Would this be more or less shameless than the ludicrous and surreal White House talking point from awhile back that claimed it's actually the Republicans who are real the "defund the police" party? I'm open to arguments on both sides, because it's something of a jump ball. Remember, Joe Biden had personally endorsed one central "defund" step, back when it was politically fashionable, around the same time Kamala Harris was urging her social media followers to donate to a radical bail fund that works to get violent criminals and rioters out of jail. The "defund" movement is an exclusively left-wing project, championed by some of the loudest so-called progressive voices in the country. But because the GOP opposed a giant, inflationary spending binge that included some CYA law enforcement funding, the Biden brain trust decided that they'd try to use that dynamic to pin the "defund" label on the GOP. Outside of a few journalists, nobody took it seriously, of course, because it was patently unserious on its face.
Here we have the Biden border crisis version of the same sort of clumsy political jujitsu, wherein the administration is asking Americans to believe that it's really the Republicans who are soft on border enforcement. Yes, because when one envisions conservatives -- especially 'MAGA' ones -- cutting border security and abetting fentanyl smuggling certainly come to mind, right? Try to avoid straining a muscle when your eyes roll at this pitiful spin:
MAGA House Republican proposals would slash funding for border security – a move that could allow nearly 900 pounds of fentanyl into our country.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 26, 2023
We need more resources to secure the border. Not less. pic.twitter.com/bKuQnFPuzP
Republicans have been demanding increased border security for decades. The last Republican president campaigned on building a wall along America's southern boundary, which Democrats spent four years opposing, derailing and defunding. The new GOP House majority has held multiple border crisis hearings on the ground in Texas and Arizona, which Congressional Democrats have boycotted, entirely for partisan political reasons. Conservatives have been the ones beating the drum on fentanyl and the 70,000 poisoning deaths it caused last year. There's a reason why Mexico's left-wing president, effectively doing the cartels' bidding, has issued threats to interference in American elections against Republicans, in favor of Democrats. It's not because they're too weak on border security and combatting narco-trafficking.
Upon further review, this one has to be more shameless than the 'defund the police' claim. Biden at least hedged on the most insane 'defund' excesses, whereas the border crisis is entirely his. Biden's policies took a chronic and perennial problem and exploded it into a catastrophe of historic proportions. He fully owns this outrageous and deadly debacle, and that fact renders his new, feeble effort at blame-shift particularly galling and brazen. If I'm not mistaken, the photo in the tweet comes from his useless trip to the border, where the situation was so sanitized that he didn't see a single migrant during his box-checking visit. Millions of illegal immigrants have entered the United States on his watch. Also, I realize that throwing 'MAGA' onto every idea they oppose is the White House's poll-tested, focus-grouped messaging strategy, but it's been abused and overused to the point that it's meaningless. Consider this ridiculous framing of the president's first veto, rejecting a bill that would have de-politicized the management of retirement savings:
This is a 100% total lie.
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) March 20, 2023
The bill only required fiduciaries to act in the financial interests of investors, period.
Biden's rule (backstopped by this veto) allows "non-pecuniary factors," that is, putting politics ahead of your retirement security.https://t.co/FO5DuOhaXg https://t.co/Si9XiGI70O
Exactly the opposite is true, as the legislation pulls ESG-laden politics out of the equation. Notice the 'MAGA'/MTG smoke and mirrors, as if Republicans had proposed placing Donald Trump and a Georgia backbencher in charge of investment decisions. Moronic. But here's an even more basic question for the class: Which party controls the United States Senate? The only way a bill makes it to a president's desk is if it's passed by both chambers. Even if Biden wants to posture as if the anti-ESG measure was cooked up by MAGA Republicans in the House, there aren't enough Republicans who can be plausibly labeled as such in the Senate, where Democrats hold the majority. This was a bipartisan bill, supported by a few Senate Democrats (as well as a House Democrat). Perhaps there's political utility in ignoring all relevant facts and just grunting 'MAGA' over and over again, but doing so betrays the very low esteem in which the Biden White House holds the American electorate. I'll leave you with a few updates on the border fiasco Biden would like voters to somehow attribute to his preferred scapegoats, who happen to be the people most aggressively fighting the policies that are incentivizing all of this:
2.5 million fentanyl pills seized by CBP at a single port of entry in Nogales, AZ on Fri & Sat. https://t.co/1TH9wKsRRE
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) March 21, 2023
Record number of Chinese nationals are are crossing illegally into the U.S. and are paying cartels upwards of $30,000 to do so making them a valuable commodity for criminal smuggling groups. Chinese nationals tell us they are flying to Ecuador and beginning their journey from… pic.twitter.com/0SNTepVh7q
— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) March 23, 2023
Will he find a way to blame 'MAGA' Republicans for this, too?
What an absolute disgrace https://t.co/qktzEnLdzO
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) March 25, 2023
Join the conversation as a VIP Member