Billionaire Mark Cuban praised Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday afternoon in a social media post for supporting a bipartisan border bill, amid criticism from Republicans and former President Donald Trump regarding her handling of the U.S. border.
The Shark Tank star and minority owner of the NBA‘s Dallas Mavericks, wrote in a Friday afternoon post on X, formerly Twitter, that “Kamala Harris has said she will sign this partisan border bill. She is the only candidate to commit to a detailed border security plan.” Shortly after the post was published, he corrected the typo to “bipartisan.”
The bipartisan border bill, proposed by Senators Kyrsten Sinema, James Lankford, and Chris Murphy—an Independent, Republican, and Democrat, respectively—was subsequently blocked by Senate Republicans in February.
Trump was reportedly behind the nixing of a bipartisan bill in Congress which would have boosted funding for the border and increased security earlier this year. The former president and 2024 Republican nominee condemned the bill, writing in a Truth Social post in January that it “will be meaningless in terms of Border Security and Closure,” and is a “gift to the Radical Left Democrats.”
On Tuesday, Harris said, “As president, I will bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump killed, and I will sign it into law, and show Donald Trump what real leadership looks like.”
With immigration and border security as a top issue in the 2024 presidential election, Trump and his allies have criticized Harris’s approach to the border as Joe Biden‘s vice president.
In 2021, Biden tasked Harris with leading the administration’s diplomacy with Central American countries to address the “root causes” of migration. The influx of border crossings during the Biden administration has led many politicians, mostly Republicans, to criticize her approach.
Earlier this week, Trump’s campaign released its first TV ad focused on the new presumptive Democratic nominee, calling her the “border czar.”
Cuban, who previously backed Biden before he exited the race last month, recently joined a group of venture capital investors supporting Harris’s new presidential campaign, called “VCs for Kamala,” which now boasts over 700 signees.
The group’s website says, “We believe that strong, trustworthy institutions are a feature, not a bug, and that our industry — and every other industry — would collapse without them. That is what’s at stake in this election.”
In his X post, he added, “If the Republican candidate has detailed a plan, and I have missed it. Please post it below. And for those who think it is inconceivable she would be tough on the border. Here are some stats comparing the previous administration to the Obama administration, as reference,” linking to a 2020 Pew Research article.
Kamala Harris has said she will sign this partisan border bill. She is the only candidate to commit to a detailed border security plan.
Here is a link to the complete bill and summaries of it. https://t.co/9L5VXL8gxs
If the Republican candidate has detailed a plan, and I… https://t.co/dYonXb9SaM
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 2, 2024
The article states that the Obama administration had the highest number of “removals of unauthorized immigrants,” in 2013, at 432,281 compared to the Trump administration’s highest at 337,287 in 2018. It also found that while ICE arrests increased when Trump took office, the average remained lower than majority of Obama’s tenure.
On the other hand, the report noted that “southwest border apprehensions more than doubled in 2019, driven by increase in families.”
As of Saturday afternoon, Cuban’s post had been viewed more than 4.3 million times. In another post on Saturday, he reiterated his support of Harris, saying “she knows the assignment.”
Trump’s Communication Director Steven Cheung told Newsweek, “Marc Cuban is such a dummy that if he would simply go on our website, he’d find a detailed plan. But he’s stupid and inept and it’s quite remarkable someone like him can be a mildly successful businessperson.”
Newsweek reached out to Cuban, along with Harris’ campaign for comment via email on Saturday.
