In late September, I roasted the Biden White House over its pitiful, planted attacks on Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin -- whose aggressive reporting on the border crisis has highlighted a major political problem they've created for themselves through reckless and failing policies. On my show, Melugin fired right back, stating that his job is not to please people in power and asserting that petty, personal sniping won't affect his mindset or work product. Watch:
.@BillFOXLA responds to WH-planted attacks on his work: “I know that some people want me to shut up, be a good boy, & ask the president about his ice cream, instead of what we do down on the border…They can say whatever they want about me. I don’t care.” https://t.co/1esHy9aMnG pic.twitter.com/jwYwEyvwit
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 30, 2022
“I know that some people want me to shut up, be a good boy, and ask the president about his ice cream instead of what we do down on the border. Right. What we’re showing every day is a direct contradiction to what we hear on that White House podium. They say the border is closed, secure. People aren’t walking across. Anybody with a pair of eyes knows that’s not true. And how do they know that? Because of the images we’re showing every single day. We’ve been doing it for a year and a half. They can say whatever they want about me. I don’t care. They can dig in to where I worked in college or the fact that I used to go by 'Billy' when I was 19 years old. If they think that somehow waters down me or my reporting, they can think that. But we’re going to keep doing our job every single day as we have done, and just try to pull the curtain back and shine some light on what’s going on down there.”
Here is the full interview, which I recommend taking the time to review:
In our exchange, Melugin teased his reporting in DC, which entailed confronting Democrats -- including the Homeland Security Secretary -- with questions about the crisis their policies have inflamed to record levels. And here's what aired yesterday:
Recommended
Mayorkas' avoidance of Melugin, detailed in the package above, is really something. Melugin's visit to the nation's capital coincides with the release of even more data illustrating the scope of the problem:
For comparison, former U.S. Border Patrol Chief @RSScott_BP252, who served under both Trump & Biden, tells me that Border Patrol reported 69,000 gotaways in fiscal year 2020, and approximately 200,000 gotaways in 2019 when Trump experienced his surge at the border. @FoxNews
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) October 2, 2022
That's 989,000-plus known got-aways since Biden took office. Add in an unknowable number of unknown got-aways, and the number is well over one million. That doesn't count the millions who were encountered at the border then released into the country, pending future court dates, which result in many no-shows. The official party line is that the "border is secure," which is an insult. And this is a remarkable soundbyte from Robert Francis O'Rourke, who wants to be governor of Texas:
Democrat Beto O'Rourke in June: "I think the border is pretty great right now."pic.twitter.com/EbFTKzZdUi
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 1, 2022
The month prior, US officials encountered more than 241,000 illegal immigrants at the border, not including tens of thousands of got-aways -- the single worst month of the crisis. O'Rourke has occasionally talked tougher about the border lately (and that clip above is rather short, so perhaps it lacks some nuance of what he was saying), but it's very difficult to discern what O'Rourke really believes about anything. When he ran for president, he defiantly pledged to confiscate guns. Now he's trying to say he never said what he said in a nationally-televised debate. And here's the political backflip he's attempting to pull off on 'defund the police:'
Tonight, Beto O’Rourke said he “of course” doesn't support 'Defunding the Police.'
— Kyle Martinsen (@KyleMartinsen_) October 1, 2022
In 2020, O'Rourke enthusiastically called for defunding and "completely dismantling” police departments.
ROLL THE TAPE pic.twitter.com/yQQ9u36v2Z
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott holds a lead of seven-to-eleven points in this race, per recent polling. Relatedly, I'll leave you with yet another example of physical violence directed at conservative organizations and campaigners:
Two volunteers of Texans for Greg Abbott attacked while knocking on doors in Houstonhttps://t.co/t9sel3fixt
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) September 30, 2022
A man attacked two Texans for Greg Abbott volunteers while they were knocking on doors in a neighborhood. The incident happened Saturday, Sept. 24. According to the Abbott press release, the suspect chased the two volunteers through the neighborhood and attempted to drag them out of their car. The suspect also punched both side view mirrors off the vehicle. Police responded to the scene and identified the suspect, who left pieces of the vandalized vehicle in his trash.
Elsewhere, a conservative teenager was murdered, allegedly over a political dispute, an elderly pro-life woman was shot while canvassing, and numerous pro-life centers have been firebombed, which senior Democrats would not condemn. Strangely, we aren't engaged in a fraught 'climate of hate' national conversation over tone and rhetoric, even though the President of the United States recently cast much of the country as a dangerous threat to the republic in an angry speech. The self-deputized Civility Police are really only interested in blaming one side's words for acts of violence, so counter-examples get swept away.
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