A progressive activist was met with criticism after saying Kamala Harris should be remembered fondly for her accomplishments during her term as vice president.
MSNBC regular Lauren Leader made the assertion Friday on Morning Joe - and was immediately shunned for failing to offer any examples aside from Harris's support for abortion.
The conversation with guest host Katty Kay - filling in for Joe and Mika - surrounded the looming return of migrant family detention centers, a strategy put in place by then-President Donald Trump but pulled by President Joe Biden.
President-elect Trump's 'border czar' Tom Homan on Thursday raised the possibility the centers once slammed as inhumane for imprisoning children could return as early as next year.
Leader, a frequent contributor of opinion-based content for both MSNBC and outlets like The Hill, called Homan's plans 'disturbing', before building up the sole person President Biden had tasked with addressing the situation.
Critics have said Harris has largely failed on that front, leaving Americans to suffer for the sake of migrant families.
After being tapped to solve the crisis early on, it took her years to make her first - and only - visit to the area, in September of this year.
Aside from that, Harris took the lead on issues like abortion rights - though not much else. Still, Leader insisted she will go down as one of the most 'accomplished' VPs in history - before claiming illegals should receive protections if they have citizen kids.
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MSNBC regular Lauren Leader made the assertion Friday on Morning Joe - and was immediately met with criticism for failing to offer any examples aside from Harris's support for abortion
Critics have said Harris has largely failed on the front of immigration, leaving Americans to suffer for the sake of migrant families
'I think history is going to look kindly on her term,' Leader told Kay and others on the broadcast.
'She was an extraordinary advocate on issues that matter to women, that we have never seen before - and I think that many women, and really anyone who is a first, who is a trailblazer, we carry an extra heavy load.
'And the burden that is upon them, it is incredibly difficult road, path to walk,' the activist continued, adding, 'But she's done it with grace.
'I think [Harris] has made some really important strides on behalf of women in the country.
'I think especially in the way she's defined the abortion rights issue, as a freedom issue, will be looked back on as defining,' she declared, before offering a bare bones, somewhat puzzling explanation..
'I hope we take a moment to acknowledge her extraordinary history-making contributions - and not just that her sole legacy is having lost the presidency.
'Because there's so much more that she's accomplished in her time,' Leader went on, with a chyron alongside her insisting: 'Impact of Kamala Harris and her historic four years.'
'The fact that she did lose the election has overshadowed what was so extraordinary and important about her accomplishments as the first female vice president.'
The conversation surrounded the looming return of migrant family detention centers, a strategy put in place by then-President Donald Trump but pulled by President Joe Biden
President-elect Trump's 'border czar' Tom Homan on Thursday raised the possibility the centers once slammed as inhumane for imprisoning children could return as early as next year
Many viewers pointed out that Harris's list of accomplishments noted by Leader were remarkably short. One person wrote: 'They can't name any because there aren't any.'
Another added: '"Extra heavy load"? Besides showing up for photo ops and saying the same word five times in a row, what exactly is her "extraordinary contribution"?
'If abortion is the only "accomplishment" they can name, it says everything about their priorities, and her record.'
And another critic added: 'This is laughable. No VP has ever done less than she has.'
The discussion on the show then turned to ex-HUD Secretary Julián Castro, with showrunners allowing the former Fed the final word while seemingly letting Leader off the hook when it came to listing examples.
Harris, meanwhile, spent much of the 2022 midterms prior to replacing Biden appealing to voters with promises to prioritize reproductive rights, following the supreme court's surprise decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Harris met with lawmakers from 18 states to discuss the issue, which she promised to rectify upon reaching the Oval Office.
However, factors like inflation and the continued crisis at the Southern Border proved to be her undoing, after Biden bowed out after being bombarded for the same issues as well as suspicions surrounding his soundness of mind.
Meanwhile, Trump doubled-down on his anti-illegal immigration stance that alienated some voters in 2020 and even 2016 - saying earlier this year migrants were 'poisoning the blood of the US' at legal immigrants' expense.
Latino voters from battleground states such as North Carolina and Pennsylvania - many of whom fled their countries of origin in search of a better life - appeared to take note in November, a Siena poll conducted by The New York Times found.
It found that more than 40 percent of Latino and Hispanic voters continued support to build a wall, and saw 63 percent of respondents say they do not 'feel like [Trump] is talking about me' when he discusses policies surrounding immigration.
Biden's - and therefore Harris's - failures there further fueled their belief that something more must be done when it comes to deportations and border scrutiny, as seen from the pronounced turnout from Latino Trump supporters.
After being tapped to solve the crisis early on, it took her years to make her first - and only - visit to the area, in September of this year
President-elect Donald Trump's new 'border czar' said last week the use of family detention centers is 'on the table,' spurring the progressive panelists' conversation
Aside from that, Harris took the lead on abortion rights - though not much else. Still, Leader On Friday insisted she will go down as one of the most 'accomplished' VPs in history - while being joined by guests like Al Sharpton (top right) and ex-HUD Secretary Julián Castro (bottom left)
The Demographic's somewhat surprising support for the president-elect was up substantially since his loss to Biden, when he only won 32 percent.
Biden and Harris' failure to address inflation also proved decisive, said experts like University of Houston political science professor Jeronimo Cortina - as Americans all over the country aired frustrations over a rapid rise in their cost of living.
'Latinos were saying, "I don't care what Trump says. I want to be able to pay the bills I want to be able to send my kid to college. I want to pay the mortgage, to afford a new car," he told Axios of Latino voters' mindsets.
'I think this is really a story of the headwinds that were obviously too much to overcome for Democrats structurally (and) with the economy' added University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's Álvaro J. Corral, while conceding he was surprised by 'the magnitude of the shift' seen since 2020.
Many Latinos, he pointed out to the website, are in the working class, adding that despite recent advances in helping the diminishing US dollar, 'even inflation that's trending downward is still not good.'
Such ideas appeared lost on Leader Friday, as she painted both Biden and Harris as political savants.
Aside from pointing out how the cost of Homan's deportation plans could cost Americans nearly a trillion dollars, she called them morally 'disturbing.'
'They see anyone who has entered the country as having committed a crime,' Leader said of the looming administration.
Aside from pointing out how the cost of Homan's deportation plans could cost Americans nearly a trillion dollars, she called them morally 'disturbing' - claiming that since illegals 'have citizen children', they should receive some federal protection
'Also, frankly, what it could do to the American economy,' she warned at another point. 'If you consider what this would do to the labor force'
'I think most 4:54 Americans don't see it that way. We have families who have been here for decades, who are law-abiding, tax-paying noncitizens.'
She added how since illegals 'have citizen children', they should receive some federal protection.
'Also, frankly, what it could do to the American economy,' she warned at another point. 'If you consider what this would do to the labor force.'
