On Meet The Press, moderator Kristen Welker allowed Sen. Lindsey Graham to lie in regards to the border with no challenges to his statements.
Video:
Kristen Welker permits Lindsey Graham to lie in regards to the border on #MeetThePress with zero pushback. Welker appears extra fascinated by the concept of a Senate deal than correcting lies by Graham. pic.twitter.com/ZiufSa62tg
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) December 17, 2023
Transcript by way of Meet The Press:
KRISTEN WELKER:
– there’s going to be a deal earlier than the brand new yr?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM:
No. I believe it will go into subsequent yr. I’ve been speaking to the folks on the desk. The White Home bought engaged 5 days in the past. They despatched over a supplemental with border safety provisions that did nothing to vary coverage. We’ve been speaking to them since September. 5 days in the past, they lastly sat on the desk. Senator Lankford’s doing a superb job. The underside line right here is, we really feel like we’re being jammed. We’re not anyplace near a deal. It’ll go into subsequent yr. And let me let you know why it’s vital to get a superb border safety deal. What Congressman Castro stated was fairly offensive. In line with the FBI director, final week, he’s by no means seen extra threats to the homeland than he does as we speak. Wherever he appears to be like, he sees blinking lights. The border has been obliterated since January ’21 till now. We’ve had 6 million folks come thus far. There are 3.6 million on schedule to come back this yr alone. The coverage selections of the Biden administration has made the border a harmful place to come back to. America’s beneath risk. In line with the FBI director since October the seventh, jihadist teams need to assault us as a result of we’re serving to Israel. I’ve by no means been extra anxious a couple of 9/11 than I’m proper now, and our border has been obliterated. And we’re not going to provide in on some Band-Help repair.
KRISTEN WELKER:
I need to speak in regards to the proposals which can be beneath dialogue. However, simply to be very clear, you say you’re not near a deal. But it surely seems like there was some measured progress –
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM:
Undoubtedly. Undoubtedly.
KRISTEN WELKER:
– like either side are coming nearer collectively –
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM:
Undoubtedly progress, sure –
KRISTEN WELKER:
How would you characterize that progress?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM:
Oh, the one means we’re ever going to get a safety border is we’ve bought to make them do issues they don’t need to do, however they’re getting there. It was a selection by the Biden administration to vary coverage that led to this debacle. However there’s progress on asylum. There’s a methods to go on parole. You inform me Ukraine’s vital, and I agree with you. To all of the nationwide safety specialists, whenever you say, “If we don’t assist Ukraine, they may lose, and the world would fall into chaos; Putin will hold going,” I agree with you. However should you’re a nationwide safety professional, you must have the identical vitality and vigor to repair a damaged border.
KRISTEN WELKER:
And naturally, the Biden administration has argued there are a posh set of things which have led to the migrants –
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM:
I don’t purchase that. I don’t purchase that.
KRISTEN WELKER:
– who’re crossing the border –
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM:
I don’t purchase that.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Let me ask you – one in all –
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM:
Can I simply touch upon that? You selected to undo Trump insurance policies. You gave in to folks like Mr. Castro. You’ve created a nightmare. It’s bitten you within the ass, and you’ll want to change coverage. This isn’t unseen elements. It is a coverage selection that’s led to the border being obliterated, and we’re not going to take a Band-Help method as an answer.
Trump’s Border Insurance policies Have been A Full Failure
In line with the conservative Cato Institute, Donald Trump’s border insurance policies have been a failure:
President Trump’s high coverage precedence was supposedly “border safety.” However authorities information present that he failed to enhance it. Border Patrol recorded 41 p.c extra profitable unlawful entries in fiscal yr 2019 than in 2016 and was on tempo for 47 p.c extra by 4 months of 2020. As he left workplace in January, experiences point out that the numbers have reached even better heights.
….
But regardless of this supposed focus, the federal government information present that Border Patrol was observing extra immigrants sneaking into the nation than when President Trump took workplace. In fiscal yr 2016, Border Patrol brokers witnessed about 100,000 profitable entries. By 2018, the quantity had risen to just about 128,000. In 2019, it hit 150,000. Via 4 months of 2020, it was on tempo to hit nearly 156,000.
Lindsey Graham and congressional Republicans need to return to a failed coverage for political causes, to not clear up a coverage drawback.
The Biden Border Coverage Seems To Be Working
An evaluation of President Biden’s border coverage from the Council On International Relations discovered:
Biden is making an attempt to vary the perverse incentives driving unlawful crossings and encourage migrants to enter the nation legally. With Title 42 lastly set to run out in early Might, lengthy after the tip of just about all different pandemic-related restrictions, the Division of Homeland Safety has revealed a proposed rule aimed toward stopping what’s in any other case anticipated to be a good bigger surge of migration. The stick is a giant one: With some exceptions, the administration plans to reject asylum claims from anybody who crosses the border illegally. However the carrot is sizeable too: Since this January, as many as 30,000 migrants from the most important sending international locations of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are being admitted every month on the authorized ports, so long as they’ve a U.S. sponsor to take care of them on arrival. They will fly on to the US, forgoing the damaging and dear journey throughout Mexico. For these already ready on the border in Mexico, Customs and Border Safety has arrange a brand new digital sign-up system on an app referred to as CBP One, which permits asylum seekers to make appointments for his or her claims to be heard.
The administration has been rolling out variations of the scheme over the previous yr, and it seems to be displaying optimistic outcomes. Underneath the Uniting for Ukraine initiative, the US has admitted almost 300,000 Ukrainian refugees, hundreds of whom had been making an attempt to succeed in the US by way of Mexico. Ukrainians have been supplied stays of as much as two years beneath a provision referred to as humanitarian parole—as soon as in the US, they’re eligible to work and to use for asylum safety if they need. The scheme was expanded to Venezuelans in October 2022 after which to Haitians, Cubans, and Nicaraguans in January. A key a part of the brand new initiatives has been Mexico’s willingness to take again residents of these international locations if they’re caught making an attempt to cross illegally.
The outcomes have been speedy. Border encounters of Ukrainians making an attempt to cross illegally fell from a median of 940 per day earlier than the initiative to solely round one dozen per day. The variety of illegal crossings by Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans fell from 84,000 final December to simply 2,000 in February. Total, border apprehensions in January and February fell by 42 p.c from the December 2022 file.
Kristen Welker Allowed Lindsey Graham To Lie
Meet The Press, like nearly the entire Sunday information exhibits, is a type of entry journalism. Welker doesn’t really feel that she will problem Republicans like Graham, or they’ll refuse to come back on her present. Already, most high Republicans keep away from the Sunday community exhibits and may be discovered on Fox Information programming. Reveals like Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures present a pleasant and welcoming atmosphere to their speaking factors with little to no pushback.
Kristen Welker and Meet The Press allowed Sen. Graham to misinform folks as a result of apparently, having Republicans on as company issues extra to those applications than the information.
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