CLAY: Kamala Harris’ trip to the border, which is already getting attention, and proving how much they can’t even manage the most basic optics on this, Buck. When she lands in El Paso, she’s standing beside the congresswoman in El Paso, and we have an unbelievable sound bite that is already starting to go viral.

BUCK: Here it is.

PETER DOOCY: How did you decide that right now is the right time to make your first trip to the border.

HARRIS: (pause) Well, it’s not my first trip.

PETER DOOCY: As the vice president.

HARRIS: I’ve been to the border many times!

PETER DOOCY: As the person in charge of the response.

HARRIS: So… (pause) The important aspect of this business is leading this visit after the work that we did in Guatemala and Mexico, because, as I have long said…. I said back in March, I was gonna come to the border, so this is not a new plan.

BUCK: Oh, it’s not new, Clay. It’s like she’s been there… It’s like she’s been there all along. The act here has worn very thin right? And she had to go — we all know — because the media couldn’t cover for her enough. And there she had a snappy exchange with Peter Doocy of Fox, who I feel like we really keep getting to give high fives to here because, hey, must be fun to be somebody who’s a journalist who asks questions that are necessary.

Not even just are, you know, pushing back but just are necessary for anybody trying to get answers. But you also mentioned this other moment where a member of Congress sitting next to Kamala when she comes down here and references the situation — we want to dive into this — the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border as though it is similar to Ellis Island. Play 2.

VERONICA ESCOBAR: (giddy) Well, Good morning, everyone! Welcome to El Paso! Welcome to my community, to the new Ellis Island, to the capital of the border! I am standing before you with a heart full of gratitude. Uh, Madam, uh, Vice President, thank you for being here.

BUCK: Clay, you know, she mentions Ellis Island. Let’s first start with Ellis Island was legal immigration.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: It’s an interesting fact that even a percentage, about 2% give or take of people who showed up at Ellis Island were told, “No. You have to go back to the country you came from.” But a vast majority, of course, a huge majority of them did get to stay. But it’s about 12 million people who passed through Ellis Island over the course of over 50 years, 12 million over 50 years.

When you look at the numbers now, you have — and of course we’re talking about illegal immigration going on in huge numbers. You’re going to have, likely, over a million apprehensions for illegal crossing at the border this year alone, which doesn’t include half a million visa overstays which is roughly has to the U.S. each yearbook, the tens of thousands of “got-aways.”

Those are people that just made it into the U.S. free and clear. To look at this actually I think shows you how the Democrats don’t see this in the way that any normal, reasonable person would. It’s just utter lawlessness and an open border.

CLAY: Well, Kamala Harris needs to answer that question because she was standing alongside congresswoman when she said this border is the new Ellis Island. So does Kamala Harris believe that the southern border is the new Ellis Island? She should be asked that question directly because she’s standing next to the congresswoman when she says it.

And we’ve already been talking about the messages that are being sent by this administration as it pertains to people who are trying to illegally cross the border. How do you think those people are going to respond when the vice president finally comes to the southern border which has become basically ungovernable, and one of the congresswomen there compares it to Ellis Island which basically is saying, “Hey, come here! You can come into our country.”

BUCK: And next week or the week after that when they have numbers for illegal apprehensions at the border again, the media is going to do this whole, “Oh, it’s not because of a change in tone from the Biden administration. In fact,” and they’ll pick sometime in the Trump era.

They’ll say, “It’s pretty much the same thing.” The gaslighting on what’s going on at the border is mind-blowing, and it’s going to continue. I would just say the real question that you have to ask any Democrat right now on the left about this is, “Who shouldn’t get to stay?” When you start with that, you’ll see that their answer.

They won’t really give this answer, but their feeling is, “Well, everybody should get to stay.” I mean, if you show up at the border and say you want to be here and you’re apprehended for illegal entry, and then usually there’s the asylum claim that comes up.

Why shouldn’t those people be allowed to stay if you believe that America is “a nation of immigrants” and all the rhetoric that Democrats like Harris and Biden and others use all the time? I believe in rule of law. I believe in secure borders. At least there can be consistency in that Democrats want it both ways.

They want the laws to be that people have to go through a process to come here, but if you circumvent that process, there will be no consequences. As long as the incentives are what they are right now, Clay, nothing changes, which is you are more than likely to stay here if you know how to game the system.