In an interview with Spectrum News on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris did not mince words about efforts to kill a bipartisan Senate deal to implement border policy reform in exchange for unlocking aid to Ukraine, Israel and other international allies.

The deal has faced significant resistance from former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, as well as some House Republicans led by Speaker Mike Johnson.

“We have been working around the clock with a bipartisan group of senators to fix the problem [at the border],” Harris said. “We have requested $14 billion to send to the border to fix what's broken there. But there are some people who are intent on standing in the way of solutions because they want the political chit, they want to play the political card on the problem instead of fixing it.”

“We're nine months away from an election, we could start fixing it right now,” she added. “And real leaders should be about solutions, not about fanning a problem for the sake of their own political survival.”

While full details of the measure have not yet been revealed, the proposal from the Senate is said to include expansion of a program that tracks asylum seekers with electronic surveillance, as well as the ability for federal authorities to expel migrants when the number of crossings reaches a certain number. (Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said they will post the full text of the bill "as early as" Friday, and no later than Sunday, with a vote expected on the bill next week.)

“We know, and I think many people have known for a long time, that our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed,” Harris said. “In fact, right after President [Joe] Biden and I were inaugurated, the first bill that we offered is to fix and to clean up our immigration system, including creating a pathway for citizenship.

“[Congress has] not taken it up,” Harris said. “Because what we're seeing … and we're seeing it from a number of Republican elected leaders, is they would prefer to run on the problem in the next election than fix the problem right now.”

House Speaker Johnson said last week that the bill was “dead on arrival” in the House, though this week he denied that they were were scuttling it to help the former president's reelection campaign.

“From what we've seen, clearly, what's been suggested is in this bill is not enough to secure the border,” Johnson said at a press conference this week, adding that the idea he and other Republicans are killing the deal to help Trump is “absurd.” 

“I have talked to President Trump about this issue at length and, and he understands that, he understands that we have a responsibility to do here,” he said. “Of course, President Trump wants to secure the country.”

Trump has said Democrats want the deal because they “need it politically,” calling it a “gift” to his political enemies, and swore at a Nevada rally last weekend that he wouldn’t support the deal under any circumstances. 

“As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible, open borders betrayal of America,” Trump said at a rally on Saturday. “It’s not going to happen, and I’ll fight it all the way.”

But on Wednesday he denied that he was trying to deny Biden a win: “If you’re not gonna get a great border bill, an immigration bill, don’t do a bill. If it’s not going to be good, if it’s not going to solve the border problem, don’t do the bill … If the bill is not going to be a great bill and really solve the problem, I wouldn’t do it at all. Not for political reasons, just for U.S. reasons.”

Efforts to scuttle the bill have drawn consternation from Democrats and some Republicans alike.

“The last thing [Trump] needs to do is tell [Republican lawmakers] to wait to pass a border deal until the election,” former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump’s top rival for the GOP nomination, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

“My message to Republicans is: Do not leave D.C. until you finish the job. We have waited for so long for Congress to do something about the border,” Haley said, later adding: “We can't wait one more day”

“It is interesting, Republicans, four months ago, would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy, so we actually locked arms together and said, ‘We’re not going to give money for this. We want a change in law,’” Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, the lead Republican negotiator on the bill, said on “Fox News Sunday” last weekend. “And now it’s interesting, a few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding, I actually don’t want a change in law because of presidential election year.’”

Two prominent Senate Republicans also spoke out against efforts to tank the bill: Utah Sen. Mitt Romney called efforts to kill the bill "appalling," while North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who called it "immoral" to not address the border.

“I didn’t come here to have the president as a boss or a candidate as a boss. I came here to pass good, solid policy,” Tillis said last week. “It is immoral for me to think you looked the other way because you think this is the linchpin for President Trump to win.”

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the lead Democratic negotiator on the bill, told reporters on Thursday that he was “worried” about the delay in passing the bill.

“Every day that goes by in which they don't commit to funding the deal is a day that we're closer to their decision being made in favor of Donald Trump,” Murphy said, per POLITICO.

“It's wild to me that after working for four months to get a breakthrough deal to fix the border Republicans are talking about walking away from it, just because Donald Trump doesn't like it,” he added. “That's ridiculous.”

Biden, meanwhile, has implored Congress to give him the tools he needs to address issues at the border.

“I’ve done all I can do. Give me the power,” Biden said as he boarded Marine One outside the White House on Tuesday. “Give me the Border Patrol… give me the judges, give me the people who can stop this and make it work best.”

Harris has been the Biden administration’s point person on immigration since March 2021, primarily focused on ways to address the root causes of migration. Throughout her tenure in the White House, Harris has touted billions of dollars in private sector investments aimed at fixing the issue.

Spectrum News' Joseph Konig contributed to this report.