget Office.

The top 1% income bracket shoulders 46% of the nation’s tax burden at a current taxation rate of 37%, according to economists.

The average tax rate for teachers, nurses and firefighters based on those occupations’ median income is 22% — but could be as low as 12% for married couples and heads of households.

In an early clip released of the sit-down with CBS’ Bill Whitaker that will air at 8 p.m. Monday, Harris, 59, was unable to explain how her fiscal policies would work in “the real world.” Getty Images

Critics have harped on Harris’ word salads during her time in office, which have earned her comparisons to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ vacuous character Selina Meyer in HBO’s “Veep.”

Often, the vice president resorts to repetition when asked to clarify her positions — most recently in an interview last week with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, when Harris used the word “holistic” three times in 23 seconds.

Harris, who has embraced President Biden’s recent “crackdown” on illegal immigration, sidestepped when asked by Whitaker why the administration didn’t aim to stem illegal border crossings years earlier. 

The vice president blamed Congress for not taking up legislation to “actually fix” the border crisis. 

“There was an historic flood of undocumented immigrants coming across the border for three years of your administration,” Whitaker noted in a follow-up. 

“Arrivals quadrupled from the last year of President Trump — was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policy as much as you did?” 

Harris called illegal immigration a “longstanding problem” and argued that “solutions are at hand, and from day one, literally, we have been offering solutions.”

“Was it a mistake to kind of allow that flood to happen in the first place?” Whitaker pressed. 

“The policies that we have been proposing are about fixing a problem, not promoting a problem,” Harris argued.  

Harris’ economic agenda is estimated to add $3.5 trillion to the national debt. AP

“But the numbers did quadruple under your watch,” the “60 Minutes” correspondent shot back. 

To which Harris responded, “The numbers today, because of what we have done, we have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half.” 

Harris went back to her criticism of Congress when Whitaker tried to ask a third time whether the administration should’ve pursued those policies sooner. 

Harris was also asked by Whitaker to respond to criticism that she’s flip-flopped on so many issues — fracking, immigration and Medicare for all — that voters “don’t truly know what you believe or what you stand for.”  

The vice president argued that her policy shifts are part of an effort to build “consensus.” 

“But we’re dealing with the real world here,” Whitaker interjected. “How are you going to get this through Congress?” CBS

“I have been traveling our country, and I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground,” Harris said. “I believe in building consensus.”

“We are diverse people — geographically, regionally, in terms of where we are in our backgrounds — and what the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build a consensus,” she added, serving up some of her trademark word salad. 

“It’s not a bad thing,” Harris said of making compromises on policy, “as long as you don’t compromise your values.” 

Meanwhile, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz acknowledged that Harris has “probably disagreed” with the way he’s embellished stories from his past. 

“She said, ‘Tim, you know, you need to be a little more careful on how you say things,’ whatever it might be,” Walz said of what the vice president has told him since the falsehoods he’s told about his military record and being in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre have surfaced. 

“I think folks know who I am, and I think they know the difference between someone expressing emotion, telling a story, getting a date wrong, rather than a pathological liar like Donald Trump,” the Minnesota governor said. 

“I think I can,” Walz said when asked whether he can be trusted to tell the truth. “I will own up to being a knucklehead at times, but the folks closest to me know that I keep my word.”

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