CBS Face the Nation and vice presidential debate moderator Margaret Brennan tossed Colorado Governor and Kamala Harris surrogate Jared Polis a huge lifeline when engaging the issue of violent transnational gang Tren de Aragua’s (TdA) activities in Aurora, a Denver suburb.

Watch as Polis fumbles around with a response to the TdA question before getting bailed out, and then pivoting to the failed border deal (click “expand” to view full transcript):

CBS FACE THE NATION

9/22/24

11:09 AM

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about some of her economic plans but first about immigration. You heard Senator Rubio on this program talk about the lack of attention being paid to immigration and the border crisis, but I know you, Governor, have been dealing with it firsthand. In Aurora, Colorado, that’s been getting a lot of attention from the Trump team in particular, because of members of a Venezuelan prison gang who migrated here to the U.S. and apparently were involved in a shooting in Aurora. During the debate, Donald Trump used Aurora as an example of the worst of the migrant crisis. This is what he said yesterday.

DONALD TRUMP: Under Border Czar Harris, Venezuelan gangs have taken over entire apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado. The governor is petrified in Colorado. He's a liberal governor. He doesn't know what to do. The guy is so scared of these guys and maybe you can't blame him…

BRENNAN: Governor, I know local officials set up a special task force, but how do you respond to this personal attack here?

JARED POLIS: Well, I- you know, I went shopping in Aurora yesterday. What a lot of Americans need to know is Aurora is a- over 400,000 people, it’s Colorado's third-largest city. Violent crime is down two years in a row, car thefts are down two years in a row. It's a wonderful city. I’m there all the time. It's really a great, diverse city and it’s growing fast. It’ll probably be the number one or two city in Colorado over the next decade or two. So- it’s a great city. It’s safer than it's been. And look. Like any city, Chicago, L.A., mid sized cities, Denver, of course there's been an issue with gangs for decades in Aurora and I feel that we finally turned the corner. I mean, this is the difference between electing a president that skirts the law versus one who’s made a career enforcing the law. I mean- Kamala Harris is somebody who stared criminal enterprises in the face, put criminals behind bars as district attorney, and she’s going to take that same attitude to The White House to make America safer.

BRENNAN: But the mayor of Aurora has acknowledged a special task force was established, and said they're working with the federal government, it’s regional issue. Should- should the Harris campaign be talking about some of these real issues, and acknowledging them, in a way that might help their campaign? Because, really, the answer is about that failed border bill at the- in Congress- that's usually what the Harris campaign talks about. Should they acknowledge more of these real issues?

POLIS: Well, first of all, I think that's a legitimate and important issue to talk about. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress, had a real beal(sic) bill before them to make the needed investments in border security. Look, I've been down to the border. I've- I’ve- I've been at border crossings. We need better border security. Kamala Harris will deliver on that because it's not a simple proposition. It requires investment. High-tech investment. Fencing. Scanning. More Border Patrol agents, which the bill would have funded more Border Patrol Agents. So, look. I'm confident that Kamala Harris is somebody that will actually solve the border issue rather than keep it going for purely political reasons and dividing us. We need somebody who’s going to unite us, and of course that includes securing our border.

BRENNAN: Should she talk about it more?

POLIS: Look, I mean- I think she talks about it as one of the issues. I mean, it’s- we need to make America safer. We need to secure the border. She had a plan to do that. It was blocked by Donald Trump and Republicans. So look, I think it's a great issue for people to run on and talk about. And it's one that Democrats should have a huge advantage on. Because Republicans have failed time and time again to secure our border.

On the one hand, Brennan asked the question that Regime Media has thus far avoided asking: the Aurora question. It remains to be seen whether this question gets asked on its own in the vice presidential debate, or whether it gets lumped in with Springfield. 

On the other, Brennan tossed Polis a lifeline after his initial word salad of a response. An inconvenient fact that often escapes Regime and Regime Media analyses of the migrant crisis: by the time discussions of the failed border deal began in earnest most illegal migrants, if not the vast majority, had already crossed the border and made it into the interior of the United States. Social media is awash with videos of suspected TdA types bragging about the ease with which they made it into the United States back in 2021 and 2022.

Polis took Brennan’s guidance and spun to the failed border deal before the interview ended with a question about affordable housing. But not before giving us insights both into how the Aurora question might get asked at the debate, and into the Colorado governor’s disconnect with this key issue ahead of the election.