As the record number of undocumented immigrants crossing into the U.S. under President Joe Biden continues to fuel his dismal approval rating, a growing number of voters have expressed support of former President Donald Trump’s comparatively much tougher stance on border security.
The Latest ABC News/Ipsos Poll is CATASTROPHIC for Joe Biden.
He is underwater on every single policy issue:
26% approval on immigration/border security
29% approval on inflation
32% approval on gun violence
33% approval on crime
33% approval on Iran
36% approval on… pic.twitter.com/cF5X8z7QjS
— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 16, 2023
For his part, Trump seized on the issue during a recent campaign event in New Hampshire, telling the crowd that his immigration platform would bring the border crisis under control if he wins a second term in the White House next year.
He began by denouncing his successor’s record, noting that it means “we got a lot of work to do” in order to address the problem.
From there, he began discussing his policy proposals in strong terms that generally resonated with his supporters but prompted fierce backlash from his numerous critics in the media, the Democratic Party and even within the GOP.
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” he said of those behind the push to weaken America’s immigration laws. “That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South Africa, not just to three or four countries that we think about, but from all over the world. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia — all over the world.”
Instead of focusing on the totality of his remarks, pundits like the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” cherry-picked Trump’s “poisoning” claim in order to make tortured comparisons between the former president and brutal dictators from throughout world history.
Trump’s critics also attacked him for mentioning world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un during his speech.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is running a long-shot Republican presidential primary campaign against Trump, used the opportunity to trash the front-runner during a subsequent CNN appearance.
“He’s disgusting,” Christie said. “And what he’s doing is dog-whistle to Americans who feel absolutely under stress and strained from the economy and from the conflicts around the world, and he’s dog-whistling to blame it on people from areas that don’t look like us.”
He went on to insist that the “other problem with this is the Republicans who are saying this is OK.”
Not to be outdone, Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa ignored the president’s record on the issue while accusing Trump of “channel[ing] his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy.”
