Vice President Kamala Harris grabbed headlines on Wednesday while making remarks on the White House’s global water security plan — and for all the wrong reasons.
A viral video shows the vice president laughing… while talking about deadly droughts that disproportionately impact the global poor.
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Critics pounced on the footage. The Republican Party quickly put it on YouTube.
“I remember watching in the Oakland Hills, in Northern California, the landscape turning from green to brown,” the clip shows Harris telling the audience. “And everyone, from my mother to our teachers, the radio DJs… KDIA!”
Harris starts to laugh at her own reference to a local Oakland AM radio station that played soul music throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.
“Lucky 13!” a laughing Harris says before composing herself. “Saying how important it was to conserve water.”
In the rest of her remarks, Harris said making sure that every country should have enough water so the world can prevent conflicts, improve health outcomes, and boost local economies. Working towards those goals will make the world more stable and secure, according to a newly released White House plan to address issues facing global water supplies and quality.
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The Biden administration said it will spend taxpayer money to secure water infrastructure abroad and provide technical expertise to help other countries manage their water resources.
Harris said the spending plan will help address the “root causes” of illegal immigration to the United States. Republicans have sharply criticized the Biden administration over the number of illegal migrants that have overwhelmed the Southern border.
More than two billion people around the world live in “water stressed” countries where demand for water exceeds supplies, the World Health Organization estimates. Harris said that reality will have a “profound impact on America’s interests around the globe.”
“Water insecurity makes our world less stable,” she said, adding that it can lead to “mass migration, which can put significant pressure on neighboring communities.”
Wednesday’s plan states that gaps in access to basic sanitation in Central America “contribute to inequality, drive migration, and foment civil unrest.”
U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Samantha Power said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has deprived millions in that country of clean water.
“Some leaders are taking advantage of water insecurity and actually wielding it as a weapon of war,” said Power, who also spoke at the event.
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The White House said it would use existing tax dollars to implement the plan, but was thin on specifics about how deadlines or goals would be met. Those goals include improving clean water access without increasing greenhouse gas emissions, helping other countries sustainably manage resources, and getting international organizations to address water security issues.
Harris spoke at the White House alongside Power and Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary at the Department of Defense. Other speakers included Alice Albright, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the daughter of former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article