Mr. Todd asked the panel at one point if the child separations at the southern border is President Trump's 'Katrina,' to which Heather McGhee responded that the Hurricane Maria and the damage and death it caused in Puerto Rico is really his 'Katrina' moment. What both have in common is they are the product of President Trump's bigoted approach to governing the country, and what he's never understood is that when you are the president, you represent all Americans whether they disagree with you or not. Mr. Trump has only governed to with distinct minority of people in mind, and not only is it hurting the majority of Americans but it's also starting to hurt his supporters as well.
While immigration is obviously a very emotional issue, in listening to Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Angus King (I-ME), compassion and rule of law can coexist. Immigration is an issue where the middle has to win the day. However, as Mr. King explained, the Senate had a bill where many Democrats held their collective noses and gave Mr. Trump his wall in exchange for passage of a DACA fix, but then the right-wing fringe in the House moved the goal posts and killed the bill. Not to mention that the Senate was going to allocate American taxpayer dollars for Mr. Trump's wall, which he has always said Mexico would pay for. That's such a sham, and there shouldn't be a wall if Americans pay for it, by his logic.
There aren't easy fixes and what it takes is a concentrated, coordinated, compassionate and consensus approach meaning that legislators have to legislate instead of just bomb throwing on cable television news.
Make no mistake, the Obama administration deported more people than the Bush administration by a long shot and people were incarcerated but the difference is that the Obama administration didn't employ a 'zero-tolerance' policy mandating that children become separated from their parents. That did in fact happen as well under Mr. Obama, but it wasn't policy as Attorney General Jeff Sessions mandated under Mr. Trump. That's a major difference. Mr. Sessions, Stephen Miller, and Mr. Trump have inclination to compassion for families. Mr. Trump using terms like 'infest' to describe migrants is not only unhelpful but despicable and once again demeans the office of the presidency in a way that should draw the ire of all Americans.
In addition to the inexcusable rhetoric, the Trump administration does want to take the necessary steps to correct the problem, namely the Flores Amendment which Senator Lankford explained. Migrant families can only be held for 20 days, but it takes an average of 35 days to get a hearing so more judges are required to hear immigration cases. Yet, the Trump administration doesn't want to allocate those resources to mitigate the back log. And just so we're clear from all sides, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) should not be abolished as some on the left have called for. The way to fix ICE is to have laws and policies in place that provide clear instructions on what the agency is mandated to do and part of those should be the humane treatment of migrants.
In the longer term, the countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua need assistance from the United States, another strategy that Mr. Trump has no inclination to even think about. NBC's Richard Engel reported the 10 percent of the population in El Salvador have some affiliation to gangs with approximately 100,000 armed active members. That's a gang army, from which people are justifiably fleeing, making it indeed a refugee crisis, as Mr. Todd posed during the hour. The United States needs to work with these Central American countries in an inter-country coordinated fashion to help them combat this problem and that would in the longer term ease the stress at the United State's southern border. The problem with this is that the Trump administration has yet to illustrate the capacity of any sort of long term, carefully planned strategy on anything.
It's also notable that Mr. Engel illustrated that the country of Hungary, which has some of the most strict immigration laws in the world right now doesn't even separate families. A further implicit indictment of the president's bigoted views which lack any sense of understanding of the human condition.
As long as Republican legislators are lead blindly by the nose by this right-wing fringe bigoted president, sensible and humane immigration laws will not be passed. And let's face it, by now it should be perfectly clear that Republicans CAN NOT govern. Every opportunity the voters of this country give them to do it, they fail. Zero tolerance and zero sum is not how democracy works, and they absolutely need to shove this notion down the president's throat.
Panel: Heather McGhee, president of DEMOS; Kasie Hunt, NBC News; Stephen Hayes, Editor in Chief of the Weekly Standard, Erick Erickson, Editor of The Resurgent
One more thing...
The culture wars: Instead of focusing on Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders being asked to leave a restaurant, there's another example that wasn't mentioned that could be more instructive. First, it must be said that Ms. Sanders conduct in the White House press room has been inexcusable and she should resign due to her continuing lies, deflections and personal condescending comments toward members of the press corps.
With that said, Seth Rogen said to Stephen Colbert this week that he refused to take a photo with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan because of what the Speaker has done in his leadership role. He refused the Speaker in front of Mr. Ryan's two teenage sons. So here's how Mr. Rogen should have handled it. Rightfully he should told Mr. Ryan that he would not take a picture with him as a matter of principle but at the same time he should have offered to take a photo only with his sons who are fans and don't make policy. Right? Maybe use that as an instructive example.
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