Appearing on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday morning, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered some of her most pointed comments yet on her Republican rival for the White House, former President Donald Trump, criticizing him for his rhetoric around Hurricane Helene, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the U.S.-Mexico border. 

She also used her live interview to announce a new policy proposal aimed at helping those in the so-called “sandwich generation” care for aging parents and children at the same time. 

In a wide-ranging conversation, Harris slammed Trump for attempting to politicize the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, which swept through the Southeast late last month, killing more than 227 people and causing billions of dollars in damage. 

“The idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself,” Harris said of her GOP opponent. “He puts himself before the needs of other – I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level, to care about the suffering of other people and then understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down — it’s to lift people up."

The former president has sharply criticized the Biden administration’s response to the powerful storm, baselessly claiming that the president is withholding disaster assistance to GOP-dominant areas and charging, without evidence, that money belonging to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid recovery has been spent on migrants in the U.S.

“It’s profound, and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness,” Harris said of Trump’s claims. “Lives are literally at stake.” 

Harris made waves when asked about what she would do differently than Biden, her current boss, if elected. She originally said there wasn’t anything that came to mind before. The Trump campaign seized on the comment in social media posts.

Harris later noted one difference: that she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet, something she first pledged to do in August. 

“I don’t feel burdened by letting pride get in the way of a good idea,” she said. 

When asked about the border – an issue that has surged in importance to voters and one in which polls show Republicans have an edge on – Harris touted the drop in encounters at the southern border since President Joe Biden’s executive action cracking down on asylum and called on Congress to allocate additional resources for border agents.

But she also used the topic to double down on her criticisms of Trump, noting, as Democrats often do on the campaign trail, that he lobbied to kill the border bill that a bipartisan group of senators spent months working on earlier this year. 

“Donald Trump prefers to run on problems instead of fixing problems,” she said. “He is not solution oriented.” 

Harris went on to assert that Trump spends his time at his rallies talking about personal grievances and perpetuating lies and misinformation. 

“He spends full time talking about fictional characters,” she added. “But what he does not talk about is you.” 

The vice president on Tuesday also announced that if elected, she wants Medicare to offer a new benefit for home care for seniors in a bid to lower costs for those paying for both senior and child care. 

The plan, according to a senior Harris campaign official, would cover services, like in-home aide care, giving families another option beyond having to put aging parents in nursing homes. The campaign official said such a move could save families $3,000 a month. 

“It’s about dignity for that individual, it's about independence for that individual,” Harris said on Tuesday. “They want to stay in their home, they don’t want to go somewhere else. Plus, for the family to send them to a residential care facility, to hire somebody is so expensive.”

Harris asserted the benefit could be paid for by allowing Medicare to continue negotiating with companies for lower prescription drug prices, a power it was given in one of the Biden administration’s signature pieces of legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act. 

The vice president on Tuesday said this allows Medicare to save money it would otherwise be spending on higher drug prices and instead put those funds toward a new benefit, such as her at-home senior care proposal. The Harris campaign official also noted that the plan would be paid for by cracking down on Pharmacy Benefit Manager hidden costs, and other measures.

Harris’ new proposal aimed at senior care specifically adds to her pledges to seek to make child care more affordable as well with policies like providing families a child tax credit of $3,600 per kid and a $6,000 tax cut for families with newborn babies. 

The vice president also spoke about the Sunday that Biden called her to tell her he was dropping out of the race. She recounted some of the details she previously shared, such as that she had just made her two grandnieces breakfast and was doing a puzzle with them when Biden’s call came in. But she also added a few new details about the day that she referred to as “surreal,” including that one of the first people she called was her pastor. 

“I mean, I needed to talk to God and to pray,” she said. “I understood in real time what was happening and obviously then it really set in in the hours and days to come.” 

The vice president’s visit to “The View” was her first stop on a New York City media tour on Tuesday. She also took part in an interview on “The Howard Stern Show” and later was set to tape CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” 

Tuesday’s media blitz follows her interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Monday night and a sit-down with Alex Cooper, host of the popular “Call her Daddy" podcast.