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 thought of a Senate deal than correcting lies by Graham. pic.twitter.com/ZiufSa62tg
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) December 17, 2023
Transcript through 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 individuals on the desk. The White Home received 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 great 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 inform you why it’s necessary to get a great border safety deal. What Congressman Castro mentioned was fairly offensive. In keeping 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 seems to be, he sees blinking lights. The border has been obliterated since January ’21 till now. We’ve had 6 million individuals come to this point. There are 3.6 million on schedule to come back this yr alone. The coverage decisions of the Biden administration has made the border a harmful place to come back to. America’s underneath risk. In keeping 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 frightened a few 9/11 than I’m proper now, and our border has been obliterated. And we’re not going to present in on some Band-Assist repair.
KRISTEN WELKER:
I need to speak in regards to the proposals which might be underneath dialogue. However, simply to be very clear, you say you’re not near a deal. However it appears like there was some measured progress –
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM:
Positively. Positively.
KRISTEN WELKER:
– like either side are coming nearer collectively –
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM:
Positively progress, sure –
KRISTEN WELKER:
How would you characterize that progress?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM:
Oh, the one approach we’re ever going to get a safety border is we’ve received 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 necessary, and I agree with you. To all of the nationwide safety consultants, once you say, “If we don’t help Ukraine, they could lose, and the world would fall into chaos; Putin will keep going,” I agree with you. However for those who’re a nationwide safety skilled, it is best to have the identical vitality and vigor to repair a damaged border.
KRISTEN WELKER:
And naturally, the Biden administration has argued there are a fancy 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 individuals like Mr. Castro. You’ve created a nightmare. It’s bitten you within the ass, and you have 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-Assist strategy as an answer.
Trump’s Border Insurance policies Had been A Full Failure
In keeping with the conservative Cato Institute, Donald Trump’s border insurance policies had been a failure:
President Trump’s prime coverage precedence was supposedly “border security.” However authorities knowledge 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 indicate that the numbers have reached even larger heights.
….
But regardless of this supposed focus, the federal government data 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 almost 128,000. In 2019, it hit 150,000. By way of 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 remedy a coverage drawback.
The Biden Border Coverage Seems To Be Working
An evaluation of President Biden’s border coverage from the Council On Foreign Relations discovered:
Biden is attempting 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 top of nearly all different pandemic-related restrictions, the Division of Homeland Safety has printed a proposed rule aimed toward stopping what’s in any other case anticipated to be a fair 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 main sending nations 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 look after them on arrival. They’ll 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 known 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 exhibiting constructive outcomes. Beneath the Uniting for Ukraine initiative, the US has admitted practically 300,000 Ukrainian refugees, 1000’s of whom had been attempting to succeed in the US through Mexico. Ukrainians have been supplied stays of as much as two years underneath a provision generally known as humanitarian parole—as soon as in the US, they’re eligible to work and to use for asylum safety if they want. 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 nations if they’re caught trying to cross illegally.
The outcomes have been fast. Border encounters of Ukrainians attempting 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 only 2,000 in February. Total, border apprehensions in January and February fell by 42 p.c from the December 2022 document.
Kristen Welker Allowed Lindsey Graham To Lie
Meet The Press, like nearly all the Sunday information reveals, 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 prime Republicans keep away from the Sunday community reveals and could 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 individuals as a result of apparently, having Republicans on as company issues extra to those packages than the info.
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Jason is the managing editor. He’s additionally a White Home Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Diploma in Political Science. His graduate work centered on public coverage, with a specialization in social reform actions.
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