President Donald Trump continues to turn real issues on the ground on both sides of the United States’ southern border into political arguments for his long sought border wall. This Monday, as he prepared to head down to El Paso, Texas, for his first campaign rally of 2020, he claimed to reporters that Democrats want to open the doors for dangerous individuals to roam freely — and a CNN panel subsequently nailed him for the utterly outlandish way he described some of the crimes he pointed to.
Complaining about Democrats yet again, Trump had said:
‘Not only don’t they want to give us the money for the wall, they don’t want to give us the space to detain murderers, criminals, drug dealers, human smugglers — how bad is that? Human smuggling — people think of that as an ancient art.’
As the clip faded out, CNN’s Jake Tapper quipped quite simply:
‘I don’t know anyone that considers it an ancient art.’
As the other guests on his show laughed, panelist — and former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and former presidential candidate — Rick Santorum chimed in that the activity was certainly an ancient crime — but again, not an “ancient art.”
Watch below.
President Trump is notorious for his exaggerations and just outright lies, having lied literally thousands and thousands of times and counting since taking office. In just the seven weeks leading up to the recently concluded midterm elections, he offered either a misleading claim or an outright lie an average of 30 times per day.
A quick look at his Twitter feed makes his penchant for overly dramatic language abundantly clear. Just the other day, he claimed himself to have worked harder than any other American president ever — including, presumably, everyone from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, all of whom led the nation through times of distress Trump can only dream of.
While these lies are often outrageous — he’s claimed to have gotten a higher approval rating than Lincoln although public opinion polls of that nature weren’t even conducted when he was in office — they have often far-reaching consequences.
This week, currently approved government funding will run out, just weeks after the longest shutdown in American history ended. All of the turmoil has emerged because Trump has insisted on billions of dollars for a border wall blocking off Mexico, and Congressional Democrats have shown no interest in agreeing to his demands.
Although that’s the main and no doubt most high-profile issue, others have arisen. For instance, in recent days, broad border security talks between members of both parties have stalled because of Republican demands for more detention space for undocumented immigrants than Democrats are ready to agree to.
Republicans claim going with the Democratic way will allow criminals to roam free in the United States — although again, the Democratic Party is not pushing for an “open border” or “lawlessness,” and under their plans, it’s not like normal law enforcement functions cease.
Still, heading into this weekend when another shutdown putting large numbers of Americans out of work may commence — it’s not like the Republicans are giving up their fiercely partisan, outlandish claims.
Featured Image via screenshot from the video
