Vice President Kamala Harris’s new communications director has apologized for past remarks questioning why federal immigration officers ignored undocumented immigrants being interviewed on cable news.
“Just saw 2 undocumented folks talking on MSNBC. One Law student the other a protester. Can someone explain why ICE is not picking them up?” Jamal Simmons wrote on Nov. 29, 2010.
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A few minutes later, he added, “I’ll try this again: Just saw 2 undocumented folks talking on MSNBC and have serious legal question. Why wouldn’t ICE pick them up?”
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Simmons clarified his comments at the time, stating he was not “suggesting ICE shld pick them up. Just seems odd u can go on TV & admit breaking law & not be arrested.”
The tweets surfaced in a Fox News report on Friday that detailed other comments by Simmons in recent years, including accusing former President Donald Trump of “pushing a janky science vaccine.”
In a statement provided to the Washington Examiner, Simmons apologized for his remarks, writing that “as a pundit for much of my career I have tweeted a lot and spoken out on public issues. Sometimes I have been sarcastic, unclear, or just plainly missed the mark.”
He continued, “I sincerely apologize for offending those who care as much as I do about making America the best, multi-ethnic, diverse democracy it can be. I know the role I am taking on is to represent the Biden-Harris administration, and I will do so with humility, sincerity and respect.”
Harris has faced scrutiny over the high turnover inside her press office after several recent high-profile departures. Simmons was expected “to really change things up,” a source familiar with his appointment told the Hill.
The vice president also faces a low job approval number of 32%, according to a recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll, suggesting broader challenges with voters.
Simmons, a longtime Democratic operative and television commentator, has touched on Harris’s perceived challenges in remarks over the years.
In a 2019 Facebook post, he said Harris’s campaign appeared “listless” and “unfocused” ahead of her breakout debate performance in July, though he speculated the moment could shift her standing in the race.
“I’m curious to see how this changes over the summer, now that Kamala’s poll numbers have increased and Biden seems more like a winged bird than the inevitable nominee,” Simmons added, alluding to Harris’s on-stage challenge to Joe Biden over his history on busing.
After Harris dropped out of the race in late 2019, he said the former California senator “never quite got comfortable getting out of the pre-planned moment.”
Despite garnering headlines, “there was no … next moment in the campaign to keep everybody fired up and going,” Simmons said. “All the air just sort of kept coming out of the balloon.”
Further, he said Harris failed to capture the support of young black voters who “never bought the Kamala Harris campaign.”
“The first thing they brought up was her criminal justice reform record,” he said.
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Simmons said both Biden and Harris could be unpredictable.
“When Kamala Harris goes into a room, frankly sometimes when Joe Biden goes into a room you just don’t know what will happen in that room, what they will argue,” he said.
