Mark Cuban spars with Riley Gaines over Harris' handling of the border crisis

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Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban used his X platform Friday to respond to 24-year-old former college swimmer and conservative activist Riley Gaines over criticisms of Vice President Kamala Harris' handling of the southern border. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released data to lawmakers Friday revealing that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with sex offenses and homicide convictions have crossed the border into the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration. These include 13,099 convicted of homicide and 15,811 of sexual assault. 

Cuban, who has been a staunch advocate for Harris, Joe Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in 2016, has defended the VP's record on the border. Cuban even said he thinks the actions she has taken to reduce the flow of illegal migrants across the southern border "have actually worked" in a recent CNBC interview.

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Gaines called out Cuban for his praise of the vice president in a post on X Friday. 

"We might have different standards for what qualifies as a 'good job,' but I don’t think the illegal entrance of 15,000+ rapists, 13,000+ murderers, and 320,000 missing children fits the bill," Gaines, the host of OutKick's "Gaines for Girls" podcast wrote. 

Gaines' reference to the 320,000 missing children is from another report from the Department of Homeland Security released Aug. 21 that revealed the Biden-Harris administration has lost track of that number of migrant children who crossed the border without parents. 

Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, left, testifies during a House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services hearing on Capitol Hill Dec. 5, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Cuban responded to Gaines in his own X post just 90 minutes later. Cuban admitted the current administration "waited too long to fix the border." But he then criticized Trump for his promise to carry out the largest mass deportation in American history if elected. 

"I have said many times they waited too long to fix the border. The good news is that the latest crossing numbers are lower than Jan 21 and staying near 1,500 a day," Cuban wrote, along with screenshots of two articles covering a statistical reduction in illegal border crossings. 

"And the VP has been clear she will sign the bi-partisan border bill. It’s a fair argument to criticize them for waiting too long. But you also have to acknowledge that they are now having success. Which leads to the question of deportations. The Republican nominee says he is going to deport the 21 million people here illegally. He hasn’t said how he will do it." 

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Cuban referenced a border bill that Senate Democrats failed to pass through Congress in May when all but one Republican senator, along with six Democrats, voted to block it. 

Democrats argued the bill was intended to reduce border crossings, raise the standard for migrants to qualify for asylum and empower officials to rapidly send away those who fail to meet that standard. It would give the president power to shut down the border if migration levels exceed certain thresholds. But concerns about the bill were raised with earlier drafts having the border provisions attached to funding for Ukraine and Israel. 

Gaines responded to Cuban's defense of his praise for Harris in another X post Friday evening, discrediting the statistics Cuban offered and slamming the border bill.

"They’re flying in illegal immigrants and dropping them into the heartland of America, often in places we don’t even know about," Gaines wrote. "The bi-partisan border bill is a Trojan horse. The first time it was voted on it included funding for Ukraine. She campaigns on securing the border acknowledging (indirectly) the problems that have been created under the Biden Harris Admin. she's been in the White House for 3.5 years. Why not take action now?" 

Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban walks off the court after a Mavericks loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the American Airlines Center.  (Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports)

Gaines also called out Cuban for not addressing the 320,000 missing children statistic she mentioned in her first post. 

Cuban had not responded to Gaines again at the time of publication. 

Cuban's defense of Harris and Democrats has ramped up in recent weeks. He has done several interviews endorsing the VP in the upcoming election, making statements that have raised eyebrows from conservative voters. Cuban has suggested Trump is "a socialist" and even said he believes the mainstream media "leans right" in a recent CNBC interview.  

Earlier this year, when Biden was still the presumptive Democratic nominee, Cuban went so far as to say he would vote for Biden over Trump even if Biden was "being given his last rites."

"If they were having his last wake, and it was him versus Trump, and he was being given last rites, I would still vote for Joe Biden," Cuban told Bloomberg News in March.

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However, Cuban has also said he supported Trump at the outset of his first candidacy in 2015. 

"In 2015, I was like, ‘He's great. He's not a typical Stepford candidate. I thought that was a positive," Cuban told Vivek Ramaswamy in an interview on X Aug. 7.

Gaines has been an advocate for Trump in this election cycle. Gaines even spoke at one of Trump's rallies in Glendale, Arizona, Aug. 23. There, Gaines made a speech in which she claimed she was voting for Trump "because I'm a woman." 

"They don't believe in school choice; they don't believe in parental rights or the safeguarding of children; they don't believe in freedom unless it's the freedom to have an abortion or chemically and surgically castrate children," she said. 

"You have one ticket that knows what a woman is and has vowed to take decisive action at protecting our sex-based rights, compared to the other ticket that thinks men can become pregnant, and that tampons belong in boys' bathrooms."

Riley Gaines and Mark Cuban (IMAGN)

Harris will make a rare visit to the southern border in Arizona as she seeks to blunt criticism from former President Trump on the matter and renews her call for the bipartisan border bill. Conservatives were not swayed by the visit.

"Border Czar Kamala Harris has had nearly four years to protect America and failed," RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE), told Fox News Digital in response to the data. "She is allowing tens of thousands of murderers and rapists to roam free. She puts criminals first and the safety and security of you and your family last."

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