Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who is seen as a strong Democratic vice presidential pick, defended the vice president's record on immigration and went on the attack against Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, in an interview on "Morning Joe" on Wednesday.
"Donald Trump and Senate Republicans, what did they do several months ago? We had a bipartisan bill that we negotiated faithfully with the administration, both sides of the aisle, and Donald Trump said that Senate Republicans can't vote for it," Kelly said. "He wanted to talk about this issue instead of actually fix it and JD Vance and other Republicans, they ran away from it."
He said Vance, who plans to visit the U.S.-Mexico border Wednesday, should instead be back in Washington passing legislation on the border.
"I mean, JD Vance is down here," Kelly said. "I think he's in Arizona today probably getting a photo op at the southern border. Kamala Harris is about solving problems. Donald Trump wants to take us, drag us back a decade."
Kelly said, in contrast, Harris wants to address border and immigration.
"She's worked on this problem for three-and-a-half years and it's a challenging problem. I mean, I represent a border state. But we have made progress, especially with what was put in place over the last several months," Kelly said defending Harris. "But I can't stress more that this is an issue that Donald Trump and Republicans just want to talk about."
When asked what he thought Harris needed in a running mate, Kelly said, "That's going to be something that the vice president is going to have to figure out."
"I think she's got a lot of great choices out there," he added. "My focus is not on this, and this is not about me. I mean, this is about the future of our country."
-ABC News' Fritz Farrow
