During the latest edition of “Fox News Sunday,” host Shannon Bream invited Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) to discuss various issues related to the border crisis. This is especially the case in the context of ISIS capabilities and the alarming number of people on the terror watch list that have been encountered on the southern border – 70 people have been arrested this year alone. Not only did Kaine utilize the typical arguments when it comes to the crisis at the southern border, i.e. promoting a bad bill and blaming Republicans, but he went a step further when he said that calling what is happening at the border an “invasion” is akin to “this kind of a phrase that led a deranged guy to shoot up the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh a few years ago, killing people.”
Bream spoke with Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) before Kaine, who was much more explicit in his condemnation of the crisis at the border. He also highlighted the role that President Joe Biden and his administration have played in making the problem much worse with all the orders he has issued.
Not only did Kaine say, “I don’t think it’s an invasion” and “I think you have to be careful with using words like invasion,” but he also didn’t say, “I think that kind of rhetoric is irresponsible.” in addition to referring to the killing at the Tree of Life Synagogue where Jews were targeted. He also did so after Bream reminded him of footage from last Friday of illegal immigrants swarming the border and attacking the Texas National Guard.
This is the moment the Texas National Guard was overrun today by migrants trying to get across the border here in El Paso
We were there and saw it all happen. Absolute chaos here. pic.twitter.com/VN6Kf663ie
— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTAer) March 21, 2024
Bream also commented on The Federalist’s coverage:To stop the border invasion, fight Mexico” asked Kaine ” would you consider this an invasion? Can we do more to put pressure on Mexico?”
Kaine’s response not only included a scolding, but he also made no mention of the need to toughen up on Mexico beyond blaming Republicans who thwarted a bad border bill introduced in early February. Although it was a work of sense. James Lankford (R-OK), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and Chris Murphy (D-CT), after several months of negotiations, Kaine only mentioned Lankford’s role.
Kaine also cited comments from the Biden White House that blamed Republicans for not approving the bill because former and potentially future President Donald Trump told them to do so. Kaine didn’t mention why it was actually a bad bill.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine is more concerned about words than millions of unscreened illegal immigrants flowing across an open border:
“I don’t think it’s an invasion… That’s the kind of wording that led a deranged guy to shoot up the Tree of Life Synagogue.” pic.twitter.com/h6eyLa1SSo
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 24, 2024
Although Bream mentioned this when mentioning the footage, Kaine didn’t actually have to be responsible for it Biden’s executive orders creating a border less secure. Again, Cotton had no problem mentioning that Biden has made the crisis even worse.
“The only person responsible for the chaos at our border is Joe Biden. In 2020, he said he would reverse all of President Trump’s incredibly effective policies. This sent a signal to everyone around the world that if you reach our border, you will be allowed to enter. That’s exactly what he did on day one,” he insisted. “We had more illegal border crossings in 2021 than in any previous year, as well as in 2021 and 23. This has nothing to do with a bill that Congress may or may not pass in spring 2024. “
Cotton again emphasized Biden’s culpability, noting that “Joe Biden is solely responsible for the chaos on our border, with 10 million illegal migrants crossing into our country over the last three years.”
The person responsible for the chaos on our southern border is currently Joe Biden.
The administration blaming Congress is a feeble attempt at shifting blame. pic.twitter.com/BWF64Ov1NW
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 24, 2024
Speaking further about executive orders, Kaine also argued for a different narrative that the White House has adopted, meaning that Biden could perhaps issue an executive order to alleviate the crisis, but would prefer Congress to deal with the problem.
“I encourage him to use executive action. I don’t think he can do everything that was in our bipartisan bill by executive order. There’s probably a subset of things it can do, though. And I think his team is considering it.” Kaine said that when Bream asked about the executive order, the president joked that he might or might not adopt it.
In case this passage wasn’t embarrassing enough for him, Kaine made an argument that was debunked in real time and in the proper context, blaming Trump, who spoke of “carnage” at a rally earlier this month in Ohio. In fact, it was clear that he was talking about the economic sense if he didn’t win in November.
That Kaine opted for a false narrative was even more embarrassing and desperate considering he was trying to utilize it to draw a contrast between Trump and Biden, as Trump allegedly “uses phrases like carnage etc. to talk about how what he hopes to do in his second term.”
Bream fact-checked Kaine on the spot, who reminded him that “we think it’s important to have this in a context where [Trump] he talked about the car industry, China, Mexico, imports from there. He said a lot of things that you can take,” adding, “you can disagree with it and you can certainly debate it, but in this particular context we think it’s important.”
Coming back to the border crisis and what Democrats like Kaine disagree with, other elected officials and activist groups have lost before. Earlier this month, Biden had the courage to admit that 22-year-old Laken Riley was murdered and that the suspect was “illegal,” even though he couldn’t even pronounce her name correctly. The backlash to Biden daring to utilize such a term was swift and harsh, and after an initially confusing response the next day he admitted he regretted using the word, although the White House subsequently ridiculously tried to claim he had not actually apologized.
According to modern survey from Harvard CAPS-Harris, which Spencer also highlighted earlier on Monday, 73 percent of voters believe it is appropriate to utilize the term “illegal immigrants.” This includes 73 percent of Democrats, 76 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of Independent/Other, 80 percent of those who have heard of Laken Riley and 61 percent of those who have not heard of the youthful woman.
73% of Americans believe it is appropriate to utilize the word “illegal” to describe “illegal immigrants.”
REMINDER: Biden apologized for using the term to describe an illegal alien arrested for killing Laken Riley. pic.twitter.com/B7mPaq8fUs
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 25, 2024
