Two CNN panelists tried to talk over each other Friday night during a passionate discussion over Vice President Kamala Harris' speech at the Arizona border.
Harris delivered the speech in Douglas, Arizona, and focused on border security and illegal immigration. Despite indicating in the past that unlawful border crossing ought to be a civil offense, Harris vowed to push for harsher criminal penalties for repeat border crossers and give the Justice Department more resources to target transnational gangs. She also pledged to revive a bipartisan border security bill once torpedoed by former President Donald Trump.
The speech became the topic of discussion on CNN's "NewsNight," with Republican commentator Shermichael Singleton asserting that the country saw the highest number of illegal immigrants entering the country in 2022.
"Some people may criticize some of Donald Trump's policies on this particular issue, but if the [Biden] administration would have left some of those policies in play, this probably wouldn't have been that big of an issue," said Singleton.
Leigh McGowan, a content creator known as PoliticsGirl, fired back at Singleton and said the country wouldn't have had as big of an illegal immigration issue if the bipartisan border bill had passed.
"Literally it wouldn't be a big deal if we'd passed the border bill back in 2013," she noted. "But the Bohner House decided not to take it up. It wouldn't be a big deal if we'd passed the border bill in January, but the House refused to take it up."
McGowan said the "issue is better off being unsolved" for the GOP.
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"You can't win for winning, right? She's not at the border, she goes to the border," a frustrated McGowan said. "This is bad, this bad. She can't do anything right."
Republican strategist Erin Perrine admitted that Trump came out against the border bill, but said her party had real "policy disagreements" with Sen. James Lankford's bill.
"That was part of the calculus," said Perrine.
When Perrine tried to assert that the bill would not have solved "everything," McGowan had heard enough.
"No one is saying it would've solved everything," she shouted, trying to talk over Perrine. "In fact, [anchor Abby Phillips] said it would be a 'compromise.'"
The two then proceeded to continue talking simultaneous with raised voices, with McGowan blasting lawmakers for doing "nothing," and Perrine insisting Americans still feel Republicans have been "better on the issue."
"How can you be better on an issue when you've done nothing for 11 years?" McGowan fired back.
"Ask the American people!" Perrine retorted.
Watch the clip below or at this link.