Harris' last-minute border visit shows her campaign knows 'they have to do something,' CNN host says

CNN anchor Abby Phillip argued on Monday that Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has finally realized she can no longer "float above" the immigration issue.

The vice president is reportedly planning to visit the U.S. southern border during a visit to Arizona on Friday, her first visit to the border since emerging as the Democratic nominee. With the last-minute visit to the border, Harris hopes to "counter" Trump's "advantage with voters" on immigration, according to The New York Times.

"She’s hoping to change the narrative that she’s soft on immigration," Phillip said at the start of a panel discussion on the network Wednesday. 

Polls have consistently shown voters trust Trump to better handle border security. Phillip cited a NBC News poll out this week, showing Harris trailing Trump by 21 points on securing the border and controlling immigration.

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Republicans have criticized Harris over how she's handled the border as VP, and over her liberal stances on immigration that she supported as a California senator and during her 2019 presidential campaign.

CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings argued that the Harris campaign strategy wouldn't convince Americans she would be tough on immigration as president.

"Her views on this are so obvious," he said, referencing a recently resurfaced 2018 video where then-Sen. Harris chants, "down, down with deportation."  

"Going to the border is not going to change that… they don't trust Democrats on this issue," he said.

CNN liberal commentator Bakari Sellers argued that Harris wanted to take action on the border, but was thwarted by Republicans in Congress. He pointed to how Republicans killed the border bill last February, which Harris backed and has pledged to sign into law if elected in November, according to her campaign.

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Whoever was to blame, Phillip concluded that Harris could no longer avoid the issue, or it could cost her the election.

"One of the things about this moment, I mean, the Harris campaign has just been trying to float above it all, to float above the immigration arguments, float above some of the nitty-gritty details on some of this policy. But this shows that they realized they have to do something," she said of the border visit.

Harris previously supported decriminalizing illegal crossings at the border during the 2020 presidential primaries, arguing they should be a civil offense instead. 

She has backed away from some of her far-left policy positions since emerging as the Democratic presidential nominee, taking a more "pragmatic" approach to issues like immigration.

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Her campaign said in a statement last month that Harris' views on immigration are "the same as the [Biden] administration's — unauthorized border crossings are illegal." 

"While Donald Trump is wedded to the extreme ideas in his Project 2025 agenda, Vice President Harris believes real leadership means bringing all sides together to build consensus," spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement last month. "It is that approach that made it possible for the Biden-Harris administration to achieve bipartisan breakthroughs on everything from infrastructure to gun violence prevention. As President, she will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common-sense solutions for the sake of progress."

Fox News' Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.