Chris Wallace Sets Record Straight On Terrorists Illegally Crossing From Mexico

A major talking point of the Trump Administration has been that the border wall is vital to national security. As part of their argument, President Trump has made the claim that terrorists have been apprehended crossing the southern border with Mexico. This and similar claims became the focal point of a heated discussion between White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Chris Wallace of Fox News yesterday.

On Fox News Sunday, Wallace cited Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s statement that CBP had stopped more than 3,000 special interest aliens at the southern border and explained that “special interest aliens” are “people who come from countries that have ever produced a terrorist.” Wallace added, “They aren’t terrorists themselves” and noted that the State Department said that there was “no credible evidence of any terrorist coming across the border from Mexico.”

Sanders responded, “We know that there are nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists [that] come into our country illegally and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border.”

Wallace interrupted, “I know that statistic. I didn’t know if you were going to use it, but I studied up on this. You know where those 4,000 people come from, where they are captured? Airports!”

“Not always,” Sanders retorted.

“The State Department says there hasn’t been any terrorist that they’ve found coming across the southern border,” Wallace fired back.

“It's by air, it's by land, it's by sea, it's all of the above,” Sanders answered.

“But they're not coming across the southern border, Sarah,” Wallace said, ‘They're coming and they're being stopped at airports.”

I had also heard the Homeland Security statistics and Trump’s claims about terrorists coming from Mexico. They didn’t ring true. Think about how the Trump Administration reacts when an illegal alien commits a violent. Both perpetrator and victim are featured prominently in talking points and the president’s tweets. Over the past few years, we have seen this pattern with Kate Steinle, Mollie Tibbets, and the recent murder of police Corporal Ronil Singh in California.

But when it comes to terrorists crossing the Mexican border, the Trump Administration has been astonishingly silent. If terrorists were being captured as they crossed the border from Mexico, it seems likely that the Trump Administration would be marching them before the media to make the case for the border wall. They haven’t.

Instead, we have a bait-and-switch. Trump surrogates like Sanders make two separate claims and link them together. On one hand, Sanders makes the verifiable claim that “there are nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists [that] come into our country illegally.” On the other, she offers an opinion that “our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border.” Sanders dishonestly leads the viewer to make the erroneous connection that the 4,000 terrorists were apprehended at the Mexican border, when, in fact, they were apprehended at airports.

Border security is a legitimate concern, both at the Mexican border and at airports, but the revelation that the Trump Administration has been purposely misleading the country about how terrorists enter the country undercuts the already shaky case for a border wall.

In fact, current security at the Mexican border seems to be working pretty well. The migrant caravan, which was pitched as an “invasion” in October, is still sitting in Tijuana where its members are waiting to legally apply for asylum. Illegal border crossings have already been declining for years, hitting a 46-year low in 2017. For more than a decade now, most illegal aliens have entered the country legally and overstayed visas rather than sneaking across the Mexican border. By 2014, two-thirds of new illegals were visa overstays.

While it certainly isn’t impossible that terrorists could sneak across the Mexican border, possibly through one of the innumerable tunnels that run underneath current physical barriers, there is no evidence that they are doing so. If conservatives want to make dispassionate policy decisions and use taxpayer money to the greatest advantage for the country, facts support the idea that border security money should be focused toward tracking aliens who enter the country legally on visas and then drop out of sight.

The Trump Administration loses more of its credibility, which is already in short supply, when they make false claims such as advancing the idea that terrorists are streaming across the Mexican border. Kudos to Chris Wallace and Fox News for setting the record straight.

 Originally published on The Resurgent

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Won the Night

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has become the unlikely heroine of the debacle that was the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Comedian Michelle Wolf savaged Administration figures over the weekend at the traditional roast and Sanders bore the brunt of the attack.

When attending a roast, the guests of honor should be prepared to be insulted and to accept it with good nature and Sanders did so. An eyewitness at the event, Benny Arthur Johnson, wrote a touching defense of Sanders on his personal Facebook page. Johnson, a reporter for the Daily Caller, wrote that it was Sanders who possessed “real power,” “strength,” and “class.”

In the interests of full disclosure, I’ll admit that I have not listened to Wolf’s routine in its entirety. The portions that I have listened to have been so unfunny, even to a critic of the Trump Administration, that I have no desire to sit through the full 20 minutes, particularly after having heard the shrill voice in which Ms. Wolf delivered the routine. Roasts are supposed to be savage, but they are also supposed to be funny. The funniest comedic insults are those that are based in truth, not simply an exercise in viciousness and meanness.

Johnson agrees that Wolf failed at being funny. “You could not really see it on TV, but virtually no one in the room was laughing,” Johnson wrote. “I saw even some of the most liberal reporters in the profession cringe with disgust,” adding that members of the White House press corps planned to send her a flower basket.

Johnson then tells the story of an MSNBC after-party following the dinner where he spoke with members of Sanders’ staff. “They were disgusted by the remarks - and tell me that the plan was for Sarah to walk-out if they got too personal. Sarah however, stayed firm,” he said.

“’I don’t know how she does it,’ one of her closest confidants told me, ‘She kills them with kindness - she puts up with it. Good-hearted American people see that - and then she wins,’” Johnson added.

“Then, Sarah Sanders walks into the party,” Johnson said. “The MSNBC party. A network that lives to savage and promote the godless vitriol that just attacked her. Guess what? Sarah Sanders was smiling. She owned it. I asked her about the attack and she shrugged with a smile and just said the attacks didn’t bother her and that she’s praying for the comedian. That is the kind of woman she is.”

Other attendees agreed with Johnson’s assessment. New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman tweeted, “That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out,on national television, was impressive.”

Sanders’ response to the vicious attack also stands in sharp contrast to how her boss would have handled the situation. Where the press secretary reacted with silence and poise that made her seem strong, the president would certainly have fired back with a Twitter fusillade that would have seemed childish and only provoked further attacks and degenerated into an endless tit-for-tat.

I am not particularly a fan of Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Her job defending the often-indefensible behavior of President Trump is not one that I would want and I probably would not last very long in that role.

Nevertheless, I can appreciate her poise and grace in responding to Wolf’s attack. Her mature and dignified reaction certainly won the admiration of much of the country. Her maturity and strength are traits that the America sorely needs.

Originally published on The Resurgent