(The Daily Signal)—For Kamala Harris, failure is not an option. It’s a governing principle.
President Joe Biden has delegated at least four key responsibilities to his vice president.
On each one, she has belly-flopped hard enough to empty an Olympic swimming pool.
Border Czarina
“I’ve asked her, the V.P., today … to lead our diplomatic effort and work with those nations to accept the returnees, and enhance migration enforcement at their borders,” Biden said about Harris at a March 24, 2021, White House ceremony.
“When she speaks, she speaks for me,” Biden added. “She knows what she’s doing, and I hope we can move this along.”
Defying Biden’s urgency, Harris did not visit the U.S.-Mexico border until June 25, three months after being crowned border czarina. After shirking her duties, Harris made her second, box-checking border journey this past Sept. 27.
In the intervening 39 months, southern boundary conditions deteriorated dramatically:
- Since February 2021, the first 42 months of Harris’ rule saw illegal-alien incursions on the U.S.-Mexico frontier soar from 2,450,167 under Donald Trump’s comparable period to 8,326,109—up 339.8%.
- Add 1,664,203 detected-but-uncaught “known gotaways” from fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2023 (versus 384,439 from fiscal year 2017 through fiscal year 2019 under Trump (up 432.9%), and the number of illegal aliens who invaded America under Harris rises to at least 9,990,312. This excludes “unknown gotaways,” who went unseen and uncaptured.
- During Trump’s tenure, 11 illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist were nabbed at the border. On Harris’ watch: 382 such illegal aliens got caught—up an explosive 3,472%.
- Czarina Harris lost 323,000 illegal-alien children. Where are those unaccompanied minors? Who knows? Monsters, quite literally, are exploiting thousands of them as slaves in sweatshops. Even worse, boys and girls are raped routinely as sex slaves.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that from fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2023, fentanyl (usually smuggled across Harris’ obliterated “border”) fatally poisoned 222,166 people in America, including those who thought they had consumed legitimate drugs.
- Maria Gonzalez, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Rachel Morin are just three among many who police say illegal aliens have killed. Even former President Bill Clinton conceded that Laken Riley, a slain Georgia nursing student, was a victim of Harris’ no-border policy.
On Oct. 13, Clinton told Peach State voters about Riley, “a young woman who had been killed by an immigrant,” allegedly by José Ibarra, a Venezuelan illegal alien who broke into America in September 2022, on Harris’ watch. Ibarra reportedly is tied to the deadly Tren de Aragua gang. Clinton added, “If they’d all been properly vetted, that probably wouldn’t have happened.”
- The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated in March 2023 that coddling illegal aliens costs local, state, and federal taxpayers $150.7 billion annually.
Broadband Czarina
During an April 28, 2021, joint session of Congress, Biden unveiled a rural-broadband initiative. “I’m asking the vice president to lead this effort,” he said, “because I know it will get done.”
No such luck.
“It appears that your performance as ‘broadband czar’ has mirrored your performance as ‘border czar,’” nine U.S. senators wrote Harris, including Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Deb Fischer of Nebraska. Their Sept. 18 letter continued: “Under your leadership, not a single person has been connected to the internet using the $42.45 billion allocated for the [Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment] program.”
That’s right: Despite Biden’s Nov. 15, 2021, signature, not one American has been hooked up via the BEAD plan, even after 34 months and more than $42 billion in taxpayer money.
As the senators explained, “burdensome climate change mandates” have stymied progress. So have a nine-step review process and a requirement that participating employers give preference to “individuals with past criminal records.” Consequently, Politico reports, “No actual construction projects are expected to begin until at least 2025.”
Bridge-Building Czarina
Biden sent Harris to the February 2022 Munich Security Conference. Goal: Project sufficient U.S. and allied strength to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine. Vice presidential scholar Joel Goldstein told CNN: “I think this is certainly the most significant mission yet of her vice presidency.”
The bridge-building czarina said at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof on Feb. 19, 2022, that “sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states must be respected” and “national borders should not be changed by force.”
Five days later, Russia invaded Ukraine.
Bus Czarina
Harris and the Environmental Protection Agency have pushed the Clean School Bus program since September 2022. As Thomas Catenacci reported on July 19 at The Washington Free Beacon, this boondoggle deployed $965 million to ship 2,463 electric school buses to 389 school districts. Two years later, just 60 green buses serve only 27 districts. Fifty-five districts have fled the program.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee reported last month that diesel-fueled school buses typically cost $100,000. Electric school buses average $381,190. This nearly 400% higher cost, limited driving range, and poor cold-weather performance have flattened the tires on Harris’ fantasy vehicles.
Beyond dispute, Harris is the Czarina of Failure.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.