5 Takeaways From Harris Town Hall on CNN

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris (L) speaks as CNN moderator Anderson Cooper (R) looks on during a CNN Presidential Town Hall at Sun Center Studios in Aston, Pa., on Oct. 23, 2024. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Vice President Kamala Harris fielded questions from undecided Pennsylvania voters at a town hall meeting in Delaware County on Oct. 23. The event occurred just 13 days before the Nov. 5 election, as Harris is locked in a tight presidential race with former President Donald Trump.

Just as in an interview with NBC News a day earlier, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper challenged Harris on a number of her positions, including immigration as well as her changed positions on issues such as fracking and Medicare for all.

The event featured questions from a group of 32 voters who said they were open to persuasion, according to Cooper. Some had voted Republican in the previous election, some Democrat, and some had not voted, either by choice or because they were ineligible at the time.

Delaware County is a densely populated area adjacent to Philadelphia and part of the largest metropolitan area in a state that is considered a toss-up in the current election. Harris is virtually tied with Trump in polls of the Keystone State and six other states that are likely to determine the result of the 2024 presidential election.

Here are five takeaways from the event.

Working With Congress

Harris promised voters that she would be a solutions-oriented leader who would work with Congress to solve major problems such as the high costs of housing and groceries and what she called the broken immigration system.

“We’ve got to get past this era of politics and partisan politics slowing down what we need to do in terms of progress in our country, and that means working across the aisle,” she said.

“I’ve done that before. It is my commitment to work with Democrats, with Republicans, with independents to deal with a number of issues.”

On the campaign trail, Harris has frequently highlighted a border bill introduced by Democrats earlier this year as an example of a bipartisan solution.

The bill included $20 billion in funding for border security and a mechanism to shut down the border after seven consecutive days of an average of 5,000 illegal immigrants encountered per day or if more than 8,500 illegal aliens are encountered in a single day.

Proponents of the bill said it would grant President Joe Biden additional authority to close the border and that it would alleviate the situation by providing new funding that could help stop the flow of fentanyl over the border.

Opponents contend that the bill doesn’t secure the border and might only make the situation worse—particularly through a clause that could effectively codify allowing 5,000 illegal aliens into the country per day.

Border Patrol agents arrive with a vehicle after a group of illegal immigrants walked from Mexico into the United States at Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif., on June 5, 2024. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Pressed on Border Security

Cooper interjected Harris multiple times with questions during the town hall, most pointedly on the subject of illegal immigration.

Following a response to a question on the subject, Cooper noted that the Biden administration had taken recent executive action that had dramatically decreased the number of illegal border crossings. He asked why that had not been done sooner.

“Because we were working with Congress and hoping that actually, we could have a long-term fix to the problem instead of a short-term fix,” Harris said.

Asked whether she wished the administration had taken executive action sooner, she said, “I think we did the right thing, but the best thing that can happen for the American people is that we have bipartisan work happening.”

Cooper noted that the bipartisan border bill that she favors included $650 million for construction of the border wall, which she has previously criticized.

Apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the southwest border hit an all-time high of 301,982 in December last year.

It’s estimated that since 2021, more than 10 million people have illegally crossed the southern border, according to the House Committee on Homeland Security.

A group of illegal immigrants are apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border protection officers after crossing over into the United States, in Ruby, Ariz., on June 26, 2024. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

End Senate Filibuster to Pass Abortion Law

In an NBC interview the preceding day, Harris was asked whether she would agree to any concessions on the issue of abortion access if a nationwide right to abortion could not be passed by Congress. She said she would not.

A May Pew Research Center poll found that 63 percent of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases and that 36 percent say it should be illegal in all or most cases.

Cooper repeated a version of the question, noting that passage of a national abortion law would be difficult as it would require 60 votes in the Senate and a majority of the House.

“If that’s not possible, what do you do?” Cooper said.

“I think we need to take a look at the filibuster, to be honest with you,” Harris said, referring to the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to end debate on a bill and bring it to a vote.

The filibuster has been widely criticized and lauded by both sides at different times. Critics see it as a tool that allows a minority to block important legislation. Supporters argue that it is critical to ensure bipartisan solutions from the Senate while protecting the rights of the minority.

Although Democrats had unified control of the executive and legislative branches during President Joe Biden’s first two years in office, Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) opposed eliminating the filibuster, joining all Republicans in preserving the mechanism in what was an evenly divided Senate.

The GOP took back the House in the 2022 midterms.

Manchin said he would not support Harris for president over the issue.

“She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy,” he told CNN in September. “It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids.”

Escalating Attacks on Trump

Harris’s remarks were salted with criticisms of the former president, including a 5 1/2-minute opening statement in which she cataloged the reasons that she believes he is unfit to hold the office of the president.

“I think it compels a lot of people to be concerned about the future of our country with Donald Trump at the lead,” Harris said.

She went on to list several former Trump administration officials who have retreated from supporting him, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

Asked whether she believes claims made by Kelly this week that Trump is a fascist, Harris said, “Yes, I do.”

Trump and previous members of his administration have fiercely opposed the claims made by Kelly.

“I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore,” Pence’s former chief of staff, Mike Ayers, said on X. “I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is *patently false.*”

Mark Paoletta, general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), also spoke out against Kelly, writing on X: “I don’t believe a word he says. He was a terrible chief of staff who dishonestly kept information from the President to pursue his own agenda.”

Trump denounced the stories on Oct. 23, saying Kelly “made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred.”

Shares About Faith, Grief

Harris spoke about her personal life in response to questions about her Baptist faith and her grief over the death of her mother.

She said she prays every day.

“I was raised to believe in a loving God, to believe that faith is a verb,” Harris said. “Your life’s work should be to think about how you can serve in a way that is uplifting other people, that is caring for other people. And that guides a lot of how I think about my work.”

Later, when asked whether she continues to grieve the loss of her mother, who died of cancer in 2009, Harris said, “You don’t stop grieving.

“I don’t think there’s any correct or proper way to grieve. And the most important thing is, I think, that people do not suppress what they’re feeling at any moment. And the rest of us should give them grace to go through it as they will.”

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a CNN Town Hall moderated by television host Anderson Cooper at Sun Center studios in Aston, Pa., on Oct. 23, 2024. Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

Harris led Trump by 3.7 percentage points in an average of national polls in late August. That lead has diminished to 1.7 points, with a number of polls now showing Trump in the lead.

The race in Pennsylvania, which holds 19 electoral votes, is a statistical tie, according to the average.

More than 26.5 million people have already cast ballots either in person or by mail in the 2024 election, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab. More than 158 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election.